The BeeKeeping Information Page.

The Honey Bee (Apis melifera L). Honey bees, whose Latin name means Honey Maker are one of the most beneficial insects in the world. Not only do they give us beeswax, which is ,mostly used in cosmetics today, but they have also provided the sweetness of honey for thousands of years. Most valuable of all, however, is the fact that they pollinate the flowers they visit.

Withhout bees, we would be eating mostly rice, wheat, and corn instead of the variety of fruits and vegetables we enjoy. There are about fifty commercially grown crops that depend on bee pollination. Some of these crops are melons and cucumbers, apples and most other fruits and berries, almonds and al clovers and alfalfa. Without this insect, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS a year would be lost due to un-pollinated crops. 

DRONE                         QUEEN                           WORKER

More about bees A colony of honey bees is, simply, a group of bees that live together as a family within a single hive.
Worker bees are all female. It is their duty to care for the various stages of young bee development or brood, from eggs to adult bees. Workers also clean and guard the hive, build honeycomb and gather nectar and pollen from the flower. These worker bees are what you see traveling back and forth from the hive throughout the day. These industrious and laboring bees are responsible for that most delicious and healthful sweets, honey. They are usually between 40,000 and 70,000 workers kin a good sized colony.
Drones are male bees and congregate in special flight areas looking for young queens with which they can mate. In the summer time they will number up to 1,500 or so, but come fall the workers will drag them out of the hive to die. Since they cannot sting, they are defenseless against attacks by birds, toads or skunks which love to eat bees.

Index Page