bees

Bee / is an insect belonging to the order of Hymenoptera, and its function is to produce honey, beeswax and pollination. About 20,000 species are known, and it spreads in all continents of the world except Antarctica. Although the most known species of bees live in large cooperative societies, the largest proportion of them are solitary and have different behaviors

Bees get their energy from the nectar they collect, while they get their protein and other nutrients from pollen. Most of the pollen collected by the bees is directed to feeding the larvae. Bees are a natural pollinator of great environmental and commercial importance. As the decline in wild bee numbers in some areas leads to an increase in the use of pollination by commercially managed beehives

Bees are winged insects, and all types have two pairs of wings, the hind wings are smaller than the front, and a few species or layers have relatively short wings, which are not useful for flight. The bees feed on the nectar and pollen they collect from the flowers, and the pollen is used mainly as food for the larvae

Workers collect nectar with their intricate suction proboscis, which enables them to reach the interior of the flower, while carrying pollen grains in special baskets on their hind legs. Like other insects, the body of bees is divided into three parts (head, thorax, and abdomen), the bee has 5 eyes, and almost all types of bees have antennae divided into 13 parts in males, and 12 parts in females, while the needle is present in females only, and is used mainly as a defensive means. The sizes of bee species range from 2 mm to approximately 39 mm

Man has practiced beekeeping activity for thousands of years, with the aim of obtaining its useful honey, starting from ancient Egypt and ancient Greece, and up to the present time. In this context, there are several types of bee honey according to the nature of the region and the flowers that bees feed on their nectar, similar to Sidr and Kashmiri honey

Bee stings and products are included in the list of therapeutic substances commonly used in alternative medicine. Apart from honey, bees can also get beeswax, royal jelly and propolis. Bees are also part of the myths and folklore of humans throughout all stages of the development of art and literature, from antiquity to the present day, though primarily centered in the Northern Hemisphere, where beekeeping is more common