Alan Graham, age 11, of Tucson, Arizona, for his question:

Why does a bee buzz?

Actually a bee does not mean to buzz as she goes about her business. That soft humming sound attracts attention and the little insect would just soon not be noticed. But it so happens that the buzz is caused by the beating of her gauzy little wings    and she cannot fly about her business without buzzing.

In many regions, May is the month when orchard fruit trees burst into blossom and more blossoms appear on the wild berry bushes by the waysides. Their fragrance is everywhere, and everywhere the warm spring air is filled with a holiday hum of insects on the wing. If you want to enjoy a real treat, stand quietly under a blossoming orchard tree.

Almost surely you will hear the soft humming of honeybees, coming to feast from who knows where. If you stand very still, you will be permitted to watch them buzzing about their business    though your eyes are not sharp enough to detect how they hum. Notice that the bees who arrived earliest have golden bumps on their legs. These are pollen baskets stuffed with grains of golden pollen.

Now watch them flit from flower to flower, turn and twist and hover here and there in the soft fragrant air. These aerial antics are performed on two tiny pairs of transparent wings attached to the bee's back. On each side, the front wing is slightly larger than the one behind it and the two cling together. There are tiny hooks along the edges so that the two wings on each side can cling and beat as one. When in flight, they beat too fast for the human eye to detect. The little bee can adjust them to fly forward or backward, up or down, sideways in any direction    or to hover in the same spot.

Though the gauzy little wings move too fast for observation, they manage to stir up a breezy little draft in the air. On a very small scale, this bitsy breeze hums like the whirling blades of an electric fan. This is the soft sweet hum created by a buzzing bee.

It may seem impossible, but as she goes about her duties, the average honeybee beats her busy little wings between 160 and 220 times a minute. To keep up with this, you would have to count through about three numbers each and every second. No wonder she whips up a buzzing breeze.

Most of the 10,000 or so different bees are slightly less than one inch long. But several big bumblebees measure longer than an inch. Their wings often beat up to 240 times a minute     which is why they buzz around with a louder hum. When on serious missions, most bees fly at about 12 miles per hour    which is a most fantastic speed for such small creatures.

The average honeybee starts her outdoor duties when she is about ten days old. Scout bees return to the hive with coded information about where the best blossoms are blooming    and the honeybee flies forth. Among the flowers she darts this way and that way, gathering supplies of pollen and sweet nectar. Then back she flies to the hive by the shortest route    which is a beeline, naturally.