About the bee

The bee, like the ant, is a social insect. That is, it lives in groups in which every bee does certain work that helps the other members of the group. The bee is a wonderful insect. It knows how to make wax, and it knows how to gather nectar from the flowers and turn it into honey. It is the only insect in the world that makes something that man can eat. In the beehive there are three kinds of bees: the queen bee, the drones, and the workers. It is the workers who really run the hive.

Without them, there would be no hive at all, no babies, no queen, not even a drone. The worker bee is a female, and is about half an inch long. She has six legs and two pairs of wings. On her flat head are two feelers, and she uses them as we use our fingers when we are feeling our way in the dark.

At her back, just where a tail might be, is a stinger. When she stings someone, the stinger is torn from her body, and she dies. But the worker loves her hive and her queen so much that she is willing to die protecting them. When dawn comes and the flowers open, the worker bee leaves her hive to begin the day. From morning till night, she visits the flowers, sucking the nectar from them and gathering pollen as she goes. The nectar is the sweet juice buried in the flower. Pollen is the golden dust that can be seen in the center of the blossom.