|
My Home:
I am a social insect and live in
large colonies, usually in hives, up to 80,000 individuals. I am found
worldwide.
What I
eat: I drink nectar from flowers
or juices from fruit.
What I
look like: Usually less than 3/4
of an inch in length and have four wings. I am usually golden brown in
color with black stripes on my abdomen. I have a stinger at the end of
my abdomen.
How I am
born: I go through four stages
of development: egg, larva, pupa and adult. The queen bee lays eggs and
the worker bees will take care of my egg until I hatch. I will stay
with the hive usually for the rest of my life.
Fun
Facts: Honeybees are the only
insects that produce a food that is consumed by humans. They provide
people with honey, bee's wax and pollinate crops. An average hive
yields 50 pounds of honey. To make one pound of honey requires the
nectar from millions of flowers.
They
communicate with each other using a 'dance' language.
Honeybees do not hibernate during the winter, but group together and use
their community warmth to stay alive. A honeybee will die if it uses
its stinger.
'Colony Collapse Disorder' or CCD, has spread throughout the U.S. and
Europe over the past few years, wiping out 50% to 90% of the colonies of
many beekeepers -- and along with it, their livelihood and potentially
our food supply.
There
are about 20,000 species of bees in the world. |
