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Bees that produce honey or honeybees are a subset of bees, largely known by the making and storage of honey and the creation of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Bees that produce honey are just a small part of the almost 20,000 known types of bees. Some additional types of related bees create and store honey, but only members of the group Apis are true honey bees.

Here are some bee facts.

Most types have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by humans indigenous to their local habitats. Only two of these kinds have been truly domesticated, one Apis mellifera at least since the time of the construction of the Egyptian pyramids, and just that type has been moved extensively beyond its native range.

Two kinds of honey bee, A. mellifera and A. cerana, are often maintained, fed, and moved by beekeepers. Current hives also enable beekeepers to move bees, moving from meadow to meadow as the crop needs pollinating and allowing the beekeeper to charge for the pollination services they offer, revising the historical function of the self-employed beekeeper, and favoring large-scale for profit operations. Recently, though, small scale beekeepers have been gaining in recognition.