This photo shows pupae developing into adult bees. When 10 days old, bees secrete wax, which they then use to build honeycomb in perfect hexagons. Why the hexagon? It provides the most amount of space using the least amount of wax.
Photograph by Anand Varma, Nat Geo Image Collection
A man in Bangladesh uses smoke to subdue wild honeybees and a bush knife to cut the comb from a tree. During this harvest season, honey hunters will make about a third of their yearly income.
Photograph by Tim Laman, Nat Geo Image Collection
As bees visit flowers to collect food, pollen from one flower sticks to the hairs on the bee’s body and gets left behind at the next flower. This helps the plants reproduce.
Photograph by Anand Varma, Nat Geo Image Collection
Each has one queen. After she hatches, she goes on her mating flight and stores up to six million sperm in her abdomen. She will then lay 2,000 eggs a day, controlling whether the egg will turn into a female or male.
Photograph by Anand Varma, Nat Geo Image Collection
Commercial beekeepers, like Bret Adee in this photo, truck their thousands of hives all over the U.S. to pollinate different commercial crops. Honeybees are responsible for bringing $15 billion to the U.S. economy.
Photograph by Anand Varma, Nat Geo Image Collection
A bee collects pollen in stiff hairs on her legs, known as pollen baskets. This will be used as food for developing. The nectar, which she sucks up through her proboscis, is stored back in the hive, where it evaporates into honey.
Photograph by Scott Leslie, Minden Pictures/National Geographic
Some beekeepers wear a full suit with gloves, others only a veil, and others no protective clothing at all. After a few stings, the body builds a tolerance so the reaction becomes next-to-nothing.
Photograph by Amy Toensing, Nat Geo Image Collection
Just like every other living thing, honeybees need water to survive. During the summer, a hive needs at least litre of water per day.
Photograph by Karine Aigner, Nat Geo Image Collection
A member of the Hadza community, the world’s last full-time hunter-gatherers, takes a bite out of fresh honeycomb. In addition to being a source of energy and sweetness, some people swear by honey for skin care and hay fever relief.
Photograph by Matthieu Paley, Nat Geo Image Collection
<p>In Panama, Africanized honeybees swarm toward an Ochroma flower just after sunset. <a href="http://video.nationalgeographic.com/video/killer_bee">Africanized bees</a>, while more aggressive than other breeds, are also more resilient to diseases and tend to produce more honey.</p>
Photograph by Christian Ziegler, Nat Geo Image Collection