Bees and Wasps
Wasps and bees both belong to the order "Hymenoptera" and have many features in common. We know that bees have been producing honey as they do today for at least 150 million years. Bees produce honey as food stores for the hive during the long months of winter when flowers aren't blooming and therefore little or no nectar is available to them. European honeybees produce such an abundance of honey, far more than the hive can eat, that humans can harvest the excess. For this reason, European honeybees can be found in beekeeper's hives around the world. Honeybees are social insects, with a marked division of labor between the various types of bees in the colony. A colony of honeybees includes a queen, drones and workers. The queen bee is the only sexually developed female in a colony. Drones are stout male bees that have no stingers.
bee eating
A poster of bees and wasps
English: Female Honey Bee Morphology for the artic...Drones do not collect food or pollen from flowers. Their sole purpose is to mate with the queen which is done only once in her approximately two year life span. If the colony is short on food, drones are often kicked out of the hive. Workers, the smallest bees in the colony, are sexually undeveloped females and the only bees with a stinger. A colony can have 50,000 to 60,000 workers. The life span of a worker bee varies according to the time of year. Her life expectancy is approximately 28 to 35 days. The wasp is not similar to the bee in several aspects. Wasps do not collect pollen, make honey, or store food like the bee. A wasp's nest is made out of paper that the wasp makes by chewing wood and forming in to a nest, while bees make a chambered nest out of wax. A wasp's...