Term 3 Inquiry - Dance Around the World

Term 2 Inquiry -Helpful Honeybees

HELPFUL HONEYBEES OPENING STATEMENT Honeybees are social insects. Bees have four membrane wings and cannot fly in the rain. Honeybees have been around for millions of years. The fastest drones mate with the queen bee. Bees are attracted to blue and black. Honeybees are scientifically known as the Apis Meliferra. DESCRIPTION Bees have a thick waist and a thick coat of body hair. Honeybees have pouches or baskets on the back of their legs. They use these baskets for carrying pollen. All bees have a stinger that is barbed. When a bees stinger falls off it dies. This means a bee can only sting once. A bee has one stinger, a pair of wings and they are striped. They have some legs and antennae. LOCATION Bees live in colonies in trees and on stone and wood. They live in tropical and subtropical areas. Most Wasps and Bees are solitary. Bees live in every continent in the world except the North Pole. BEHAVIOUR Bees only sting to protect themselves. Many bees build nests made out of wax. A new colony starts after a new Queen and her workers come together and make a swarm. Honeybees perform a ‘waggle dance’ to tell each other where the best flowers are. Bees cannot fly in rain. The honeybees wing strokes are incredibly fast - two hundred beats per second. This makes their famous distance BUZZ. The workers build cells and the queen lays eggs in the cells. Killer bees are much more likely to attack than ordinary bees. They are quick to create huge angry swarms and can detect people from fifteen meters away from their nest. One bee on its own is unlikely to do much harm. GENERAL STATEMENT There are about one hundred thousand known species of wasps and bees. Bees are the most important pollinators of flowering plants including fruits and vegetables. So Bee nice and don’t destroy the environment!