Honey bee science

show/hide words to know

Hive: the place where honeybees store their food, find shelter, and house their young.

Virtual: a simulated (made up) environment based on the real world. Often computers are used to create virtual worlds.

Honey Bee Hive Virtual Tour

Illustration of VR googles looking at a virtual beehive.

With or without VR googles, this beehive is fun to visit.

What if you could shrink down to the size of a honey bee? What would life look like?

Hummmmmm is the sound that you hear all day long. It is only broken up by the close buzz, buzz, buzz, of some of your sisters flying by as they head in and out of your home. Life as a honey bee is one filled with important work. Everyone has a job to do. The queen bee lays eggs all day long. Worker bees build the waxy honeycomb cells, fly out to collect pollen and nectar from flowers to feed the youngsters and to make delicious honey.

With this virtual beehive, you get the chance to visit different hives that are part of ongoing research at the ASU Honey Bee laboratory.

How to explore the virtual beehive

How to icon

Once you enter the beehive there are some basic icons you want to look for while you explore. The most important one is the Location Icon. You can find them located throughout each virtual tour. They are used to move from location to location. On a computer, smart phone or tablet you can click or touch the icon to move to the new location. When using goggles, you place the pointer on top of the Target Icon to move to the new location.

Bottom Menu Icons

  • Circle around a plus sign.
    Zoom into the VR image.
  • Circle around a minus sign.
    Zoom out from the VR image.
  • Rotate arrow in a circle.
    Auto rotate the VR image.
  • Three squares inside a circle.
    Open and close the tour thumbnail images.
  • Rectangle inside a circle.
    Move between stereographic image options.
  • Rectangle at the bottom left of a larger dotted rectangle.
    Enter full screen.
  • Rectangle with smaller dotted rectangle in the lower left.
    Exit full screen.

Tour Icons

  • Lower case letter "i" in a circle.
    Information Icon - information about a point of interest in the biome.
  • Pin-drop image showing a map location. 
    Location Icon - takes you to a different location in the biome.
  • Graphhic image of mountains with magnifying glass. 
    Image Icon – opens close-up image of animal or plant.
  • Clock graphic with an arrow pointing in a clockwise direction.
    Time Travel Icon – Move forward in time in the same location.
  • Clock graphic with an arrow pointing in a counter clockwise direction.
    Time Travel Icon – Move backward in time in the same location.
  • Graphic image of rectangle with play button triangle.
    Video Icon – opens and plays videos.
  • Globe graphic with arrow pointing
    Leave Virtual Tour – Leave the tour and go to additional information.

Beehive VR 360

This virtual honey beehive was captured at the Arizona State University Bee Laboratory. Biologists focus their research on these important insects.

Honey bee hive 360 VR

As you explore this biome, take notes on what you see. Here are a few questions to get you started.

  • Why do beekeepers wear white?
  • What shape do bees use to make their honeycomb nests?
  • How do beekeepers calm bees?

Try out other virtual 360 tours:

Thank you to the ASU Bee Laboratory, Osman Kaftanoglu, and Cahit Ozturk for all their assistance in capturing the VR 360 views and videos of the honey bees.

View Citation

You may need to edit author's name to meet the style formats, which are in most cases "Last name, First name."

Bibliographic details:

  • Article: Be a Bee
  • Author(s): Christopher M. Jernigan
  • Publisher: Arizona State University School of Life Sciences Ask A Biologist
  • Site name: ASU - Ask A Biologist
  • Date published: June 13, 2017
  • Date accessed: March 24, 2024
  • Link: https://askabiologist.asu.edu/virtual-beehive

APA Style

Christopher M. Jernigan. (2017, June 13). Be a Bee. ASU - Ask A Biologist. Retrieved March 24, 2024 from https://askabiologist.asu.edu/virtual-beehive

American Psychological Association. For more info, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/10/

Chicago Manual of Style

Christopher M. Jernigan. "Be a Bee". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 13 June, 2017. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/virtual-beehive

MLA 2017 Style

Christopher M. Jernigan. "Be a Bee". ASU - Ask A Biologist. 13 Jun 2017. ASU - Ask A Biologist, Web. 24 Mar 2024. https://askabiologist.asu.edu/virtual-beehive

Modern Language Association, 7th Ed. For more info, see http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/08/
Honey bee face

What would it be like to be a bee? Image by Gilles San Martin via Wikimedia.

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