Honeybee Trivia and Fun Facts

Here is a collection of Honeybee trivia and honeybee facts:

• About 3,500 honeybees fly 55,000 miles to make 1 pound of honey. It takes 10 pounds of nectar to make a pound of honey.

• Bees must go to two million flowers, at 50-100 flowers per flight, to gather l pound of honey.

• Different types of flowers result in subtle, yet discernible changes in the taste of the honey.

• During its life (approximately 40 days), a honeybee will gather about 1/12 teaspoon of honey.

• Honeybees fly around 15 mph.

• The bee’s brain is oval in shape and only about the size of a sesame seed.

• Honey bees communicate with one another by dancing.

• Bees stroke their wings an exhausting 11,400 per minute.

• Honey bees comprise about 80% of all pollinators.

• Bees can see the same colors we see except red. They can also see ultraviolet.

• Honey Bees pollinate the fruits and vegetables we eat. In the U.S., this represents an agricultural value of $15 billion/year.

• There is only 1 queen per colony. Any additional queens fight it out to the death. She lives for 1-4 years.

• The sole responsibility of drones (males) is to mate with the queen.

• A queen mates with nearly 20 drones and only mates once in her lifetime. The mating is done in the air. The queen stores the sperm from the drones and uses it over her egg-bearing lifetime.

• Upon separation, from the queen during mating, the male’s stomach is torn out, and it dies.

• The queen honey bee lays between 1,000 and 3,000 eggs per day.

• Beeswax melts at 148 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Worker bees are all females.

• A healthy bee hive has 40,000 – 60,000 bees.

• Honey bees are the only insect that produces food eaten by humans.

• Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and water.

• Bees do not hibernate. They huddle together in winter, to share body heat.