Honeybees live in a large group called a colony. Each colony occupies its own hive. Each hive can be 10- 60 thousand bees. There are only three types of bees in a honey bee hive: workers, drones, and a queen.

Worker bees are female and are the smallest bees in the hive. They only live six weeks in the summer but a bit more during the winter due to being less active.

Worker bees make honey, clean the hive, feed larvae (baby bees), and build the wax comb where all bees live. Thousands of them perform these chores in the hive. They are the only honey bees that visit flowers.

The male bees are called drones. There are about one hundred of them in each hive. Their job is to mate with the queen.

Drones live about eight weeks in the summer and are forced out of the hive in the fall to die by the worker bees.

The larges bee is the queen and a healthy queen may live up to four years. Each colony has only one queen whose most important job is to lay eggs. She can lay over one million eggs during her lifetime.

BEES MAY BE SMALL, BUT THEY HAVE A BIG IMPACT ON OUR WORLD...

Bees are a keystone species which means their existence is crucial for the survival of other plants and organisms. They help ensure the ecosystem contains the various necessary types of life in it.

Bees also contribute to sustaining a variety of food sources.

Bees are the major pollinators of many fruit and vegetable crops. They are responsible for pollinating around 90 different crops in North America and help create about one-third of our food.

Bees help other plants make seeds that feed small animals. If their food supply was limited, resulting in fewer small animals, the food supply of larger animals would also be affected.

Without them the entire food chain is affected.

What You Can Do to Help

Avoid pesticides.
Plant a variety of native wildflowers.
Plant large groupings of the same flowers.
Opt for organic seeds and mature plants.
Choose plants with single flower tops.
Plant flowers that bloom in spring.
Plant flowers that bloom in summer.
Plant flowers that bloom in fall.
Let dandelions, henbit and clover grow.
Leave areas of bare, undisturbed dirt.
Let some of your herbs bolt.
Use natural alternatives to control weeds or pests.
Use compost to encourage healthy soil.
Consider a flowering lawn, like white clover.
Let our grass grow a little longer.
Provide a fresh, shallow water source.
Embrace a few healthy imperfections.

Helpful Sites:

All about The bees

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