This floral fidelity makes honeybees some of the best pollinators the pollen that is inevitably caught on the bees’ fuzz receives a free ride between flowers, ensuring that flowers, shrubs, fruit, and trees, can reproduce. Individual bees will only draw pollen from a single flower species in its life-so when a fledgling bee leaves the hive for the first time, the first flower species it finds will be the species it visits for the rest of its lifetime. The honey we love is produced when collected nectar is passed from bee to bee, mouth-to-mouth, before it is stored in the hexagonal holes of the hive walls.Īlthough the bees’ reason for collecting nectar is pure self-preservation, their flower flitting is actually pollinating the flowers and plants. The queen uses pheromones to keep her workers in line the bees out collecting pollen will follow that pheromone trail to find their way back to the hive with their nectar sacs full of honey-making powder. These eggs are housed in the center of the hive with the queen until they hatch into worker bees that go out to collect nectar. A healthy colony can hold as many as 80,000 bees in the summer season when warmer temperatures and blooming flowers ensure that there’s enough food for the queen to lay an egg every twenty seconds. ![]() True bees-not yellow jackets, which are actually members of the wasp family-are famous for flitting between flower beds, collecting the yellow pollen until their nectar sacs are full, and returning to their hive to turn it into food for themselves and the thousands of babies their queen produces each day. A single bee may look small, but she is a part of a much larger collective consciousness, a super-organism of diligent worker bees that unintentionally keep nature healthy and thriving. Have you ever sniffed a rose only to find a bee staring back at you? Perhaps you’ve noticed honeybees drunk on nectar, floating between flower buds in summer. ![]() ![]() Today, beekeeping practices are growing in popularity among young Black folks who are looking to reconnect with nature and produce their own honey. Beekeeping, honey, and bees even have a long history in African and African American culture that is not widely documented. Though modern species of honeybees aren’t native to North America, bees have played an integral role in the reproduction cycles of plants around the world. Dive into all the ways Black people have been innovating, sustaining, and thriving through our connections to and deep knowledge of the natural world both past and present.īees have historically served as symbols of dedication and hard work and cultures throughout time have enjoyed their honey as a delicious form of liquid gold. Welcome to Earth Curiosity, a series that uncovers overlooked connections between science, innovation, nature, and our community.
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