What Makes a Bee Buzz?

If you've ever been walking by a bush with small flowers on it then all of the sudden hear that tell tale noise of buzzing by your head, you know what noise I'm talking about. But what causes that sound to be made? It's interesting to find that it's actually the beating of their wings that are making the noise. Also the faster or slower they flap their wings, the buzzing noise they make changes.

Some bee's, like bumble bee's make louder noises when they are getting pollen from flowers. They will flap their wings as well as vibrate the middle section on their tiny bodies, while at a flower. This flapping and vibrating will in turn make the pollen fall off the flower and deposit onto the bumble bee's body where it can then take it back to its hive. Some of the pollen on the bumble's body gets distributed onto other flowers as it's getting more pollen and thus it pollinates the flowers while getting food to bring home.

Honey bees do not gather pollen in the same way and so we don't hear them as loudly as we do a bumble bee. But we do hear them if we are close enough.

Swarming bees also make more noise because there are more of them. Anyone that's been around thousands of swarming bees will testify to the loudness of the bees. When bees are bothered at their hives, they set off a smell for the other bees so they know it's time to defend their hive, which in turn makes these bees send out that same smell, like a chain reaction soon enough you have hundreds off bees swarming trying to defend their hive. The more bees are flying around the louder the buzzing noise will be.

For bees of all kinds as well as hornets and wasps the buzzing is also a way for them to communicate with one another. They let each other know when there is danger around and the flapping and wiggling dances they do when they get back to the hive serves as a kind of map for the other bees to find pollen.

Honey bees do not hibernate in the winter; they are busy keeping the queen, eggs and other bees warm. They do this by clustering into a tight ball and either flapping their wings in synch with the other bees or by wriggling their bodies back and forth. They can keep the hive as warm as ninety degrees if they want to. Most honey bees won't sting you unless they feel threatened or they are defending their hive.