Bee Facts

• Honey bees must gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

• The average bee will make around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

• Female bees do all the work. Known as worker bees they live for about six weeks in the summer. Autumn born workers may live for six months.

• There are different roles for worker bees including as cleaner bees, brood care bees and guard bees. Only the most senior are allowed out to forage.

• Male bees (drones) spend their time eating honey until a new queen is ready to mate. Once a drone has mated with a queen, which happens in flight, it dies.

• A queen lives for up to five years and is the only bee that lays eggs. During the summer she may lay up to 2500 eggs per day.

• A mated queen will leave her hive when new queens are successfully and safely incubating in special queen cells. The worker bees will kill and replace a queen who is not laying sufficiently.

• Honey bees feed the queen exclusively with royal jelly, and assign court bees to care for her.

• A colony might contain 80,000 bees or more in summer.

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

• A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.

• Bees carry nectar in a special part of the gut, and pollen on leg hairs, referred to as ‘pollen sacks’.

• A honey bee will only sting if threatened. The consequence of stinging is that the bee dies. Drones have no stinger.

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

• Honey includes enzymes, vitamins and minerals, including pinocembrin – an antioxidant associated with improved brain functioning.

• World Bee Day is held every 20th May, the birth date of Slovenian beekeeper Anton Janša, born 1734. Anton is regarded as the pioneer of beekeeping; the Austrian Empress Maria Theresa appointed him to the post of permanent teacher of apiculture at the new School of Beekeeping in Vienna. Whilst he died in 1773, after 1775, all state beekeeping teachers had to teach the subject in accordance with Anton’s teachings and methods.