The Life of Honeybees

Written by: Paige Leal

Honeybees may be tiny insects, yet they play a large role in our Earth and nature. They live in big groups called colonies and are social insects. Honeybees make honey and pollinate plants making them very hard-working creatures. 

Where do Honeybees live?

Within the honeybees colonies, they take home to a place called a hive. These homes are built by people, such as beekeepers, or are found naturally within hollow trees. Inside the hive are honeycombs, which greatly fills it up with its wax cells in a hexagon shape. These cells are what the bees use for storing their honey and pollen, as well as keeping the baby bees protected as they grow up. Just a single colony can hold tens of thousands of bees, who all work together to keep the hive alive. If one colony is 10,000 bees alone, just imagine how many bees there are worldwide.

The Queen Bee

There is only one Queen bee per hive, they are very special. The queen’s job is to lay eggs. The queen is looked upon as the mother of the colony, that is why when she dies, it is important to get a new queen. To create a new queen the worker bees will take a larva and use a diet of only “royal jelly” which makes the bee become fertile. This is how the queen bee is made and is able to reproduce. Another reason why the queen is so important is because she uses chemicals in order to regulate the hive so that the bees' behaviors are guided. If a colony were to have no queen, it would not be able to survive.

Worker Bees

Every worker bee is a female and they take on the most challenging jobs in the hive. Their tasks consist of cleaning the hive, caring for the young bees, protecting the hive and the most important job of all, finding food by collecting the nectar and pollen from flowers. One of their most interesting tasks is how they use their wings as fans so that the hive can be cooled down on a hot summer day.

Drone Bees

Drones are the male bees, their job is to mate with the queen. Unlike the workers, drones stay in the hive and don’t go out and collect any food. During warm months is when the hive contains many drone bees. As the cold months arrive worker bees kick out the drones. This happens because the workers are trying to save food for the rest of the colony, and the drones are the most “useless” making them the ones who are kicked out. 

Why Honeybees are Important

Honeybees are important to the earth because they are vital to our food supply. Due to their hard work in pollinating, foods we eat such as fruits and vegetables are able to grow. Without these bees, we would lose a large amount of our food sources. They also make honey! A sweet treat humans have enjoyed for thousands of years. So although honeybees are small, their teamwork and hard work has made them become a very important species of insects here on earth. By protecting these bees, we protect our environment and our future.