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A beehive is a busy place. It's home to as many as 60,000 honeybees! These insects live and work together their whole lives. Honeybees live in groups called colonies. You can think of a colony as a giant family. In fact, most honeybees in a colony are brothers and sisters. And they take care of their home just like a human family might. Some bees are baby-sitters. Others clean the hive and fix it up. Others work to bring home food. And others protect the hive from danger. Each member of the colony knows its job from the moment it is born. All members work to keep the hive healthy and growing. |
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The walls of a beehive are called honeycombs. They have many spaces called cells. Each cell has six sides and fits closely with the cells around it. Some cells are filled with food. Other cells hold eggs or young bees. Honeybees build their hives with beeswax. The beeswax oozes from tiny holes in a bee's body. It dries and becomes crusty. The bee chews the beeswax to soften it before using it like cement. A honeybee hatches from its egg after three days. It looks more like a worm than a honeybee at first. The newborn bee is called a larva. It stays in its cell for about three weeks. During this time, older bees feed the larva. Then, the larva turns into a pupa. It grows eyes, wings and legs. Finally, it is an adult. Older worker bees act as “guards.” They watch over the entrance to the hive. Other animals may try to steal the colony's honeyÑincluding “robber” bees from other hives. Guard bees touch all incoming bees with their antennae. If a bee does not have the right scent, the guards attack it. All worker bees are born female. The first thing a worker does when she crawls from her cell is clean it. For the next week or so, the worker is a “housebee.” She cleans the hive, builds new cells and feeds growing larvae. Workers spend most of their lives as “scouts.”Scouts fly out to collect food from flowers. Honeybees drink liquid nectar, which they use to make honey. They also gather powdery flower pollen, brushing it into special baskets on their legs. Big temperature changes inside the hive can kill honeybees. If it's too hot, worker bees beat their wings quickly to create a cooling breeze. If it's too cold, workers bunch together and make shivering movements. This warms their bodies and the air around them. Each colony has one queen honeybee. The queen is the largest honeybee in the hive. She is the only honeybee that lays eggs. A queen may lay more than 1,000 eggs each day! The whole colony works to take care of her. Male bees are called drones. They do not do any work. They only mate with the queen, so she will lay eggs. |