Honey bee-that's a common name for any one of several species of highly social bees that are known for their honey-hoarding behavior and their use as a domestic species. The European honey bee is very important to modern agriculture and mother nature. It provides pollination for many crops and wild plants. Although this bee is not a native of North America rather of Asia and the Middle East, early European colonists introduced it into North America. 

By the middle of the 1800s, the honey bees had spread from near to far. Today they are naturalized all over the world, except in the polar regions or those areas that are very cold all years Honey bees can easily be raised in many climates and have a complex social life. They are one of the most studied and best known of the insects.

The European honey bee is not the only recognized species to produce large quantities of honey. There are 6 other species of honey bees. These include the Indian honey bee, Koschevnikov's honey - bee, the dwarf honey bee, the andreniform dwarf honey bee, the giant honey bee, and the mountain giant honey bee. The European, the Indian, and the dwarf bees are the species that have been domesticated. The European honey bee is the most widespread of the domesticated bees and the only one kept in North America. Of the many species of European honey bees, the most popular ones are the Italian, Cariolan,. and Caucasian. In most hives you will find a mixture of these and possibly other races, too. Africanized honey bees, known as killer bees, are a hybrid of African and European races that have - naturalized in the western hemisphere.

A  honey bee colony is made up of a system of castes where the queen is the only sexually mature female.- 'There are a few hundred drones, which are sexually mature males, and the hundreds of workers, which are sexually inactive genetic females. The females stick together-the queen depends on the workers for food and the workers depend on the queen for reproduction and maintaining the colony. The quality of food that a bee eats as a larvae determines which caste, if will fall into when: it becomes an adult. When a worker bee finds a good food source, it flies back to the hive and relays the message by doing an intricate dance that tells the other bees which direction to fly and how far the food source is.

Nectar from lots of different types of flowers serve as the source of energy for the bees. The pollen of the flowers is used as a source of protein: The larvae are fed bee milk, a derivative of a gland of young worker bees.

The colony of bees live in a hive made up of wax..  The hive is divided into small hexagonal compartments, in which food is stored and eggs are laid. The wax hive is constructed by the bees and often hangs from a branch of a tree. Most often you see groups of boxes that contain the hives of different groups.

Ever wonder about how- the bees reproduce? A drone bee finds a virgin queen by the odor of her mandibulas gland secretions. The queen mates until her spermatheca is full, which could be up to 10 times. The spermatheca holds the sperm until the queen needs it to fertilize her eggs. The supply of sperm allows the queen to lay female producing (diploid) eggs for a period of years. Any unfertilized eggs that are laid become male bees.

Honey bees are extremely important to farmers and in maintaining natural vegetation. This is because, as, you all probably know, while they-are gathering pollen and nectar, they transfer pollen between flowers, which helps fertilize the plants. Humans use some of their products, like honey, bee's wax, and sometimes royal jelly. That is the food given to the queen when she is still in the larval stage. Even bee venom is sometimes used; there is evidence that it can help cure or at least alleviate certain forms of arthritis.

In the United States, some populations of honey bees have been depleted by the destruction of habitat through cultivation and by poisoning by insecticides. Some populations are also occasionally threatened by parasitic mites. Even though there are obstacles to survival, the honey bee species are still very strong. They owe much of their success to farmers who help perpetuate the populations by setting up protecting hives.