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Where kids go to save animals! - The Kid's Conservation Organization

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Bees are so important for our planet. These little insects pollinate flowers, food crops, the alfalfa and clover we feed our livestock and, of course, they make honey! Unfortunately, bees are facing some serious threats.

Habitat Loss and Fragmentation

Bees need certain qualities in their habitat to keep them happy and healthy. They need for big spaces with lots of flowers for food, as well as safe and undisturbed areas for their nests. In the winter, they need places that are protected from the wind and cold. Unfortunately, development of wild spaces is causing problems for bees. When wildflowers disappear, bees that are active in early spring have a hard time getting enough food to eat, and it can make it difficult for the queen to start her colony.

Disease and Pests

Just like you, bees can get sick. Diseases and parasites can do a lot of damage to bees. Bees can become too weak to fly or be unable to reproduce. In some cases, becoming infected can even lead to death.

Parasitic tracheal mites are a big problem for bees. These mites are so small that they can invade a bee's respiratory system. As the mites grow bigger and bigger, they cut off the bee's air supply and make it impossible to breathe.

The Varroa destructor is another mite that hurts bees. They live on the outside of a honey bee's body, feeding on the bee's hemolymph (a bee's version of blood). These mites can cause Colony Collapse Disorder, which makes bees sick, disoriented and unable to find their way back home.

Invasive Plant Species

Pests and mites aren't the only species that are a threat to bees. Invasive plant species are also making a big impact. These plants take over the land and other resources that native wildflowers need to survive, and when the native wildflowers that the bees feed on start to disappear, it becomes harder for bees to find food.

Pesticides

It isn't easy being a farmer, especially when the crops they are trying to grow keep getting eaten by pests. That's why some farmers use chemicals called pesticides to protect their crops. However, in certain circumstances, these chemicals can cause some serious health problems to insects like bees, including nervous system failure, muscle spasms or even death.

Climate Change

Scientists believe that climate change is also impacting bees. Climate change is bringing on extreme weather events which can affect the timing of when flowers start to bloom. Fewer flowers available in the early spring mean less food for bees.

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What's Threatening Bees? - Where kids go to save animals!

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Bees are so important for our planet. These little insects pollinate flowers, food crops, the alfalfa and clover we feed our livestock and, of course, they make honey! Unfortunately, bees are facing some serious threats. Bees need certain qualities in their habitat to keep them happy and healthy.

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How Do Bees Make Honey? - The Dr. Binocs Show | Best Learning Videos For Kids | Peekaboo Kidz

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Calling all budding - or should we say buzz-ing - young naturalists! Join National Geographic Kids as we get the lowdown on one of our planet's most fascinating insects in our ten facts about h oney bees!

Facts about honey bees

1. Honey bees are super-important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables. This means that they help other plants grow! Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts, allowing plants to grow seeds and fruit.

2. Honey bees live in hives (or colonies). The members of the hive are divided into three types:

Queen: One queen runs the whole hive. Her job is to lay the eggs that will spawn the hive's next generation of bees. The queen also produces chemicals that guide the behaviour of the other bees.

Workers: these are all female and their roles are to forage for food (pollen and nectar from flowers), build and protect the hive, clean and circulate air by beating their wings. Workers are the only bees most people ever see flying around outside the hive.

Drones: These are the male bees, and their purpose is to mate with the new queen. Several hundred live in each hive during the spring and summer. But come winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the drones are kicked out!

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3. What are these buzzing bugs most famous for? Delicious 4. If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva (the newly hatched baby insects) and feeding it a special food called " royal jelly". This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen. honey! But did you know they produce honey as food stores for the hive during winter? Luckily for us, these efficient little workers produce 2-3 time more honey than they need, so we get to enjoy the tasty treat, too!

5. Honey bees are fab flyers. They fly at a speed of around 25km per hour and beat their wings 200 times per second!

6. Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, which means they have one serious sense of smell! They use this to communicate within the hive and to recognise different types of flowers when looking for food.

Did you know that we have a FREE downloadable 'Buzz about bees' primary resource, all about these awesome insects? Great for teachers, homeschoolers and parents alike!

7. The average worker bee lives for just five to six weeks. During this time, she'll produce around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.

8. The queen can live up to five years. She is busiest in the summer months, when she can lay up to 2,500 eggs a day!

9. Honey bees are also brilliant boogiers! To share information about the best food sources, they perform their ' waggle dance '. When the worker returns to the hive, it moves in a figure-of-eight and waggles its body to indicate the direction of the food source. Cool, huh?

10. Sadly, over the past 15 years, colonies of bees have been disappearing, and the reason remains unknown. Referred to as 'colony collapse disorder', billions of honey bees across the world are leaving their hives, never to return. In some regions, up to 90% of bees have disappeared!

We can all do our bit to support these brilliant bugs, gang! Why not plant flowers rich in nectar, such as lavender and bluebells, which will help bees find the food they need? And when your family are buying honey, try to choose varieties that are locally made, to support our honey bees and their beekeepers!

If you enjoyed learning about honey bees, check out these insect articles! Learn 25 cool things about bugs, discover cool ladybird facts, ant facts and dung beetle facts, or find out about the butterfly life cycle!

What did you think of our facts about honey bees? Let us know by leaving us a comment, below!

Images ⓒ Getty Images: Bees on honeycomb, (81154415). Picture of a honeybee on a pink flower: Photograph by Manfredxy, Dreamstime. Picture of a honeybee on a purple flower: Photograph by Daniel Vincek, Dreamstime. Picture of a honeybee on a white background: Photograph by Daniel Vincek, Dreamstime.

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10 facts about honey bees! | National Geographic Kids

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Calling all budding - or should we say buzz-ing - young naturalists! Join National Geographic Kids as we get the lowdown on one of our planet's most fascinating insects in our ten facts about h oney bees! 1. Honey bees are super-important pollinators for flowers, fruits and vegetables.