Bees

People have always been interested in bees. This interest may have begun with

the honey bees make. In fact, archeologists have found evidence that people have

been eating honey for many thousands years. In the more recent past, people were

interested in the way bees made honey. They admired the way bees seemed to work so

hard. Some languages even developed expressions about people working like bees. In

English, for example, we talk about a “busy bees”. Now scientists have a new reason

to be interested in bees. They have discovered that bees are able to communicate

with each other. Research has revealed some surprising facts about this, but there

are still many mysteries.


Communication is also possible among bees through their sense of smell. A

group of bees, called a colony, uses smell to protect itself from other bees. This

is possible because all the bees in a colony have a common smell. This smell acts

like a chemical signal. It warns the group of bees when a bee from a different

colony is near. This way, bees from outside can not enter and disturb a hive (the

bee colony’s home). If outsiders try to enter, the bees of that colony will smell

it and attack it.