Busy Bees

There’s a reason we say “busy as a bee.” Honeybees stay busy all day visiting flowers to collect nectar, a sugary juice that the bees make into honey. One bee visits 50–100 flowers during a single trip. That may sound like a lot of flowers, but it takes the nectar from two million flowers to make just one pound of honey. Honeybees have a lot of work to do, so they need to fly fast. The honeybee’s wings stroke around 11,400 times per minute—that’s almost 200 times per second!

As they collect nectar, the bees store it in their “honey stomach,” which is different from their food stomach. When their honey stomach is full, they return to the hive. The nectar is passed on to worker bees who chew the nectar, gradually turning it into honey. The average honeybee makes only about one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime—that’s just a drop.

Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for people to eat. Next time you drizzle some honey on your toast, thank the Creator for this sweet gift and the bees that made it.

Hi, I’m Peter Schriemer.

As a wildlife educator and TV host, I get excited about tracking down God’s creatures! Join me in my adventures on the Answers TV show Hike & Seek.

Collect the Words

Can you connect the hidden letters in the hive above to find these words? The first word, nectar, is done for you.

• worker
• flower
• food
• honey
• wings
• Creator
• hive