Facts on Honeybees for Kids

The Colony

• Honeybees are divided by castes of workers, drones and the queen. Worker bees are the ones people see. They travel away from the hive to collect pollen to bring back to the colony. They also build the hive, care for young, and guard the colony. Although worker bees are all female, none can reproduce. Only the queen bee lays eggs, and she lays up to 2,000 per day. There is one queen per hive, and she usually lives for up to two years. Her only role within the hive is to reproduce. The only purpose of the male drones is to mate with the queen.

Royal Jelly

• Royal jelly is a vitamin-rich substance made of digested pollen, honey and a chemical produced by nursing bees. When a queen dies, worker bees feed royal jelly to a female. This special diet gives the female the ability to reproduce and thus become the new queen. Royal jelly is a precious commodity that some people use as a dietary supplement to improve fertility.

Producing Honey

• Bees produce honey by sucking nectar out of flowers and trees. They store the nectar in a special "honey stomach" and bring it back to the hive. The evaporation of water from the nectar and bee hormones transform the nectar into honey. Bees produce honey all summer and then eat it throughout the year. Honey has antibacterial properties and never spoils.

Pollination

• Pollination is necessary for plants to create seeds and continue to thrive. Bees pollinate plants while making their rounds collecting nectar from flowers. They are responsible for an estimated 80 percent of all insect pollination. For this reason, bees play a huge role in the success of the agricultural system.

Stinging

• Only female bees have stingers, and because the queen bee remains in the hive, worker bees are the only ones that ever sting. Honeybees are not naturally aggressive, and only sting when they are threatened or if they are guarding the hive. When a bee stings, its stinger is ripped from its abdomen and it dies.