Honey bees are small insects that live together in large groups called colonies. A colony can contain tens of thousands of bees, but they all work together like one big family.

Who lives in a hive?

Every hive has one queen. She is the only bee that lays eggs, and in spring she can lay more than a thousand eggs in a single day. Most of the other bees are workers. Workers are female, and they do all the jobs in the hive: cleaning, feeding the young, guarding the entrance and collecting food. Male bees are called drones. Their only job is to mate with a queen, and they do not have a sting.

Making honey

Worker bees fly from flower to flower sipping a sweet liquid called nectar. They carry it back to the hive in a special honey stomach and pass it to other workers, who fan it with their wings until most of the water dries out. The thick liquid left behind is honey. Bees store honey in wax cells to eat during winter, when there are few flowers.

The waggle dance

When a worker finds a good patch of flowers, she returns to the hive and performs a 'waggle dance'. The direction and length of her dance tell the other bees which way to fly and how far to go.

Why bees matter

As bees move between flowers, yellow dust called pollen sticks to their bodies and rubs off on the next flower. This is called pollination, and many fruits and vegetables, such as apples, almonds and pumpkins, need it to grow. Without bees, farmers would grow far less food.

Honey bees were brought to Australia from Europe in the 1820s. Australia also has more than 1,600 species of native bees, and most of them do not live in hives or make honey at all.