Honey bee Facts for Kids
Apis mellifera · AY-pis mel-LIF-er-uh
A busy bee that makes honey and helps flowers make seeds.
- 🏃 speed: not yet checked
- ⚖️ weight: not yet checked
- 📏 size: not yet checked
- 🎂 0.12 to 0.5 years0.12 to 0.5 years1
- 🍽️ plants
- Not enough known (Data Deficient)
Honey bees live together in a hive. They visit flowers to collect nectar and make honey. Bees help plants grow fruit.
A hive has one queen, who lays the eggs, and many worker bees, who do every other job: cleaning, building wax comb, guarding and collecting food. When a worker finds good flowers, she does a waggle dance that tells the others which way to fly and how far.
As honey bees move from flower to flower, pollen sticks to their fuzzy bodies and rubs off on the next flower, which helps the plant make fruit and seeds. Farmers bring hives to orchards for exactly this reason. Honey is made from nectar that the bees dry out by fanning their wings. A bee only stings to protect its hive, so the best thing to do near a bee is stay calm and move away slowly.
How big is a honey bee?
Honey bee: no checked size yet, so there is nothing to draw. We only draw what a source says.
Honey bee in numbers
| Length | no checked number yet |
|---|---|
| Height at the shoulder | no checked number yet |
| Weight | no checked number yet |
| Top speed | no checked number yet |
| How long it lives | 0.12 to 0.5 years0.12 to 0.5 years1worker bees: about six weeks in summer, up to six months over winter |
| What it eats | nectar and pollen from flowers |
| Where it lives | gardens, fields and orchards on every continent but Antarctica |
| What kind | Bugs and other animals without backbones |
| Is it in danger? | Not enough known (Data Deficient)2 |
A number we couldn’t find on a page we trust says so, instead of guessing.
Wow!
- Bees tell each other where flowers are by dancing.
- Worker bees fan their wings to turn nectar into honey.
- A hive has just one queen.
Compare the honey bee
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Books about the honey bee, free at the library
Ask a grown-up to tap the button: it shows where to borrow a book about the honey bee for free.
Where these numbers come from
- USDA, Pollinator Facts (National Pollinator Week factsheet), checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, from the IUCN Red List, checked 30 October 2026.
- Wikidata, Honey bee (Q30034), checked 30 October 2026.