Buzzwords for National Honey Bee Day

In April, Bryant Park added three million Italian honeybees to its apiary to sell to beekeepers and anyone looking to own a beehive. New York Times

“Honeybees have a better sense of smell than other insects,” said Priscilla, “but a worse sense of taste.” Bone Gap

Honey bees communicate with chemicals called pheromones, which they sense through their antennae. Science

Although honeybees are great pollinators, introducing them in large numbers to heavily populated areas often raises eyebrows because of a less desirable part of their reputation—their sting. Fox News

The farmers loved her bees, thanks to all the pollinating they did, how they made the watermelons redder and the cucumbers bigger. The Secret Life of Bees

One after another, they swarm through the door like bees in a hive, zipping left and right, knocking into freshly lit chandelier-lanterns, staining the marble with their dark sparks. The Belles

Bees droned around us, eager to get the last of the nectar before winter set in. The Old Willis Place

It seemed as though the coming of the soldiers had been like the coming of a swarm of wild bees that leave behind them stings wherever they can. The Good Earth

The honeybee hordes, while not actually undead, are the unwilling hosts to a parasite infection that researchers think drives the drones to act erratically, or “zombielike,” in the moments before they die. New York Times

The insects buzzed, whined, hummed, stridulated and droned as the air grew warmer in the sunset. Watership Down: A Novel

"Managed bee colonies are constantly in need of being replenished due to losses. This relieves the stress for beekeepers to meet the ever-increasing demand for pollination," he added. Salon

The caffeinated bees showed a clear preference for the faux strawberry flowers, with 70.4 of them visiting the target blossoms right away. Scientific American

American foulbrood disease is one of the worst diagnoses a beekeeper’s brood can get. Science

These bouquets were arranged in concentric circles, with lesser blooms surrounding a central queenly rose. New York Times

Bees hover around ripe Concord Grapes, attracted by the fragrant aroma. US News

They were wasplike, thorax and abdomen joined in narrow waists, wings like blades, and stingers longer than a child’s arm. Strange the Dreamer

You had to make sure they were new combs with no brood eggs in them, since nobody wanted to have baby bee larvae in their honey. The Secret Life of Bees

Moreover, their disappearance would compromise many key ecosystem services, such as pollination or the control of pests or disease-causing agents. Nature

Days later she revealed she got a bumblebee tattoo—an homage to Manchester’s industrious worker bee motif. Fox News

And while honey bee-centric businesses often support initiatives that benefit native bees, such as developing bee-friendly habitat, the financial contributions pale in comparison to what could be achieved if funds were applied to these initiatives directly. Scientific American

“Beekeeping is for people; it's not a conservation practice,” says Sheila Colla, an assistant professor and conservation biologist at Toronto’s York University, Canada. “People mistakenly think keeping honey bees, or helping honey bees, is somehow helping the native bees, which are at risk of extinction." Scientific American

A lot of variation helps a species be more resilient to stressors such as climate change or habitat loss. Science