26 Interesting Honey Bee Facts

Honey bees are insects which are very helpful to humans. They provide us with honey. Honey is very useful for health and for making medicines. Honey bees are said to have originated in south and southeast Asia.

Interesting Honey Bee Facts

26 Interesting Honey Bee Facts

1. The best known honey bee is the Western honey bee or European honey bee which has been domesticated for honey production and crop pollination.

2. A colony of bees consists of 20,000 to 60,000 honey bees & one queen bee.

3. Each honey bee colony has a unique odor for member's identification.

4. There are three types of bees in the hive - Queen, Worker and Drone.

5. The Queen bee can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays egg. It can lay about 1,500 to 2,000 eggs per day.

6. Drones, the only male honey bees, die immediately after mating. Their only purpose is to provide sperm to the queen.

7. Worker bees have a normal lifespan of 45 days.

8. A queen honey bee does not die if she stings you.

9. The honey bee is the only insect that produces a food eaten by man.

10. Honey bees can get sexually transmitted diseases.

11. The average bee will make only 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

12. Honey bees cannot talk to each other so they communicate through dances, vibration and body chemical signals.

13. Honey bees cannot see the color red.

14. Honey produced by honey bees never spoils. No need to refrigerate it. It can be left unopened, indefinitely, at the room temperature.

15. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip. She may visit 2,000 flowers per day.

16. Honey bees are responsible for the survival of humans. One third of the food we eat is due to the pollination done by them.

17. Honey bees can fly at speeds up to 15 miles per hour.

18. The bees buzz is the sound made by their wings which beat 11,400 times per minute.

19. The honey bee has been around for millions of years.

20. The worker bees produce honeycomb which comprises hexagonal shaped cells through the consumption of honey produced from the collected flower nectar.

21. Honey bees have 5 eyes.

22. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting.

23. The study of bees, which includes the study of honey bees, is known as melittology.

24. Bee keeping dates back to at least 4,500 years.

25. Honey was so much important in ancient Egypt that people paid their taxes with honey.

26. Unlike humans, bees have 2 stomach. One is for eating and the other is for storing nectar.

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