A Picture of a Honey Bee

Honey Bee Facts

  • Common Name: Honey Bee
  • Kingdom: Animalia
  • Phylum: Arthropoda
  • Class: Insecta
  • Order: Hymenoptera
  • Family: Apidae
  • Genus: Apis

15 Honey Bee Facts for Kids

  1. A honey bee is a flying insect that is a member of the genus Apis.
  2. There are seven living species of bees that are considered honey bees.
  3. The seven living species of honey bees are the black dwarf honey bee (Apis andreniformis), red dwarf honey bee (Apis florea), giant honey bee (Apis dorsata), eastern honey bee (Apis cerana), western honey bee (Apis mellifera), Koschevnikov's honey bee (Apis koschevnikovi) and Philippine honey bee (Apis nigrocincta).
  4. Honey bees are social insects that live in colonies.
  5. Honey bees communicate with each other using odors, chemicals and dancing.
  6. A honey bee colony can have tens of thousands of bees.
  7. There are three types of honey bees in a colony, and they are the queen, workers and drones.
  8. There are four stages of a honey bees’ life, and they are egg, larva, pupa and adult.
  9. A queen honey bee’s lifespan is about five years and they can lay on average 2,500 eggs a day during the summer months.
  10. Colony collapse disorder, or CCD, is an event when most of the worker bees in a colony abandon their nest.
  11. A honey bee can fly up to 15 miles per hour.
  12. The western honey bee (Apis mellifera) plays a major role in the human food chain. They are used extensively to pollinate fruit and vegetable crops. Their pollination efforts are measured in billions of dollars.
  13. The Africanized bee honey, popularly called the killer bee, is a hybrid of the western honey bee. They are extremely aggressive and over 1,000 people have lost their loves to a killer bee attack.
  14. Beekeeping (apiculture) is a hobby and/or commercial business where honey bee colonies are maintained in made-made hives and bee products are harvested.
  15. A bee yard, also known as an apiary, is where a beekeeper keeps his honey bee beehives.

Additional Resources with Honey Bee Facts