Honey Bees - Amazing Facts

Did You Know?

A honey bee uses her tongue to gather nectar from a flower to take back to the hive.
To make a pound of honey, a colony of bees collects nectar from over a million flowers.
All worker bees in a hive are female.
A honey bee has two pairs of wings that beat 250 times a second.
Honey bees communicate with one another by "dancing" (see the video below).
Bees only sting in defence of the hive. Once a bee uses her stinger she will die.
A honey bee has two stomachs: the honey sac, where she stores nectar that will be made into honey, and the midgut, where she digests her food.
Pollen baskets on the outside of the back leg are used to collect pollen that is taken back to the hive and stored for food.
Honey bees have two sets of eyes. A set of three simple eyes detect light and dark, and a pair of complex eyes with over three thousand lenses that can detect ultraviolet light.
A bee, when too cold to fly can rev up its internal wing muscles to increase its body temperature by 20 degrees centigrade or more (see the video below).
The honey bee has been around for 30 million years.
A honey bee switches from "flight" to "hover" mode before it lands. (View this great video)
Honey bees are environmentally friendly and are vital as pollinators.
The scientific name for the honey bee is "Apis mellifera."
The honey bee's wings stroke 15,000 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.
A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.
The average honey bee will actually make only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee's flight around the world.
A honey bee commonly visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
A colony of bees consists of one queen bee and 20,000-60,000 honey bees.
All worker honey bees are female and live 6 to 8 weeks.
The queen bee lives for about 2-3 years and is the only bee that lays eggs.
During summer the queen bee lays up to 2500 eggs per day.
A male honey bee is called a drone.
Drones do no work at all, have no stinger and all they do is mate.
Each honey bee colony has a unique odour so that it's members can identify their own colony.
Only worker bees sting.
The queen bee has a stinger, but does not leave the hive to help defend it.
During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months
Fun video listing 10 Amazing Facts about Bees. View it here.

Watch the Incredible Dancing Bees!

You won't believe it unless you see it! Bees actually do an intricate dance to communicate to others in the colony where to find their food source. Watch this video and bee amazed!

See How a Bee Increases its Body Heat

Sir David Attenborough uses a thermal imaging camera to demonstrate the ingenious way a queen bumble bee heats up in the cold morning air to beat the insect traffic.

Great Photos of Bees

These amazing photos of bees truly show us their great beauty and really makes you appreciate how special the honey bee is to all of us.

An amazing front on close up of a honey bee - View image
A bee on a honeycomb - View image
Striking sunflower - View image
Bee in the centre of a purple flower - View image
Coming in for a landing - View image
Covered in pollen - View image

A unique hive-eye-view of bees at work in the English countryside - View images

Types of Bees

There are about 25,000 known species of bees worldwide.This informative website explains in more details the 9 families that all bees fall within. Go here to read more.