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Honey Bees

By Lily, Meredith and Ms. Laine
Honeybees are small flying insects. Like all insects honeybees have segmented bodies, jointed legs and an external skeleton know as an exoskeleton. There are over 20,000 different species of bee. One of the most well-known species of bee is the European honeybee. These little guys are less than one inch long, are covered in small hairs and have distinctive black and yellow stripes.
 
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 Honeybees live in large groups called colonies.  Each bee plays an important role in helping keep the colony running smoothly. Most of the bees in a colony are worker bees. These little ladies do key tasks like taking care of baby bees, collecting food and protecting the hive from predators. Each colony has a few male bees known as drones. Their job is to fertilize eggs. Lastly, there is the queen bee. Each colony has one queen whose job is to lay eggs. All bees follow the orders of the queen, but if she doesn’t do her job the worker bees will replace her.
 
Honeybees are an important part of our ecosystem because they pollinate commercial crops and wild plants. Without bees we would be in a world of trouble! In recent years, honeybee populations have dropped. Studies suggest things like poor diet, disease, stress and climate change are causing partially responsible for colony loss. Scientists around the world are

conducting research on bees in order to figure out the best way to help them flourish. The little honeybee makes a big impact on the world around us, so let’s all do our part to help them thrive. Spread the word, Save the bees.

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