English Diagnostic Assessment

Honeybees are very busy insects. They live together in large groups called colonies. A colony can have up to fifty thousand bees! Each bee has an important job to do. There are three kinds of bees in a colony: the queen, the workers, and the drones.

The queen bee is the leader. She is the biggest bee. Her main job is to lay eggs. She can lay up to two thousand eggs in one day! The worker bees are all female. They do many tasks. Some workers guard the hive. Others clean the cells where eggs are laid. The most well-known job is collecting nectar from flowers.

Worker bees fly from flower to flower. They drink the sweet nectar and carry it in a special honey stomach. When they visit flowers, tiny bits of pollen stick to their fuzzy bodies. They carry this pollen to the next flower. This is called pollination. It helps new plants and fruits grow. Without bees, we would lose many of the foods we eat, like apples, berries, and almonds.

Back at the hive, worker bees turn nectar into honey. They pass it from bee to bee. Then they fan it with their wings to dry it out. The honey is stored in wax cells for food. Bees eat honey during cold winter months when there are no flowers.

Bees also talk to each other using a special dance. A worker bee does a "waggle dance" to show others where to find good flowers. The dance tells the direction and how far away the food is. It is like a tiny map made with movement!