The body of the honey bee

The body of a honey bee is divided into three parts: head, thorax and abdomen. The head carries a pair of antennae, a pair of eyes and three additional simple eyes, and a mouth with two jaws used for sucking and for biting.

The thorax and the legs

Two pairs of wings and three pairs of legs are attached to the thorax. The worker bees, which are most of the bees in the hive, are females whose reproductive organs do not develop. In the abdomen of the worker bee there are wax glands, and the wax they secrete hardens on the body of the bee in the form of scales. On the legs there are hairs called a brush, and they are used to collect pollen. The bee carries the pollen into the hive in a special pocket at the base of its hind legs, and this pocket is called a pollen basket.

The stinger

At the end of the abdomen the bee has a barbed stinger shaped like an arrowhead. When she drives it into a creature with flexible skin, such as a human or another mammal, she cannot pull it out, and this brings about the death of the bee that stung. At the base of the stinger there is also a venom sac.

Unlike the stinger of the worker bees, the stinger of the queen is smooth, so she can sting a large number of times. Male bees, the drones, have no stinger at all and no pollen basket for collecting pollen.

Once you know the parts of the body, it is easier to understand what a bee does in a flower, how it builds the cells of its nest and how it defends the hive.

Want to get to know the bees up close? Talk to us.