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Bees that produce honey or honeybees are a division of bees, primarily distinguished by the making and storage of honey and the building of perennial, colonial nests out of wax. Bees that produce honey are only a small portion of the almost 20,000 known class of bees. A number of additional species of related bees create and stockpile honey, but only members of the class Apis are true honey bees.

Here are some facts about bees.

Most types have historically been cultured or at least exploited for honey and beeswax by humans native to their native habitats. Just two of these types have been in fact domesticated, one Apis mellifera at least since the time of the building of the Egyptian pyramids, and only that kind has been moved widely away from its natural habitat.

Two kinds of honey bee, A. mellifera and A. cerana, are often maintained, fed, and transported by beekeepers. Current hives also allow beekeepers to transport bees, moving from pasture to pasture as the crop needs pollinating and allowing the beekeeper to charge for the pollination services they provide, revising the historical role of the self-employed beekeeper, and favoring large-scale commercial operations. Recently, though, small scale beekeepers have been gaining in popularity.