About European Honey Bees

These bees are known for their honey-producing ability. Their diets are majorly made up of nectar and pollen which they get from flowers. They make honey from the nectar and pollen within their nests. The adult bees feed on nectar and pollen as well as honey. The larvae of European honey bees feed on honey and nectar as well as the bodily secretions of the worker bees. This bodily secretion is called royal jelly or worker jelly. The diet of the bees could also include the secretions made by insects that feed on sap. Such insects include aphids and bugs.

The bees are prey of different animals including bears, skunks, toads, honey badgers, and gorillas. The predators of the bees attack their hives for the honey the bees produce. They also attack the bees to feed on them directly. Predators could also attack beehives for the wax. The female European honey bees can sting. Their characteristic physical features serve as a form of warning to predators. European honey bees are social insects. They live in castes of queens, drones, and workers. The queens are the reproductive females. Whether a female will develop into the queen is dependent on the availability of royal jelly. The drones are the reproductive males. They mate with the queens to start a colony. The workers are non-reproductive females. They are responsible for caring for the young and foraging for food.

European honey bees have economic importance as honey producers as well as pollinators. As pollinators, they spread pollen grains and cause plants to reproduce efficiently. Western honey bees pollinate different types of crops and non-crop plants. Thus, they could be cultivated by farmers for this purpose. Like other honey bees, the European honey bees fly in short, rapid strokes. They also make the buzz sound when they fly and cannot fly in extreme weather conditions such as high winds, heavy rains, and extreme temperatures. Since they cannot fly during these periods, they typically store food from other periods to eat in these periods.

They communicate by movement, vibration, and sound. European honey bees make dances which they use to communicate the location of food sources to other bees. They use the waggle dance to tell other bees where food sources can be found.