Did you know?
- Bees fly 24,000 miles collectively and visit between three and nine million flowers to make just one pound of honey. Some of the flowers include dandelion, raspberry, blackberry, coneflower, bluebells, wallflower, poppy, white clovers, goldenrod, and heather. If someone has allergies to these flowers, it is believed there is a beneficial anti-allergy effect by taking raw honey which contains trace amounts of their pollen. It is preferable to purchase honey from a local beekeeper near to your home, to ensure it contains the pollen you may be allergic to.
- According to fossil records, bees first appeared on earth about 150 million years ago, whereas us humans have probably only been around for 200,000. Bees are far more evolved than we are.
- Bees can live without us but we cannot live without them. Plans are being developed for us to move to another planet and when we do, the honeybee will be coming with us.
- There are more than 2000 species of bee in the world, but only four of them produce honey.
- Bees cruise at about 15 mph but can fly at speeds of up to 20 mph.
- Bees never sleep.
- When flying, a bee will beat its wings about 180 times per minute.
- The chemical that makes a bee sting itch is called mellitin.
- A bee can see 300 frames per second.
- Honey bees have hair on their eyes
- A full pollen load weighs about 1/6th of the weight of a bee
- A full load of nectar weighs about ½ the weight of a bee
- The oldest known record of humans interest in honeybees is a drawing on a cave wall in eastern Spain, which is dated to approximately 8,000-11,000 years old. It depicts a man climbing a ladder to collect honey from a nest. Similar drawings have also been found in caves in Zimbabwe and South Africa
- Ancient records show that beekeeping originated about 6,000 years ago in both China and Egypt
- The pollen baskets on a honey bee are situated on their legs and are called ‘corbicula’.
- Nectar is carried in the crop/honey stomach.
- The average worker bee will fly approximately 500 miles before it wears out and dies.
- A queen bee has to eat 80 times her own weight to produce 2,000 eggs per day.
- A bee will visit 50-100 flowers during one trip.
- Honey can range in colour from white to gold to dark brown and it usually has a stronger taste when it’s colour is darker.
- A bee must tap 2 million flowers to make 1lb of honey and would have to fly 55,000 miles to get it.
- One bee will make 0.8g (1/10 of a teaspoon) of honey during her lifetime.
- Mead is made from fermented honey.
- Drambuie is a Scottish liquer which is made from honey.