Interesting Facts About Bees And Honey

A swarm of bees on beehive
Bees are a source of Honey 


 Facts About Bees And Honey

There are around 20,000 different species of bees worldwide. Honey bees reside in colonies that include the queen bee, the worker bee, and the drone. All drones are males, while both the worker bee and queen bee are female. Honey bees are fascinating creatures, and the benefits of raw honey are amazing, from antibacterial, antioxidants to anti-inflammation. Here are some interesting facts about bees, the actual honey producers.

Interesting Origin Facts

  • Honey bees are eusocial and native to Eurasia. They are members of the bee clade and the genus Apis.
  • Bees are very common in the United States and are an essential source of raw, local honey for the food industry.
  • Bees have lived on Earth for billions of years, and it is believed that the species of honey bees were first domesticated around a hundred and thirty million years ago.
  • The oldest cave drawings in Europe reveal that humans were harvesting wild honey, and the oldest fossilized honeycomb dates back to three million years ago.

Facts On The Bee's Physical Characteristics

Honey bee
The honey bee has five eyes


Brain: 

  • The bee brain is the smallest of any animal in the world. These natural honey producers have a million neurons in their brains.
  • They are also incredibly smart, and they learn fast. Bees can understand concepts like different shapes of objects.
  • They can fly up to fifteen miles per hour, flapping their wings at about two hundred and thirty beats per second.

Stinger:

  • Only the female honey bees have stingers. The male bees do not have a stinger, but they have hairs that trap pollen and transfer it from flower to flower. Their ability to perform this feat makes them an essential part of agriculture.
  • The honey bee is the only type of bee that dies after using its stinger.

Sense of smell:

  • While most people who use local honey know about bees' pheromones, it is also interesting to note that honey bees have a unique sense of smell. Bees have around a hundred and seventy odorant receptors that give them a fantastic sense of smell.
  • Their ability to smell is fifty times stronger than a dog's, so honey bees can distinguish hundreds of different scents.

Communication:

  • Their olfactory abilities are also crucial for social communication. They use their long straw-like tongues to sip on the nectar, communicate with other bees, and identify flowers.

Eyes:

  • The honey bee has five eyes and can distinguish hues and shades just by looking at its surroundings.
  • The bees' visual system is very complex, with three ocelli eyes on the top of their heads to see UV rays and judge light intensity. Additionally, they have two large compound eyes on the sides of their head that help them detect color.

Body:

  • Their bodies are covered in over nine hundred taste receptors, which means they can detect even the most subtle differences in taste.
  • Moreover, bees have no kneecap, and their legs are primarily made of a single bone.

Mating Facts

  • Bees rely on a combination of nectar, pollen, and other plant-based substances for survival.
  • During their first ten days of life, honey bees begin mating. They can mate with up to fifteen drones in mid-air.
  • The average worker bee lives only about six weeks and produces a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey. On the other hand, their queen lives for five to six years.
  • She is also the busiest during the summer months, collecting sperm from twelve to fifteen drone bees and laying over two thousand five hundred eggs per day.
  • The queen bee also has other jobs within the hive, including that of a nurse bee who looks after developing bees.
  • The hives are guarded by a mortician bee who removes dead and dying bees.
  • Honey producers say that a queen honey bee spends her entire life in her hive.
  • The queen honey bee's body contains a magnetic field that her hive uses to stay close to her.
  • The youngest worker bees make beeswax, which is used to make construction materials. Their ability to produce wax is unique, and they create a specialized wax made of resin.

Unique Facts About Bees

  • Honeybees also communicate through their unique dance movements.

Food:

  • Among the many fascinating facts about bees, honey bees are the only insects that produce food that humans can eat.
  • These natural honey producers can make more than a hundred pounds of extra sweetener every year.
  • Each bee will fly up to fifty-five thousand miles to produce one pound of honey.

Pollinate:

  • Scientists believe that bees pollinate over thirty percent of the world's food crops.
  • It's not just humans who benefit from these honey bees. The honey bee is an essential pollinator and the only insect that produces all the necessary substances needed for life.
  • Honeybees help plants reproduce. They distribute pollen from one flower to another, and they are responsible for over thirteen billion dollars in agricultural output in the United States alone.
  • Bees can pollinate an acre of fruit trees. The more bees in a colony, the more fruit the bees can pollinate.
  • They collect pollen from about fifty to one hundred flowers in a single day. So, in addition to making honey, bees help pollinate plants. They help flowering plants produce seeds and fruit.
More about Bees:
  • According to manufacturers of local honey, a single beehive can produce as much as one hundred pounds of honey. So using these bees in their daily lives can increase their profits.
  • The bees don't sleep. They spend their nights motionless.
  • They also have an extraordinary appetite. An adult bee can eat up to two teaspoons of honey.

What are some Benefits of Honey?

Sandwich with honey on it
Raw honey has some health benefits


Honey has been linked to these benefits:

  • Improving the brain’s functioning, 
  • Antibacterial and antifungal properties. 
  • skin remedies, 
  • fighting halitosis, 
  • Soothes a sore throat.
  • Better for blood sugar levels than regular sugar. It is a popular sweetener. 
  • It is also an excellent source of antioxidants, making it essential for humans.

Honey Facts

  • According to honey producers, honey has a fantastic shelf life as bees produce honey from various plant and insect sources.
  • This sugary liquid is made from water evaporation, regurgitation, and enzymatic activity. Since it's naturally acidic and has low moisture levels, it's nearly impossible for bacteria to grow in it.
  • Another interesting fact about honey is that bees can survive on honey all winter long. They spend the winter clustered around their queen and feed on the honey they've collected during the summer months.

Is bee honey antibacterial?

Research has shown that raw honey can eradicate some undesirable bacteria and fungi. Raw honey naturally possesses an enzyme that generates hydrogen peroxide, an antiseptic.

AUTHOR: Neal Ross is working at Mike & Niki’s Honey, your most reliable source of fresh, local honey in San Francisco. He loves working with the raw honey producers, predominantly in the Bay Area, where local honey is almost always in demand.

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