68 The Honeybee

Honeybees are the only insects that make food eaten by man. The bee colony may have as many as 50,000 bees. All bees are alike. If you looked at one closely, you would see that it has three parts. The head, the thorax, and the abdomen. A bee has two pairs of wings. A bee has six legs. A bee has two antennae. A bee has a stinger. A bee has a short life span.

The queen bee lays eggs. One queen bee can lay eggs for the rest of her life. She may lay as many as 1,500 eggs in one day. A colony becomes quite large. It may weigh about 7.5 pounds. Bees make honey. Honey is food for bees and for man. It takes one honey crop to last the winter. A bee colony uses 60 pounds of honey. A colony, however, can gather 175 pounds of honey.

Bees are used for many things. They pollinate flowers. They help pollinate blossoms of fruit and even vegetables. Without bees, our lives did not blossom.

蜜蜂是唯一能製造人類食用食物的昆蟲。一個蜂群可能有多達 50,000 隻蜜蜂。所有蜜蜂看起來都很相似，如果仔細觀察，你會看到它有三個部分：頭部、胸部和腹部。蜜蜂有兩對翅膀、六條腿、兩根觸角，並且有一根螫針。蜜蜂的壽命很短。

蜂王負責產卵，一隻蜂王可以終生產卵，每天最多可產 1,500 顆卵。蜂群會變得非常龐大，重量可達約 7.5 磅。蜜蜂製造蜂蜜，蜂蜜是蜜蜂和人類的食物。蜜蜂需要一季的蜂蜜來度過冬天，一個蜂群會消耗 60 磅蜂蜜，但它們可以採集多達 175 磅蜂蜜。

蜜蜂有許多用途，它們為花授粉，幫助水果和蔬菜開花結果。沒有蜜蜂，我們的生活將不會繁榮。