Honey bee on a flower. Photo courtesy of Chris Hansen of Hansen Honey

Introduction

   

This website is about the insect Apis mellifera, commonly known as the Honey Bee.  Through out this website, the name honey bee refers to this particular species.  To begin with I would like to give couple of vocabulary words which should help in the understanding of the text.

Brood- The name given to immature honey bees, for instance: eggs, larvae or pupa. 

Comb or honey comb- is a frame structure of hexagonal cells which is made out of bee’s wax, which honey bees use to raise brood and store honey. 

Drone- is the name given to male honey bees. Their single purpose is to mate with the queen.

Worker- is the name given to the female honey bees that are sexually immature. They take care of the queen and do the work around the hive.

The Queen- The queen’s job is to lay the eggs in the hive. She also releases pheromones to direct the actions of the workers.

Royal Jelly-
is what is fed to the queen larva, which helps to stimulate hormones which will help to allow the larva to become a queen.  It consists of a high concentration of mandibular gland secretions, hypopharyngeal gland secretions, and pollen.