Explore the world of bees

Bees are renowned for their inconvenient stings and delicious honey. But of the 20,000 species, only one, the honey bee (Apis mellifera), produces honey. However, bees serve more important purposes, such as pollinating flowering plants: a single colony of bees can fertilize more than a million flowers in one day.

Bees belong to the insect family, which means that they have six legs and their bodies are divided into three parts, which are the head, thorax, and abdomen. Bees have small combs on their front legs that serve to clean their antennae and two pairs of wings, one on each side of the body, which enable their unique flight.

Fun facts

• The predators of bees are lizards, toads, birds, spiders and even other insects such as dragonflies. Likewise, bears are known to completely destroy bee hives in order to eat the honey inside them.
• Not all bees live in hives like honey bees do. In fact, 70% of the 20,000 species of bees nest underground.
• Some bees have a stinger on the end of their body which they use to sting. The stinger leaves the body of the bee and remains in the victim. Although bee stings can be painful, they are not serious unless there are many of them, the person is young or old (young children or the elderly), or allergic to them.
• Honey bees live in highly organized colonies. The workers are female, they collect pollen and nectar to feed the colony, clean the hive, make honey, take care of the larvae and protect the queen.