Ask Tappity: Science Questions for Kids > How Do Bees Find Food?
How Do Bees Find Food?
Bees get nectar from flowers, but how do they find the flowers? And how do they know which ones have nectar in them? Watch this video to find out, or read our explanation below!
Scout Bees Search for Food
Bees eat the sugary nectar that flowers produce to attract them. To find these flowers, beehives send out scouts to locate the flowers with their eyes and senses of smell.
Bees Use Electricity to Find Food
Bees also use a super cool sense to find flowers with nectar - detecting electricity! Nectar has a small electric charge, and bees can use that to sense which flowers have the most nectar. When they flap their wings, they build up a charge on their own bodies, and when they get close to a flower with lots of nectar, their hairs pull towards the flower. It's a lot like when you rub a balloon on your head and your hairs pull towards it.
Bees Dance To Tell Other Bees Where Food Is
When the scout bees get back to the hive, they need to tell the other bees where the food is. They do this by doing a special “dance”: they fly in a figure 8 over and over. The direction and duration of the dance tells the other bees the direction the flowers are in, and how far away they are. And the faster it flies, the more food there is!
Bee Facts for Kids
Got bee questions? We’ve got bee answers!
-
No, only a queen. The queen bee doesn’t actually rule the hive. All bees in a hive have specific tasks, and there’s different amounts of bees that do each task, but only one queen. The queen is the only bee who gives birth to new bees.
-
Bees have one heart.
-
Yes, bees sleep at night.
-
Bees make honey from nectar. Nectar is a sugary liquid, and bees have a special stomach with digestive fluids that break down the sugars in it. They transfer the nectar from one bee to another, and each bee digests it a little more. Finally, they fan the nectar with their wings to evaporate the water until it’s thick honey.
-
Bees make honey to eat in the winter, when flowers aren’t blooming.
More Answers to Animal Questions from Kids
Why do dogs and cats have whiskers? Why are sharks such good hunters? The Tappity Zoology Library has interactive lessons with answers to those questions and more!
Want Even More Science for Kids?
Dive into Tappity, the world’s largest interactive K-5 science library. Find everything from penguins to planets and even protozoa! So whether you’re an early engineer, a budding biologist, or an aspiring astronaut, you'll be sure to discover something new just for you.
Explore Our Science Lessons
