<h5>What is the difference between bees and honeybees?</h5>  <p>Bees are winged insects and usually have a light brown or brown-yellow body. Scientists have been able to identify over 20,000 species of bees across the world. These include bees of all shapes, sizes, and characteristics. Out of these, some bees do not have stingers while some cannot produce honey. Bees that produce honey are known as honeybees. </p>
<p></p>
<p>Honeybees have an average lifespan of five years and live in hives. Within these hives, bees are usually divided into the workers, the queen, and the drones, depending on their roles. The workers are female bees we usually see around us. Workers collect nectar and pollen from flowers, build and protect the hive, etc. </p>
<p>There is only one queen in a hive and her only job is to lay eggs. Drones are male bees. They do not have stingers nor do they collect nectar and pollen. Their only role is to mate with a queen bee. All honeybees that are between 12-17 days old are called house bees (because they stay inside the hive). </p> <h5>How and why do honeybees make honey?</h5>  <p>To make honey, worker bees fly up to 5 kilometres to search for flowers with nectar. They can visit up to 1,000 flowers within four hours. Perhaps this is where the idiom “as busy as a bee” comes from. </p>
<p></p>
<p>
Honeybees suck up nectar droplets from flowers using a straw-like tongue called a proboscis. This nectar is stored inside the bee’s stomach. The nectar is then passed on to a house bee. </p>
<p>House bees take the nectar inside the hives and store it in hexagon-shaped beeswax cells. These bees then turn the nectar into honey by drying it using warm air made with their wings. Bees use this honey for energy to perform everyday tasks. Dried out honey is also stored in beeswax cells. In the winter, when the flowers have finished blooming and nectar is scarcely available, the bees can use this honey to survive.</p>
<p>Healthy colonies produce a surplus of honey. This makes harvesting honey perfectly fine when done in moderation, especially if enough honey is left for the bees to survive the winters. 
</p> <h5>Is the only purpose of honeybees to produce honey?</h5>  <p>Apart from making honey, bees have a critical role in the functioning of the ecosystem. When bees visit flowers to collect nectar, they also collect pollen. Pollen is a kind of powder that a flowering plant must spread to help more of the same plants grow around it. </p>
<p>
For this to happen, the pollen of a flowering plant must be carried by the wind or by an insect to another plant of the same species. So, by transferring pollen between flowers, bees also help pollinate flowers. These flowers turn into fruits and nuts consumed by us and different animals. The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimated that 1/3rd of the world’s food production depended on bees.
</p> <h5>Why are honeybees at risk and what can we do to save them?</h5>  <p>The International Union for Conservation of Nature found that the survival of almost 10% of bees was considered threatened in all of Europe. Although no single cause has been identified, this threat has been caused by: (a) excessive use of pesticides and land by humans; (b) invasive species such as the yellow-legged hornet; and (c) change in climate due to global warming. </p>
<p>
Bees can be saved if we promote the use of organic fruits and vegetables, and educate people around us about the importance of bees in the world. 
</p>

The population of honeybees is decreasing. Let’s understand how this affects us and what we can do to stop this from happening.

The Importance of Bees in Our Ecosystem

Hootcoins for this article have expired!

Closing the Ozone Hole: Are We in the Right Direction?

What Is Climate Change and How Are We Combating It?

The Importance of Bees in Our Ecosystem

Hootcoins for this article have expired!

Did you read these articles?

Closing the Ozone Hole: Are We in the Right Direction?

What Is Climate Change and How Are We Combating It?