Honey Bee

Honey bees are social insects that live in large colonies, make honey, and build their homes out of beeswax. They belong to the genus Apis, and the best-known species, the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), is kept by beekeepers all over the world.

Scientific Classification & Quick Facts

Common name	Honey bee
Scientific name	Apis mellifera
Kingdom	Animalia
Phylum	Arthropoda
Class	Insecta
Order	Hymenoptera
Family	Apidae
Genus	Apis
Type	Social bee that makes honey and wax
Diet	Pollen and nectar
Native range	Europe; brought to North America by colonists
Size	About 1/2 inch long
Lifespan	Workers 6 weeks in summer; queens 3 to 5 years
Colours	Golden yellow with brown bands
Special feature	Dies after stinging; lives in huge hives

What Makes a Honey Bee Special?

There are about 20,000 known species of bees, but only a small group of them are true honey bees. Scientists recognize around eight species of honey bee, plus dozens of subspecies. Some other bees, such as stingless bees and bumblebees, also store small amounts of honey, but only honey bees build big, long-lasting wax nests that survive year after year.

You can learn even more on our page about honey bees. The scientific study of bees is called apiology.

Anatomy

A: Head, B: Thorax, C: Abdomen. 1: Gena (cheek), 2: Vertex (top of head), 3: Ocelli (simple eyes), 4: Antenna, 5: Compound eye, 6: Mouthparts (mandibles), 7: Proboscis (tongue), 8: Foreleg, 9: Femur, 10: Middle leg, 11: Tarsal claw, 12: Tarsus, 13: Tibia, 14: Hind leg, 15: Sternum, 16: Sting, 17: Hind wing, 18: Forewing

• Size: a worker is about 1/2 inch (12 to 15 mm) long
• Body: three parts (head, thorax, abdomen), six legs, two pairs of wings, and two antennae
• Color: golden brown to dark brown with darker bands on the abdomen, covered in fine hairs
• Eyes: two large compound eyes plus three tiny simple eyes on top of the head

Pollination

As honey bees move from flower to flower collecting food, pollen sticks to their hairy bodies and is carried to the next flower. This is called pollination, and it helps plants make fruits and seeds. Honey bees are the most important managed pollinators in farming. Crops such as apples, almonds, blueberries, melons, and many others produce much less without them.

What Honey Bees Make

Pollen

Pollen is the bees’ main source of protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals. Worker bees pack it into little “baskets” on their back legs and carry it home, where it is mixed with nectar to make “bee bread” for feeding young bees. A single strong colony can gather many pounds of pollen in a year.

Honey

Bees make honey from nectar, the sugary liquid made by flowers. They store it in wax cells, fan it with their wings to evaporate water, and seal it with wax caps. Honey is the colony’s food supply for times when no flowers are blooming, especially in winter.

The flavor and color of honey depend on which flowers the nectar came from, so clover, orange blossom, and buckwheat honeys all taste different. Honey absorbs moisture from the air and has natural germ-fighting properties, which is why it keeps for a very long time. Never give honey to babies under one year old, because it can contain bacteria that are dangerous to them.

Beeswax

Young worker bees make wax from special glands on the underside of their abdomen. They chew and shape the wax flakes into six-sided cells to build honeycomb. People use beeswax for candles, cosmetics, lip balm, furniture polish, and art materials.

Propolis

Propolis, sometimes called “bee glue,” is a sticky material bees make from resin collected from tree buds, mixed with wax. They use it to seal cracks and gaps in the hive. People have used propolis in wood varnishes and as a traditional remedy.

Royal Jelly

Royal jelly is a milky food made in glands in the heads of young nurse bees. All larvae get some for their first few days, but larvae chosen to become queens are fed royal jelly the whole time they grow. This special diet is what turns an ordinary female larva into a queen bee. Some people buy royal jelly as an expensive supplement.

Bee Venom

A honey bee sting hurts and usually causes redness, itching, and some swelling. A few people are seriously allergic to bee venom. Anyone who has trouble breathing, swelling of the face or throat, or feels faint after a sting needs emergency medical help right away.

The Three Castes of Honey Bee

A honey bee colony is like a busy, well-organized city. Every bee belongs to one of three groups, called castes, and each has its own job.

Queen Bee

Each colony usually has just one queen, the only female with fully developed ovaries. Early in life she takes a few mating flights and mates with many drones, storing their sperm to use for the rest of her life. She can lay up to about 1,500 to 2,000 eggs a day in summer.

Fertilized eggs become females (workers or new queens), and unfertilized eggs become males (drones). A queen usually lives two to five years. If she dies or grows weak, the workers raise a new queen by feeding royal jelly to a young larva. A queen takes about 16 days to develop from egg to adult.

Worker Bee

Almost all the bees in a hive are workers. They are female but normally do not lay eggs. A strong colony can have 20,000 to 60,000 or more bees in summer, and fewer in winter.

Workers change jobs as they get older. Young workers clean cells, feed larvae, make wax, build comb, and store food. Later they guard the entrance, and at about three weeks old they become foragers, flying out to collect nectar, pollen, water, and resin. A worker takes about 21 days to develop from egg to adult.

In busy summer months a worker lives only about five to six weeks, but workers born in fall can live several months through the winter. A worker’s stinger is barbed, so when she stings a person or other mammal, it gets stuck and she dies.

Drone Bee

Drones are the male bees. Their only job is to mate with young queens from other colonies. A colony may have a few hundred to a few thousand drones in summer. Drones have no stinger, and a drone dies right after mating. In autumn, when food is scarce, the workers push the drones out of the hive.

Other Amazing Facts

• Western honey bees are not native to the Americas. European settlers brought them to North America in the 1600s.
• Honey bees are not usually aggressive. They mostly sting to defend their hive or when they are squashed or badly disturbed.
• People have collected honey since prehistoric times. A rock painting in Spain about 8,000 years old shows a person gathering honey from a wild nest.
• Honey bees do not hibernate. In winter they huddle together in a tight cluster and shiver their flight muscles to make heat, keeping the center of the cluster warm even when it is freezing outside.
• Bees carefully control the temperature of their nursery, keeping the developing young at around 93°F (34°C).

Threats to Honey Bees

Mites

Tiny parasites are one of the biggest threats to honey bees. The varroa mite feeds on bees and spreads viruses, and tracheal mites live inside bees’ breathing tubes. Without careful control by beekeepers, mites can wipe out whole colonies. They do not harm people.

Diseases

Honey bees can catch diseases such as American foulbrood, European foulbrood, and nosema. These diseases do not affect humans, but they can be deadly for bees. Good hive management helps prevent and control them.

Pesticides and Habitat Loss

Some pesticides, including a group called neonicotinoids, can harm bees. The European Union has banned most outdoor uses of the main neonicotinoids to help protect pollinators. As towns and farms spread, bees also have fewer wildflowers to feed on, so gardens full of flowers are a big help. Since the mid-2000s, beekeepers in the United States and elsewhere have reported unusually heavy colony losses, likely caused by a mix of mites, viruses, pesticides, and poor nutrition.

Africanized Bees

Africanized honey bees, sometimes called “killer bees,” spread north from South America and reached the southern United States in 1990. Their sting is no stronger than a regular honey bee’s, but they defend their nests more fiercely and in bigger numbers, so they can be more dangerous. Some areas have special rules for beekeepers because of them.

Want to get started with bees yourself? Read our guide to beekeeping to learn how hives work and how beekeepers care for their colonies.

Honey bee FAQs

Related: Honey Bee Mystery