Bees Only
A free game where bees and butterflies cross the sky for forty seconds and your child taps only the bees. Tapping a butterfly costs nothing. Missing a bee costs nothing either.
- Free
- No ads
- No account
- No download
- Works offline
- Single player
How do you play?
- Pick a level - Easy, medium or hard. The difference is how many butterflies fly.
- Wait for a bee - Creatures cross the screen in both directions along fixed lanes.
- Tap bees only - One tap each. The pretty one is never the target.
- Finish the round - After forty seconds you see the count, and another round is one tap away.
About this game
A sky with two kinds of creature in it. Tap the bees. Let the butterflies go.
The levels here run backwards from what you would expect. Harder means fewer bees, not faster ones. This game does not measure speed, it measures the ability to stop and check, and when nearly everything in the sky is a bee a child settles into a tap-everything rhythm within seconds and stops looking. That is the exact habit the game exists to interrupt. So the mix falls from 65% bees on easy to 50% on hard, and the butterfly stops being a rare nuisance and becomes half the sky.
The number the code asks for is not the number a child sees, which surprised us too. A rule forbids more than three identical creatures in a row, and every time it fires it pulls the mix back toward even. Over 1,500 rounds per level, a requested 65% comes out at 59%, and 60% comes out at 56%. On hard the two numbers meet exactly at 50%, because a mix that is already even has nowhere to be pulled.
A round is forty seconds. That is enough. On easy 28 creatures cross the sky and roughly 17 are bees. On hard 57 cross and roughly 29 are bees, so the harder level actually offers more bees to catch. You just have to pick them out.
There is nothing to lose here. No score that drops, no lives, no error sound, and the only counter in the game is how many bees were caught. The round always ends in a completion. Even if your child touched none of them.
What does it teach?
Stopping before acting
The whole game is an exercise in holding your hand back, and that trains like anything else.
Telling two similar things apart
Bees and butterflies fly the same way. The difference is in the detail.
Sustained attention
Forty seconds of continuous focus is a lot at four, and it stretches.
Letting one go
A bee that flies past untouched does nothing at all. Children learn here that not every opportunity has to be taken.
Tips
Watch the wings
Wing shape separates them faster than colour does, and stays clearer while the creature is moving.
Do not tap on reflex
Most missed bees come from tapping a butterfly too fast. A fraction of a second of checking earns back more than it costs.
Catch them mid-screen
A creature in the middle stays reachable longest. Waiting for the edge throws away a second.
Try hard anyway
Fewer bees sounds frustrating and is actually calmer, because there is thinking time between them.
What age is it for?
3 to 4
Easy. Plenty of bees, so almost every tap works, and that is enough.
5 to 6
Medium. This is where checking before tapping actually starts.
7 and up
Hard, where half the sky is off limits.
Parents
Nothing can be lost, so this one suits the moments when you cannot sit alongside.
Accessibility
One tap, no dragging and no holding. Creatures are large and fly along fixed lanes rather than jumping unpredictably, so an eye still learning to track can follow them. Bees and butterflies differ in wing shape rather than only colour, so colour blindness does not interfere. The clock pauses when the device is put down, which means a break mid-round costs nothing. Nothing flashes and the game plays fully in silence.
Playing together
One calls, one taps
The caller says bee or butterfly out loud before the hand moves. You hear straight away whether there is a distinction.
A round with no touching
Forty seconds of just watching and counting bees. Focus practice without fingers.
Find the butterfly
Invert the game and call the butterflies instead. Same distinction, other side.
Call it early
Guess what the next creature will be before it enters the screen. Nobody is right very often.
Common questions
Is the game free?
Completely. Nothing to pay and no purchases inside the game. Every game on the site is open from the first second.
Do I need to download or sign up?
No to both. It runs in the browser with no download and no account, and we do not ask for an email.
What happens if my child taps a butterfly?
Nothing. It keeps flying, no score drops, and there is no error sound. The only counter in the game counts bees caught.
Why does the hard level have fewer bees?
Because the skill here is discrimination rather than speed. When almost everything is a bee a child settles into tapping everything and stops looking, which is the habit this game tries to interrupt.
Are there ads?
None. No banners and no video between levels.
Does it work offline?
Yes. After one visit the game is stored on the device and runs on a plane.
How long is a round?
Forty seconds. The clock stops when the device is put down, so an interruption does not eat into the round.
How many bees can be caught in one round?
Depends on the level. Easy sends 28 creatures past with roughly 17 bees among them, and hard sends 57 with roughly 29 bees.
What age is this for?
From about three on easy. There is no reading anywhere in the game and the only requirement is telling two creatures apart.
Does it collect data about my child?
No. There is no signup and no name. No session recording and no behavioural advertising. We count how many times a game was opened, with nothing attached that identifies who opened it.