If you have just been stung by a bee, remove the stinger if it is still in your skin, wash the area with soap and water, and apply a cold compress for 10–20 minutes. You can also use appropriate over-the-counter treatments to relieve pain, itching, and swelling. Most single bee stings cause a temporary local reaction that can be treated at home. However, a bee sting can sometimes cause a serious allergic reaction called anaphylaxis. If you develop difficulty breathing, swelling of your tongue or throat, widespread hives, dizziness, or fainting, seek emergency medical care immediately. This guide explains how…
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A bee sting happens when a bee pierces your skin with its stinger and injects venom into the surrounding tissue. What happens when a bee stings you depends on the type of bee, the amount of venom introduced, and how your body reacts to the sting. For most people, a bee sting causes immediate sharp or burning pain followed by redness, swelling, tenderness, and itching around the sting site. These symptoms usually improve within a few days. However, some people can develop a severe allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, which requires immediate medical attention. Understanding what happens after a bee sting…
Bees swarm because honey bee colonies reproduce by dividing. When a colony becomes strong and conditions are suitable, a large group of worker bees leaves the original nest with the existing queen and searches for a new home. The bees that remain behind continue the original colony with a new queen. Swarming is therefore more than bees simply looking for extra space. It is a natural form of colony-level reproduction that allows one honey bee colony to become two. Rapid colony growth, crowding, seasonal conditions, food availability, and the condition of the colony can all contribute to the circumstances in…
Bees make honey to store food for their colony. Honey gives honey bees a concentrated source of energy that can be kept in the hive and eaten when fresh nectar is unavailable, including during cold weather, rainy periods, and other times when bees cannot forage effectively. Honey is not made for humans. It is an important food reserve that helps a honey bee colony survive throughout the year. But how does flower nectar become honey, and why don’t bees simply eat the nectar they collect? Let’s take a closer look at why bees make honey, how they make it, what…
Bees find flowers using a combination of vision, smell, ultraviolet (UV) vision, memory, learning, and navigation. They are not simply flying around randomly until they happen to encounter a flower. Instead, bees use several sensory cues to identify promising flowers, determine which ones contain food, remember productive locations, and return to them. Flowers provide bees with valuable resources, especially nectar and pollen. Nectar supplies energy, while pollen provides nutrients needed by bees and developing brood. Flowers have therefore evolved colors, shapes, scents, and patterns that can help attract pollinators such as bees. For honey bees, the process can go even…
Honey bees can travel several miles from their hive in search of nectar, pollen, water, and other resources. However, they usually do not fly as far as they possibly can. Instead, honey bees generally make the shortest practical trips to reliable food and water sources. For many foraging trips, honey bees may remain within about 1–3 miles (1.6–4.8 km) of the hive, although the actual distance varies considerably. When nearby resources are scarce, individual bees can travel 5 miles (8 km) or more to find suitable forage. The distance honey bees travel depends on factors such as the availability of…
A typical established honey bee colony can contain about 20,000 to 60,000 bees, although exceptionally strong colonies may reach 80,000 or more under favorable conditions. The number of bees in a hive is not fixed and changes throughout the year depending on the season, food availability, queen productivity, colony health, weather, swarming, and beekeeping practices. Most of the bees in a healthy colony are female worker bees. A typical hive also has one queen and, during the breeding season, hundreds to thousands of male drones. During spring and summer, the colony population usually grows as the queen lays more eggs…
Knowing how to identify a honey bee can be surprisingly difficult because honey bees can look similar to bumble bees, wasps, yellowjackets, carpenter bees, and other insects. Their color can also vary, so simply looking for a yellow-and-black striped insect is not a reliable way to identify one. A honey bee can usually be recognized by its medium-sized body, brown to golden-brown coloration, darker abdominal bands, hairy body, hairy compound eyes, and specialized pollen-carrying structures on the hind legs of workers. Worker honey bees also have broad, flattened hind-leg segments and lack hind tibial spurs. The most familiar honey bee…
Bees, wasps, and hornets are closely related insects, but they are not the same. The easiest way to tell them apart is to look at their body shape, hairiness, diet, nesting habits, and behavior. Bees are generally hairier and are closely associated with flowers, pollen, and nectar. Wasps are usually smoother and more slender, and many species hunt insects or other small animals. Hornets are a type of wasp and are generally larger, robust-bodied social wasps. The simplest distinction is: bees are generally specialized for collecting pollen and nectar, wasps include many predators and parasitoids, and hornets are large social…
A bee colony works as a highly organized social system in which thousands of honey bees cooperate to survive, raise young, collect food, defend the nest, regulate temperature, and reproduce. Instead of one bee controlling the others, the colony coordinates its activities through division of labor, pheromones, physical contact, movement, environmental signals, and dances such as the waggle dance. A typical honey bee colony consists of one queen, thousands of worker bees, and, during much of the breeding season, male drone bees. Each has a different role, but the colony’s survival depends on their activities working together. In simple terms,…