In Isaac Watts poem “How Doth the Little Busy Bee”, the first lines go as follows; “how doth the little busy bee improve each shining hour and gather honey all the day from every open flower."

It is self-evident that to get from the hive to the flower, they must fly. On arriving on a flower, she crawls from bloom to bloom, as well as using short flights between them while collecting nectar and or pollen. The familiar hum of bees busy at work is generated by wing movement operating at approximately one hundred and eighty beats per second.

The mid part of the honeybee body supports the wings and is known as the thorax. Wing movement is by muscular action on the thorax, indirectly operating them. There are two pairs; one being fore-wings and the second, the hind wings. The are linked together by hooks during flight.

On close examination of the wing structure, one can see that it consists of a clear plastic-like film endowed with hairs. Veins abound through the wings giving them structural support. The arrangement of these veins and their angles relative to other veins, alongside other measurements, are often used to determine the genetic relationship to, or within honeybee races in what is known as morphometric measurement.

Given, that the wings are attached to the thorax, their operation generates heat within the muscles. However, should the bee get caught away from the hive during a sudden temperature drop, she can become immobilised. An example of this is where bees leave the hive during bright sunshine on snow. Outside temperatures may be very low and she cools down, being unable to generate enough heat to get the flight muscles operational.

On foraging flights, the return journey to the hive generates substantial heat due to the load being carried. The honeybee can potentially carry more than half its own body weight. Bees carry nectar in their honey stomach and pollen on their hind legs. The load may be nectar, pollen or sometimes both. Watching honeybees coming in to land at the beehive, one can tell that they have a heavy load by the way they drop down or fail to land smoothly.

From time-to-time beekeepers see adult bees with partly shredded wings. This may happen due to the bee passing through some sharp or rough surface while entering and exiting the hive, or within the hive. A more serious wing problem arises from a viral infection during the larval stage of the bee, which results in deformed wings. This is caused by varroa mites biting into the larva. These bees are unable to fly resulting in loss of foraging bees and if infestation is severe, the demise of the colony.

Honeybees when sprayed with a water mist will close their wings. Closed wings means no bees flying up from the hive giving the beekeeper some level of comfort while working. Beekeepers use this phenomenon to control overzealous bees during hive manipulations.