Honey Bee (Apis mellifera)

Honey bees were introduced to North America hundreds of years ago by European settlers. Honey bees eat pollen and nectar from flowers. Pollen provides protein to the bees, and nectar provides carbohydrates. In the spring, honey bees collect nectar and bring it back to their hive. In the hive, they convert the nectar into honey. The honey provides all their food for the winter months, when flowers are not in bloom. In the past, people raided hives and took the honey from the bees. Today, people raise honey bees in artificial hives and collect the honey. Many people do this as a hobby, and there are businesses which raise bees to produce large amounts of honey for sale. Bees make another important product: beeswax. Bees build the hives with beeswax. In the past, people also would collect beeswax. Beeswax was a very important product before electricity was invented. People would make candles out of beeswax and use the candles to light their homes.

Honey bees have interesting family groups. Only one female, the "queen," is sexually reproductive. She may lay as many as 3,000 eggs a day! The other females are the hive "workers." They collect nectar, make honey, maintain the hive's beeswax, and feed the queen and the larvae (young, undeveloped bees). Workers also keep the hive cool by fanning their wings. They beat their wings 11,400 times a minute! Males, called "drones," do not work for the hive. Their only service is to mate with the queen. Drones do not have stingers.

Honey bees play a very important role in nature. They pollinate millions and millions of flowers each spring. This allows the flowers to produce seeds and continue to reproduce themselves. This is also important from an economic perspective. Honey bees pollinate the flowers of many food crops.