Western honey bee "Apis mellifera" is thought to have originated in Europe, Asia, and Africa. Western honey bee The western honey bee or European honey bee ("Apis mellifera") is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bee worldwide. The genus name "Apis" is Latin for "bee", and "mellifera" is the Latin for "honey-bearing", referring to the species' production of honey. Like all honey bees, the western honey bee is eusocial, creating colonies with a single fertile female (or "queen"), many normally non-reproductive females or "workers," and small proportion of fertile males or "drones." Individual colonies can house tens of thousands of
Western honey bee from the western honey bee, along with the bee "Tetragonisca angustula", has specific antibacterial activity towards an infection causing bacteria, "Staphylococcus aureus". Honey will not rot or ferment when stored under normal conditions, however it will crystallize over time. Although crystallized honey is acceptable for human use, bees can only use liquid honey and will remove and discard crystallized honey from the hive. Bees produce honey by collecting nectar, a clear liquid consisting of nearly 80 percent water and complex sugars. The collecting bees store the nectar in a second stomach and return to the hive, where worker bees remove