These hardworking little bees are known for the sweet honey they produce. The UK has just one honey bee species, largely living domesticated in hives managed by beekeepers.
Did you know that the honey we eat is only made by worker honey bees?
Honey bee facts
Scientific name: Apis mellifera
Family: Apidae
Diet: Nectar and pollen
Predators: Birds, spiders, and wasps
Size: 1.2cm
Weight: 0.1g
Lifespan: Workers live 5-7 weeks in summer and up to 5 months in winter; queens live for 2-3 years
About honey bees
Honey bees are easily recognisable and perhaps our best-known bee (alongside the bumblebee).
These small bees live in waxy honeycomb hives with up to 20,000-50,000 other bees. Most honey bees in the UK live in domesticated hives, and their honey has been enjoyed by humans for thousands of years.
Honey bees and our canals
Honey bees are rare in the wild. However, you might spot them foraging along canals where wildflowers, like dandelions or thyme, grow abundantly on the banks.
The presence of bees on our canals helps local pollination and biodiversity, and we do our best as a charity to create habitats for honey bees to thrive.
Black, gold, and unmistakable. Honey bees are familiar insects in the UK. They have black abdomens with amber-coloured bands, a sandy, hairy thorax, and hairless back legs. Honey bees have hairy eyes and antennae.
There are several similar-looking hoverfly species, but they can be distinguished by their larger eyes and lack of stinger.
Like most bee species, honey bees eat the pollen and nectar of flowers from trees, herbs, and shrubs.
Honey bees prefer open flowers so they can easily reach inside with short tongues. Favourites include dandelions, willow, ivy, lavender, clover, and thyme.
How do honey bees breed?
Tens of thousands of bees live in a colony within the hive. Each colony has one queen bee and a few hundred male drones. The rest are female worker bees who make all the decisions and do all the work.
To breed, the queen will mate with drones and store their sperm to fertilise eggs at a later date. She lays eggs in cells within the hive.
Fertilised eggs become female workers; unfertilised eggs become male drones. Workers care for the newly born bees, while males are banished in winter.
Each year, a new queen is born, either taking the place of her mother or leaving to start her own colony.
Where do honey bees live?
Honey bees are found mostly in beehives, looked after by beekeepers. Wild honey bees live above ground in hives or cavities in woodlands, gardens, parks, and meadows.
Honey bees are most active during the warmest parts of the day, usually from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Spring and summer are the best times of year to spot honey bees when flowers are in bloom, and bees are actively foraging.
Threats to honey bees
Habitat loss remains the most significant threat to bees, as well as pesticides and climate change.
