What is the difference between bees and honeybees?
Bees are winged insects that usually have a light brown or brown-yellow body. They are found in different shapes and sizes. Not all bees can sting and not all bees produce honey. Bees that can produce honey are known as honeybees. Honeybees live for nearly five years. The homes of bees are called beehives. In each hive, there are three kinds of bees, depending on their job. These are the female bees also known as workers, male bees also known as drones, and only one queen bee. All honeybees that are between 12-17 days old are called house bees (because they stay inside the hive).
How and why do honeybees make honey?
Bees use honey for energy to perform everyday tasks. To make honey, worker bees fly up to 5 kilometres to look for flowers with nectar. Bees turn this nectar into honey using warm air produced by their wings. They store the honey in small spaces in their hives. In the winter, when very little nectar is available, bees use their stored honey to survive.
Is the only purpose of honeybees to produce honey?
Bees do more than just produce honey. When bees visit flowers to collect nectar, they also collect pollen on their legs. This pollen is transferred between flowers when bees go in search of nectar. Pollen transfer is needed for flowering plants to grow new flowers. Some of these flowers turn into fruits and nuts which can be eaten by us and other animals.
Why are honeybees at risk and what can we do to save them?
The survival of one in ten bees is threatened in Europe. This threat is caused by too much use of chemical fertilisers and change in climate due to global warming. Bees can be saved if we tell the importance of bees to people around us and buy fruits and vegetables which have been grown without the use of harmful chemicals.
