Bones are an important component of vertebrates; they grow explosively in early life and maintain their strength throughout life. Bones also possess amazing capabilities to repair-the bone is like new without a scar after complete repair. In recent years, a substantial progress has been made in our understanding on mammalian bone stem cells. Mouse genetic models are powerful tools to understand the cell lineage, giving us better insights into stem cells that regulate bone growth, maintenance and repair. Recent findings about these stem cells raise new questions that require further investigations.