Why do bees visit flowers?

Have you ever seen a bee in a garden on a sunny day? Listen closely. Bzzz, bzzz goes the bee. It zooms from one bright flower to the next.

It lands on a yellow flower, then a pink one, then a white one. Why do bees visit flowers? Let's follow one busy bee and find out.

Our bee is hungry, just like you get hungry before lunch. A bee cannot eat bread or apples. Its food is waiting inside the flowers.

Deep inside the flower hides a drop of sweet juice. This juice is called nectar, which means the sugary drink that a flower makes. Nectar is food for the bee.

The bee pokes in its long tongue and sips the nectar, like you sip juice through a straw. The sweet nectar gives the bee strength to fly. But the flower holds one more food for bees. What do you think it could be?

On the flower sits soft yellow dust. This dust is called pollen, which means the fine powder that a flower makes. Pollen is food that helps young bees grow strong.

The pollen sticks to the bee's fuzzy body. The bee brushes it into a neat ball on its legs. Now the bee can carry its pollen home.

One flower holds only a small sip of nectar and a little pollen. So the bee flies to the next flower, and the next, and the next. That is why you see bees hopping from bloom to bloom.

Soon the bee's legs are full of pollen and its tummy is full of nectar. The bee flies home to its hive. There it shares the food with the other bees and the baby bees.

Nectar. Pollen. Hungry bees visit flowers to gather their food, sweet nectar and yellow pollen.

Next time a bee buzzes by, you will know it is off to find its food. Sleep softly, little one.