Honeybee

Honeybees, or Alpis Mellifera, have been an important part of people’s lifestyles for ages. They don’t only provide honey and beeswax, they are also a very important pollinator. Bees are responsible, through pollination, for over 90 different farm-grown foods. When they eat the nectar in flowers, they get covered with pollen. They spread the pollen from flower to flower, helping the plant create fruit. Without bees, it would be impossible for most food to grow. There are three types of honeybees that live together in a hive: drones, workers, and the queen. Drones are male bees that live in the hive in the warm months and are forced to leave in the winter. Workers are the female bees you usually see. They perform all the jobs to keep the hive going. There is usually only one queen, and she is responsible for laying eggs. If the queen dies, the worker bees will feed larvae a special mixture called ‘royal jelly’ to turn her into a queen.

Bee populations have dropped 70%. Scientists aren’t completely sure why. They think its a combination of several factors. One reason is phones. Scientists think the radiation from phones makes bees’ lose their sense of direction. In today’s world, many people have phones, so this is a big problem. Another reason is global warming. Global warming makes fungi and mites grow faster and many of these can have negative effects on bee’s health. The last factor is chemicals and pesticides. Now, many farmers use pesticides and chemicals to keep insects away and to make plants grow faster. These chemicals can be harmful to bees, and hurt their honey supplies. All these factors combined are really hurting bee populations, many beekeepers report that they have lost about 30% of their colonies.