Did you know

Pollination, food and honey

Did you know that…

• Honey bee (Apis mellifera) is just one of 20,000 types of bees that we know and one of the few that is used for production of honey.
• Bees pollinate as many as 170,000 species of plants.
• Fruits and vegetables would be much less abundant without bees and there would be no lovely floral colours dotting the meadows.
• Every third spoonful of food we eat is dependent on pollination.
• Bees and other pollinators significantly contribute to the world’s food security. Pollination brings between 192 and 472 billion euros (235 and 577 billion US dollars) per year.
• One honey bee alone can produce 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its life.
• To make a kilogram of honey, a bee must visit four million flowers and fly four times the distance around the world.

Bee life

Did you know that…

• A bee colony can be compared to a small city. It contains 30,000 to 60,000 bee workers, from 300 to 1,000 male broods, and the queen bee.
• The queen bee is the only member of the bee colony that lays eggs. She can produce up to 2,000 eggs in a day. Honey bees’ wings flap 11,400 times per minute, which makes their distinctive buzz.
• The queen bee usually lives from 1 to 4 years, while the worker bees live from 6 to 8 weeks in summer and from 4 to 6 months in winter.
• Honey bees do not hibernate, but they gather together into winter clusters and thus warm themselves up. They remain active all winter long.
• Without a queen bee, the colony slowly dies out.
• If worker bees stopped feeding male broods, they would die of hunger.
• Honey bees are the only bee species that die after a sting.

Bee home

Did you know that…

• Bees live all around the world. Contrary to popular belief, most bees nest in tree holes, soil, hollow plant stems, walls, etc. In modern Europe most honey bees live in man-made beehives.
• Bees are very economical and rational construction workers in nature – honeycombs are among the most efficiently organised structures in nature; the honeycomb walls are joined at an angle of 120°, thus forming a complete hexagon.
• Bees leave the hive when outdoor temperature rises above 10° C (50° F).