I have to write a speech for school. I just have one problem, i dont know how to end it. here it is
When you think of honey bees, what comes to mind? A sting you might have gotten while outside on summer days? The sweet, delicious honey they produce? Well, bees are actually much, much more than this. Besides providing us with honey and painful stings, they provide us with most of the food we eat.
The honey bee is over 100 million years old, and the worlds largest pollinator. 1/3 of the food produced in America would not be here without the bee. They pollinate about 100 of our most important crops, including types of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fibers such as the cotton plant. The honey bee is a 15 billion dollar industry, and our food supply rests on it. Without honeybees we would only have plants that do not require the bees help such as corn, wheat, and rice. Would you be happy to eat only corn, wheat, and rice? I know I wouldnt.
In a bee colony there are three different castes of bees: The queen, the drone, and the worker. Each is very important to the colony, and each has a specific role. The queen is the largest and most important bee in the colony; she is the ONLY bee able to lay fertilized eggs that will form the strength of the colony, being the workers. The queen can also lay fertile eggs which can become queens if they need to be. A queen can live up to three years in which she can produce 1 to 2 thousand eggs a day.
The drone is the only male bee in the colony. An average drone will only live a few weeks, in which he mates and then dies. If he does not mate he will soon die of old age. Drones do not usually live throughout the winter months, and are only present during the active season of the colony. Other than mating, the drone does no work. He has no wax gland, no pollen baskets, no stinger, and he cannot collect nectar. They usually stay inside the hive until they decide to seek out queens to mate with.
The worker is the smallest of the three bees, and lives the shortest, but may be the most important. ALL worker bees are females. They live for 4 or 5 weeks as they wear out their bodies from their labor: they essentially work themselves to death. All the bees you see outside the hive will be the workers. They start working as soon as they are born by cleaning out their cell and then repairing cracked and broken cells. They then guard the hive entrance from robber bees trying to steal their honey stores. The workers then leave the hive and seek pollen and nectar, they do this until they wear out their wings and die.
While a worker bee is collecting pollen, she is doing more than she thinks, she is pollinating the plant. A bee will only collect pollen from one species at a time, and that species is pollinated with its own kind, this is why there is no cross pollination. The bee will continue to collect pollen from that species until she finds a species with more pollen. She takes the pollen and nectar back to the hive and stores it for winter, when they will use it for energy to keep the colony warm.
The honey bee provides you with most of the food you eat, and has been smart enough to survive for over 100 million years.
When you think of honey bees, what comes to mind? A sting you might have gotten while outside on summer days? The sweet, delicious honey they produce? Well, bees are actually much, much more than this. Besides providing us with honey and painful stings, they provide us with most of the food we eat.
The honey bee is over 100 million years old, and the worlds largest pollinator. 1/3 of the food produced in America would not be here without the bee. They pollinate about 100 of our most important crops, including types of fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, and fibers such as the cotton plant. The honey bee is a 15 billion dollar industry, and our food supply rests on it. Without honeybees we would only have plants that do not require the bees help such as corn, wheat, and rice. Would you be happy to eat only corn, wheat, and rice? I know I wouldnt.
In a bee colony there are three different castes of bees: The queen, the drone, and the worker. Each is very important to the colony, and each has a specific role. The queen is the largest and most important bee in the colony; she is the ONLY bee able to lay fertilized eggs that will form the strength of the colony, being the workers. The queen can also lay fertile eggs which can become queens if they need to be. A queen can live up to three years in which she can produce 1 to 2 thousand eggs a day.
The drone is the only male bee in the colony. An average drone will only live a few weeks, in which he mates and then dies. If he does not mate he will soon die of old age. Drones do not usually live throughout the winter months, and are only present during the active season of the colony. Other than mating, the drone does no work. He has no wax gland, no pollen baskets, no stinger, and he cannot collect nectar. They usually stay inside the hive until they decide to seek out queens to mate with.
The worker is the smallest of the three bees, and lives the shortest, but may be the most important. ALL worker bees are females. They live for 4 or 5 weeks as they wear out their bodies from their labor: they essentially work themselves to death. All the bees you see outside the hive will be the workers. They start working as soon as they are born by cleaning out their cell and then repairing cracked and broken cells. They then guard the hive entrance from robber bees trying to steal their honey stores. The workers then leave the hive and seek pollen and nectar, they do this until they wear out their wings and die.
While a worker bee is collecting pollen, she is doing more than she thinks, she is pollinating the plant. A bee will only collect pollen from one species at a time, and that species is pollinated with its own kind, this is why there is no cross pollination. The bee will continue to collect pollen from that species until she finds a species with more pollen. She takes the pollen and nectar back to the hive and stores it for winter, when they will use it for energy to keep the colony warm.
The honey bee provides you with most of the food you eat, and has been smart enough to survive for over 100 million years.
