Bees are arguably the most important living creature for our environment. They are also the most studied, only second to humans. During the long history that humans have shared with bees over thousands of years, it’s’ no wonder we have learnt so much from them and depend on bees for life to exist as we know it. There are literally thousands of facts we could mention but we will outline just 10 unbelievable facts about bees here.

1. A single bee can produce 1 tablespoon of honey in its lifetime. 683 bees fly roughly 32,550 miles to gather 5.93 lbs of nectar from about 1,185,000 flowers in order to make one 9.5 oz. jar of Big Island Bees’ honey!
2. A honey bee colony has about 50,000 bees

More than 99% are infertile female bees (worker bees). At most only few hundred male bees (drones) and just one mother (the queen bee).

3. Bees communicate by dancing! 

Since bees are deaf, they don’t use verbal language to communicate. Instead, they dance to share information and to make requests. (Bees receive the input both by sight and by feeling the vibrations dancing bees cause).

• Some type of Dances Are
• Round Dance :other bees of nectar within 10 meters. In this dance, the bee runs in small circles.
• Cleaning Dance : Purpose is to ask another bee for a grooming. In this dance, the bee stamps her feet and shakes her body.
• Alarm Dance : Warn others of the danger when a food source is contaminated. In this dance, the bee vibrates vigorously and runs in a zigzag, spiral motion.
• Massage Dance : Even a bee needs a massage sometimes! In this dance, the bee moves her head in a certain angle. Other bees respond by pulling her leg joints and touching her sides.
• Joy Dance : For example, when a new queen emerges from her cell. In this dance, the bee places her front legs on one another and pulses her abdomen up and down.

4. A queen bee will only mate once in its lifetime :

This is usually in the first 10 days of its life when it will go on a mating flight to mate with about 15 to 20 drones in mid-air. It will then store about 100 million sperm in its spermatheca for its entire life.

5. Bees collect and produce more than just honey

These include many things used by bees and harvested by humans including propolis, pollen, beeswax, royal jelly and bee venom.

6. A Queen Bee will lay 800,000 eggs in her lifetime! 

The queen’s life is dedicated to reproduction and she only leaves the hive once in her life in order to mate.

7. Bees beat the wings more faster than you think

Bee are so noisy is because they beat their wings 11,400 times in one minute!

8. Bees can fly up to 12 mph. 

On every foraging trip, a bee will visit 50-100 flowers to collect nectar!

9. Bees heat and cool their own hive to keep it between 93 and 95 degrees year-round. 

Bees are cold-blooded and must keep their hive at a constant temperature. In cold weather, bees keep the hive warm by swarming together to generate body heat and by sealing cracks in the hive with propolis. In warm weather, the bees collect water and line up in a circle around the hive entrance. Using their wings, the bees fan the water so that it evaporates into the air. They then fan the cool air so that it circulates around the hive as a sort of central air conditioning.

10. Bees see blue better than red

This enables bees to see ultraviolet light and use this to help navigate their way around and assist identifying flowers as they pollinate. Yet bees cannot distinguish red colors well at all.