| p>Hey kids, do you have any brothers and sisters? | | | | When the change is finished, the new bee chews its |
| Imagine living in a house crammed wall-to-wall with | | | | way out and gets to work. The youngest bees start |
| thousands of your sisters, and you have a bit of an | | | | their lives cleaning up the hive, licking the cells clean |
| idea of what it's like to be a honey bee. A working bee | | | | with their tongues and carrying out bits of debris with |
| hive in the summer can be filled with thousands of | | | | their strong jaws. |
| bees, and if you look closely (with the help of a trained | | | | Older bees have the job of nursing the baby larvae, |
| beekeeper, of course!), you might discover three | | | | bringing them the food they need to grow strong. |
| different kinds of bees - it's discoveries like these that | | | | Sometimes nurses have the job of feeding special |
| make science fun! | | | | larvae full of a substance called royal jelly. This will |
| The only male bees in the hive are called drones; | | | | make the larvae turn into queens instead of a workers. |
| they're big and fat, they can't sting, and have to be fed, | | | | To make sure they get a good strong queen, the |
| cleaned, and cared for by their sisters. There are only | | | | workers will feed several larvae with royal jelly, and |
| a few of them in the hive, and their only job is to mate | | | | the new queens will fight to the death when they |
| with new queens. That may sound like a nice, easy life, | | | | hatch! The queen who lives takes over the hive. |
| but in the winter, their sisters kick them out of the hive | | | | After they grow out of nursing, older bees will move to |
| to freeze. Ouch! | | | | the entrance of the hive and become soldiers, guarding |
| There are two kinds of female bees. The biggest bee | | | | the hive from any invading insects that might eat the |
| in the hive is the queen, and there's only one. She's big | | | | larvae, and stinging anything that tries to attack the |
| because her body is filled with eggs; the queen is the | | | | hive. They will only sting if they have a good reason, |
| mother of the hive. On a busy summer day, one | | | | though - once a honeybee stings, she dies. |
| queen can lay up to 2,000 eggs. | | | | The oldest bees are the foragers. Their job is to travel |
| Most of the bees in the hive are worker bees. Worker | | | | away from the hive to bring back nectar and pollen to |
| bees are all females without eggs, and they take care | | | | turn into honey. It's an important job, but it's also a |
| of all the work that needs to be done. | | | | dangerous one - in the summer, an adult bee lives |
| A worker bee's life begins as a tiny egg. The egg | | | | about two weeks. |
| hatches into a white larva, like a small worm or | | | | It may be a difficult life, but the end result is a hive full |
| caterpillar, and for the next seven days or so, all that | | | | of golden, sticky honey. It's food for the bees in the |
| bee larvae does is grow and eat. Once it grows big | | | | hive, and it's also a tasty treat for us! Now that's a |
| enough to fill its cell in the honeycomb, an adult worker | | | | sweet idea. |
| builds a cap of wax over the opening to the baby | | | | Discover more kids science articles, look up amazing |
| bee's cell, and that little larvae turns itself into a pupa. A | | | | fun facts, do animated science quizzes with talking |
| pupa is a little bit like the coccoon of a moth, and inside | | | | characters, meet friends in virtual worlds, play games |
| that pupa, that baby bee is changing from a shapeless | | | | and do fun science activities at Science Score - the |
| white blob into a grown-up bee, with legs, wings, | | | | world's most fun online elearning product for kids. Join |
| antennae, and a stinger. One good thing about learning | | | | the thousands of kids to play with Science Score and |
| science online is you don't have to risk a nasty sting! | | | | do well in Science. |