Bees, Work, Honey

Honey is the sweet fluid produced by honey bees from the nectar of flowers. Worker honey bees transform the floral nectar that they gather into honey by adding enzymes to the nectar and reducing the moisture.

Bees also manufacturer edible wax comb in the hive. The honey is stored in these wax cells (the honeycomb) in the upper parts of the hive. When the bees have filled each cell in the comb with honey the bees cover them with wax caps. At harvest time, the beekeeper extracts the honey from the comb and may also sell the wax for many products.

Bees are a social insect with a division of labor. There is one queen, 500-1000 drones and 30,000 to 60,000 worker bees. The queen may lay up to 3,000 eggs per day during the two years of her life. The worker bees are comprised of the sexually undeveloped female bees.

Another important function of the bee is the pollination of the blossoms and flowers. As they search for nectar, they transfer pollen from one flower to the next. Without bees there would not be any argricultural crops, fruit and so forth.