The Wonderful World of Bees

Jennifer Martin

The Types of Bees

• 20,000 different species of bees and 11 ‘families.’ Bees make up a superfamily known as the Apoidea.

• In each hive there are workers, drones & a queen.• Workers: majority of population- all sterile females.

Care for queen and drones, collect nectar and make honey.

• Drones: males, with no stinger. Mate with the queen to produce new bees.

• Queen: only ONE queen. She can lay up to 1,500 eggs a day and live up to 8 years.

Bee Facts

• Bees have compound eyes made of many tiny eyes called ommatidia.

• Honey bees have existed for 30 million years.• The honeybee's wings stroke 11,400 times per

minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.• It takes about 556 workers to gather 1 pound

of honey from about 2 million flowers.

How Bees Make Honey

• Worker bees collect nectar from flowers outside. They bring the nectar back to the hive.

• The bees produce enzymes to mix with the nectar to make honey!

Where in the World are Bees?

• Bees live everywhere in the world except in the highest mountains and in arctic regions.

Bees in History

• Humans have been eating honey since the beginning of time.

• Honey was found in the tombs in ancient Egypt. The honey was 2,000 years old.

Creative Assignment

• Pretend you a bee during any time period in history. Are you a worker, a drone or a queen? Do you live in a field or a honey farm? Write a two page paper, double-spaced about your bee life. Be sure to state what specie of bee you are and be accurate with all your bee facts and bee activities.

Resources

• http://www.greensmiths.com/bees.htm• http://www.gpnc.org/honeybee.htm• http://

www.beeswaxco.com/howbeesMakeHoney.htm

• http://www.honey-health.com/honey-34.shtml

• www.pestworldforkids.org/bees.html