Western Honey Bee

Hello. I am a Western Honey Bee. My kind of bee has been known for a very long time, even since the year 1758. I have a fuzzy body with black and yellow stripes. My tiny wings are clear, and they make a buzz, buzz, buzzing sound when I fly through the air. I live in a special home called a hive. It is a very busy place where I live with my big, big family. In my hive, there is one queen bee, and I have thousands of sisters who work with me every day.

I am a worker bee, and I have a very busy day. My job is to find food for everyone in my family. Every morning, I fly out of my hive to look for pretty flowers in the fields and gardens. I land gently on a flower and use my long tongue to drink its sweet juice. This yummy, sweet juice is called nectar. While I am drinking, a soft, yellow dust called pollen gets all over my fuzzy body. It tickles a little bit. When I find lots of good flowers, I fly straight back to my hive. I do a special 'waggle dance' to show my sisters where to go. It is like drawing a secret map by wiggling my body. We take all the nectar we collect back home. In the hive, we turn the sweet juice into yummy honey for the whole family to eat.

My most important job happens when I fly from flower to flower. The sticky yellow pollen on my body rubs off on the other flowers I visit. This is very important because it helps the flowers make new seeds. Because of my work carrying pollen, new plants can grow all over the world. This helps make the fruits and vegetables we all love to eat, like yummy apples and sweet strawberries. My work helps keep our world full of colorful flowers and delicious food. Being a little bee is a very big job, and I am happy to help everything grow.