Since one in three bites of food is made possible by pollinators, they are crucially important to the future of our food. Learn how honey bees help to grow some of your favorite foods and steps you can take to protect these insect MVPs.
Thanks to bees and their pollinating powers, we have fresh, healthy food to eat all season long. Learn how honey bees help pollinate some of your favorite veggies and fruits.
1. Honey bees have millions of tiny hairs on their bodies. Basically, they are like tiny flying teddy bears!
2. A female worker bee flies from flower to flower looking for nectar. When she lands, she gathers pollen, moistens it with her saliva (spit!) and packs it into "pollen baskets" on her hair hind legs.
3. As the honey bee visits different flowers, some of the pollen rubs off from one flower to the next.
4. When this happens, it helps the flower to reproduce, or make more of itself. It’s also super important for fruits, nuts and veggies. Without pollination, the plant can’t make these healthy foods for us to eat!
Did you know that bees can communicate through dancing?
When a forager bee finds a good nectar source, she'll fly back to the hive and do something called a WAGGLE DANCE.
This figure-eight style movement tells the location of flower sources around the hive.
The bee "waggles" in a certain angle to show the direction of the source, and for different amounts of time to tell the distance.
The hive feels the dance moves and learns where to go!
Learn from SciShow Kids about how bees help pollinate some of your favorite fruits!
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