Some bee facts that might be interesting

There are three types of honey bees in the hive: the queen, the workers, and the drones.

The Queen:

• Will live normally between 1 and 4 years.
• Is fed royal jelly by the workers.
• Has a non-barbed stinger.
• Can lay in excess of 1,500 eggs per day.
• Without a queen, the colony will eventually die.
• Develops in 16 days.

The Workers:

• Can number between 40,000-60,000 in a strong colony.
• Are all females.
• Perform a multitude of tasks including: Tending to the queen, feeding larvae, feeding drones, ripening nectar, producing heat, collecting water for cooling, housecleaning, guard duty, and field collection of pollen, propolis, and nectar.
• Will die if she stings. Has a barbed stinger that is left behind.
• Will live 6-8 weeks in summer, working until her wings give out.
• Will live 4-6 months in winter when not actively working/foraging.
• Develop in 21 days

The Drones:

• Sole responsibility is fertilization.
• Leave the hive for 2-3 hours each day.
• Have no stingers.
• If the workers stopped feeding the drones, they would starve.
• Develop in 24 days.

 General Facts

• A single bee may collect 1/12 teaspoon of honey in a lifetime.
• To make one pound of honey, bees may need to fly 50,000 miles.
• Honey bees may forage up to 2-5 miles from the hive.
• Bees do not hibernate, but cluster for warmth and remain active in winter.
• Bees will maintain an internal cluster temp of 92 degrees in the coldest part of winter, while rearing brood.
• Bees will disconnect their wings allowing themselves to pump their wing muscle to provide heat.
• Bees will fly outside the hive when temps rise above 50 degrees.
• A beekeeper's main tools are a protective veil, smoker, and hive tool.
• Smoke inhibits alarm pheromones from alerting other bees. They also gorge themselves as their instinct tells them that a fire is approaching and if they need to flee, they want to take as much resources as possible.
• A beekeeper harvests the extra honey the bees provide beyond what they need to survive. The record harvested from one colony was 404 pounds from the Aebis family in 1974.
• Raw honey contains many beneficial minerals and vitamins. Honey also has antibacterial properties and anti-oxidant benefits. Many claim relief from allergy symptoms by using local raw honey containing pollen.
• There are many varieties of honey. From orange blossom produced in the South, award winning Tupelo, clover and alfalfa, to apple and blueberry.
• Honey comes as extracted or liquid, creamed, or in the comb.
• We only produce about 50% of the honey we consume in the U.S.
• Honey bees pollinate 1/3 of all fruits and vegetables.
• There are about 1/2 the number of beekeepers there were 25 years ago.
• We have lost about 1/3 of the colonies we had 25 years ago.
• For every 100 beekeepers, 95% are hobbyists, 4% sideliners, and less than 1% are fulltime or commercial beekeepers.
• Beekeeping can be a sustainable endeavor.
• Beekeeping produces the most "green" sweetener you can buy locally or produce yourself.
• Besides honey, you can harvest beeswax, propolis, and pollen.
• Renting bee hives to farmers in need of pollination generates a source of income for some beekeepers.
• Beekeeping is dated at least 4500 years.
• Beehives are kept on farms, in backyards, on balconies and high-rise rooftops, and all areas across the country.
• Honey Bees are kept or managed in all 50 states.
• There are local, county, state, and national bee associations.