You're as busy as a bee!" Has anyone ever said this to you? Surely most bees appear to be busy.
They buzz and buzz as they fly from one flower tothe next. When they have enough nectar, they fly back to their hives. Here they go to work filling up wax cells with the nectar they have gathered.
What a busy, busy place a beehive is!
Honeybees are very social animals. Let us see how so many thousands of bees can live together in such a large family.
In the hive, there are three kinds of honey bees. There is one bee that is larger than any other in the hive. This is the queen bee.
There are some drone bees. Then, there are thousands of smaller bees, which are the working bees.
There is only one mother bee for each hive of bees. She is the queen bee, the largest bee in the hive.
A queen bee is fed on "royal jelly" This is a special honey food. Worker bees always guard the queen. She is very important, since she lays all the eggs.
Queen bee mates once during her lifetime. When she leaves the hive to fly high into the air, many drone bees follow her.
Drone bees are father bees. Only one drone bee mates with the queen. Then, the queen bee flies back to her hive. Soon, she begins to lay eggs.
A queen bee will sometimes lay more than a thousand eggs in one day. Most of the eggs will hatch into worker bees. Some eggs will hatch into drone bees. A few eggs will hatch into queen bees.
Honeybees are _________ animals.
social
larger
family
gathered