Why Do Bees Buzz?

Author: Nabanita Deshmukh

Illustrator: Zainab Tambawalla

Bzzz…Hey, what’s all that buzz about?

Is it a code word used by bees to call their friends? Or a hum of excitement when honey is spotted?

Bees, particularly bumble bees, make a loud buzzing sound as they fly. The sound is made when the wings beat up and down. The smaller the wings, the faster the bees have to beat them in order to fly. And the quicker they beat, the louder the buzz.

Bees also buzz to do something very useful; they carry pollen from one flower to the other like a postman delivering letters.

Pollen is the powdery grain on flowers. Pollen helps plants to make seeds. Bees are excellent pollinators. Thanks to them, many new plants grow and sprout all around.

How do those tiny grains of pollen stick to the bees' feet?

When bees sit on a flower to suck honey, the grains of pollen stick to their feet and bodies.

Then when the same bees buzz near a flower and perform a lively dance, the quivering shakes the pollen off on other flowers. The bees then fly to other flowers where they leave the pollen behind to pick up new ones and this process continues.

Bees are the buzzing godfathers of many new plants that grow away from the parent-tree.

Can you hear your own breath? Usually not. But you can hear a bee breathing.That is because the buzz is also the sound of the bee breathing. It has a small, segmented body so when it breathes, the air gets on a roller coaster ride through all those bumpy parts inside and creates a buzz.

Sounds pretty exciting, doesn’t it? Aren’t those busy bees truly amazing?

DID YOU KNOW?

1. Bees are hard workers. In winter, they can live up to nine months and in summer only up to two months. All work and no play does not make them dull.

2. A curious case of the bees is that when they do the work of a younger bee, their brain stops ageing. It starts working like a younger bees’ brain. Do you now wish you were a bee?

3. Bees recognize faces just like human beings do. Each part of the face is first taken separately, then put together to make up the face. Remember not to anger a bee!

4. Caffeine, a chemical used by plants to keep away harmful insects, helps bees remember the location of the flower. It welcomes the bees for a second visit.

5. Bumble bees are larger than honey bees and other types of bees. They live in hives and love to socialise. Many bumble bees do not have a sting. They may not produce much honey but are excellent pollinators.

Be a bee!

1. A honey bee performs a dance that tells the rest of the hive where to find nectar. Now try to express some information through dance moves, and see if your friends are able to understand what you are communicating!

2. Try buzzing like a bee... flap your arms and see if you can hear a buzz.

3. A honeycomb, the house of the bees, is known to be a masterpiece of engineering. Why do you think? Try and draw perfect hexagons as in a honeycomb. Or make models using ordinary cartons. Maybe you’ll guess the answer then!

4. Try to carefully smell different flowers. You could then imagine how honey made from the nectar of different flowers can also taste different.

This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link .

Story Attribution:

This story: Why Do Bees Buzz? is written by Nabanita Deshmukh . © Storyweaver, Pratham Books , 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license.

Other Credits:

This book has been published on StoryWeaver by Pratham Books.The development of this book has been supported by Oracle Giving Initiative. www.prathambooks.org

Illustration Attributions:

Cover page: Girl and boy watching a group of bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 2: Girl and boy in a forest filled with bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 3: Girl watching bees, boy running away from bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 4: Girl observing bees on flowers, boy looking through a magnifying glass , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 5: Girl reading a book on a tree, boy crouching , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 6: Bees on flowers , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 7: Boy and girl gazing at buzzing bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 8: Girl and boy running through the hills, bees all around , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 10: Meditating girl, boy blowing a toy trumpet and buzzing bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 11: Buzzing bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Storyweaver, Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 12: Beehives, flying bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Storyweaver, Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions

Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The development of this book has been supported by Oracle Giving Initiative.

This book was made possible by Pratham Books' StoryWeaver platform. Content under Creative Commons licenses can be downloaded, translated and can even be used to create new stories provided you give appropriate credit, and indicate if changes were made. To know more about this, and the full terms of use and attribution, please visit the following link .

Illustration Attributions:

Page 13: Girl and boy playing with bees , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Page 14: Boy drawing, girl smelling flowers , by Zainab Tambawalla © Pratham Books, 2015. Some rights reserved. Released under CC BY 4.0 license. Disclaimer: https://www.storyweaver.org.in/terms_and_conditions

Some rights reserved. This book is CC-BY-4.0 licensed. You can copy, modify, distribute and perform the work, even for commercial purposes, all without asking permission. For full terms of use and attribution, http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

The development of this book has been supported by Oracle Giving Initiative.

Why Do Bees Buzz? (English)

Why can't bees work quietly? They buzz because there are some very good reasons to do so. Learn about the humble bees in this book.

This is a Level 3 book for children who are ready to read on their own.

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