Bee Riddles: 31 Buzzing Riddles with Answers on Riddlepedia
Animals

Bee Riddles: 31 Buzzing Riddles with Answers

31 riddles · tap Hint or Answer to reveal

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Bees are tiny, but their lives are full of surprises: they dance to give directions, they have five eyes, and a single worker makes only a sprinkle of honey in her whole life. These 31 bee riddles are built on those real facts, with a few bee puns mixed in for good measure.

The riddles go from easy to tricky. The easy ones are great for young kids learning about insects; the tricky ones might teach a grown-up something new about the hive. Each riddle comes with a hint in case you get stuck.

Easy Bee Riddles for Kids

I wear yellow and black stripes, I fly from flower to flower all day, and I help make something sweet. What am I?

Hint
I buzz, and I might sting if you swat at me.
Answer
A honeybee

Bees make me from the nectar of flowers. I’m golden, sticky and sweet, and if I’m sealed up well I can last for thousands of years without going bad. What am I?

Hint
Bears are famous for loving me.
Answer
Honey

I’m home to tens of thousands of bees, all working together. Some of me are hollow trees; others are wooden boxes built by people. What am I?

Hint
It’s also the name of a tall, puffy hairstyle from the 1960s.
Answer
A beehive

I give bees sweet nectar and dusty pollen, and in return the bees help me make seeds. What am I?

Hint
I bloom in spring and summer.
Answer
A flower

I’m the sharp point at the back end of a bee. Only female bees have me. What am I?

Hint
Ouch!
Answer
A stinger

I’m the longest bee in the hive and the mother of nearly all the others. In summer, I can lay up to 2,000 eggs in a single day. What am I?

Hint
I don’t wear a crown, but I share my title with someone who does.
Answer
The queen bee

I wear a veil over my face and puff cool smoke at the hive to keep the bees calm, then I carefully take some honey. Who am I?

Hint
My job title has “keeper” in it.
Answer
A beekeeper

I’m made of wax and full of little six-sided rooms. Bees store honey in me and raise their babies in me. What am I?

Hint
My name sounds like something you’d use to fix your hair.
Answer
A honeycomb

I’m a bee that never flies, never stings and never makes honey, but I can make a whole classroom nervous. What am I?

Hint
C-A-N Y-O-U S-P-E-L-L I-T?
Answer
A spelling bee

What do you call a bee that can’t make up its mind?

Hint
Say “bee” together with another word that means “not sure”.
Answer
A maybe

Medium Bee Riddles

I’m big, round and fuzzy, and unlike a honeybee I can sting more than once. I can even shake pollen out of tomato flowers by buzzing on them. What am I?

Hint
My name sounds a little clumsy.
Answer
A bumblebee

Bees can’t talk. So how does a worker tell her sisters exactly how far away the best flowers are, and in which direction?

Hint
She uses moves, not words.
Answer
She does the waggle dance, wiggling in a figure-eight pattern inside the hive.

I’m fine yellow dust that sticks to a bee’s fuzzy body. Bees pack me into little baskets on their back legs and fly me home. What am I?

Hint
I make some people sneeze in the spring.
Answer
Pollen

I’m a male bee. I have no stinger, I don’t collect any food, and when autumn comes my sisters push me out of the hive. What am I?

Hint
I share my name with a flying gadget that takes photos from the sky.
Answer
A drone

All of us are female. We clean the hive, guard the door, build wax, feed the babies and fly out for food, and in summer we only live for about six weeks. What are we?

Hint
We’re named after how hard we work.
Answer
Worker bees

Every baby bee gets a taste of me, but only a future queen is fed me for her whole life. What am I?

Hint
Nurse bees make me in glands in their heads, and my name suits a queen.
Answer
Royal jelly

How many eyes does a honeybee have?

Hint
More than two.
Answer
Five. Two big compound eyes on the sides of its head, and three small simple eyes on top.

A bee carries pollen from one flower to another, and because of that the plant can make seeds and fruit. What is this called?

Hint
Apples, almonds and blueberries all depend on it.
Answer
Pollination

Thousands of bees leave their hive at once with the old queen, then hang in a buzzing ball on a branch while scouts search for a new home. What is this called?

Hint
It’s also a word for any huge, moving crowd.
Answer
A swarm

Bees make me from tiny flakes that come out of their bellies. People melt me down to make candles and lip balm. What am I?

Hint
The bees build their honeycomb out of me.
Answer
Beeswax

I’m the sound a bee makes, but I don’t come out of its mouth. I come from wings beating about 200 times a second. What am I?

Hint
In comics, I’m written with lots of Z’s.
Answer
A buzz

Tricky Bee Riddles for Grown-Ups

A worker bee makes about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in her whole life. How many worker bees does it take to make one teaspoon?

Hint
How many twelfths make a whole?
Answer
12 bees

In the 1920s, if someone called you “the bee’s knees”, were they insulting you or complimenting you?

Hint
The same slang gave us “the cat’s pajamas”.
Answer
Complimenting you. It meant you were excellent.

Bees can see a color that people can’t, but one color that people see easily looks dark to a bee. Name both colors.

Hint
One is “beyond violet”; the other is at the opposite end of the rainbow.
Answer
Bees can see ultraviolet, but red looks dark to them.

Why do bees build six-sided cells instead of round or square ones?

Hint
Think about tiling a floor with no gaps.
Answer
Hexagons fit together with no gaps and hold the most honey for the least wax.

Most of the world’s 20,000 kinds of bees never live in a hive, never make honey and never have a queen. How do they live?

Hint
They’re loners.
Answer
Alone. Most bees are solitary bees that nest by themselves in the ground, in hollow stems or in holes in wood.

In winter there are no flowers at all. How do honeybees stay alive and warm until spring?

Hint
Think of penguins in a blizzard.
Answer
They huddle together in a tight ball, shiver their flight muscles to make heat, and eat the honey they stored in summer.

What does a mother bee say when her kids won’t stop buzzing around the house?

Hint
It’s what any parent says. Just add a bee to the start.
Answer
“Bee-have!”

I’m a sticky glue that bees make from tree resin. They use me to seal cracks in the hive and keep germs out. What am I?

Hint
Beekeepers call me “bee glue”; my real name begins with “pro”.
Answer
Propolis

Why do bees hum?

Hint
Think about what you do when you’re singing along to a song you don’t know well.
Answer
Because they don’t know the words!

A queen bee lays one egg every minute, without a break, for a whole day. Does she reach 2,000 eggs?

Hint
How many minutes are in a day?
Answer
No. A day has only 1,440 minutes, so that’s 1,440 eggs. A queen at her peak lays faster than one a minute.

Make It a Game

  • Waggle-dance charades: instead of reading a riddle aloud, one player has to act out the answer without words, like a worker bee giving directions.
  • Honey pot points: give each team a jar and drop in a bead or button for every correct answer. The fullest “honey pot” at the end wins.
  • Science lesson warm-up: the medium and tricky riddles are all true facts, so use a few of them to start a lesson on insects, flowers or pollination.

Want more buzz? Try our riddles about bees, our insect riddles or our flower riddles.