Honeybee facts

• A single bee colony can produce more than 100 pounds of extra honey and this is what is harvested by the beekeeper.

• It takes one colony of honey bees (around 30,000 bees) to pollinate an acre of fruit trees. Pollination success increases if there are more honey bees present at the time of peak flowering.

• A colony of honey bees in early spring has 10,000-15,000 bees.

• A colony of honey bees in summer has 50-60,000 bees.

•  A honey bee flies up to 15 mph and its wings beat 200 times per second or 12,000 beats / minute.

•  A normal colony of honey bees contains only one QUEEN who may lay 2,000 eggs per day during her busy season

• There may be 60,000 or more WORKER bees (undeveloped females ) who do all the work. There will also be  several hundred DRONES (Male bees).

• A worker bee gathers in her entire life 1/10 tsp of honey.

• It requires 10000 worker bees to gather a pound of honey.

• Bees fly the equivalent of more than twice around the world to gather a pound of honey.

• The average life of a honey bee during the working season is about six weeks.

• Nectar as gathered by the bee contains about 70% water (Honey is about 17% water).

• Bees remove the excess moisture from nectar by rapidly fanning their wings over the open cells in the hive.

• Honey varies in color from white through golden to dark brown and usually the darker the color the stronger the flavor.

• The value of bees pollinating fruits, vegetables and legumes is 10 times the value of honey produced.  Natural pollinators are disappearing rapidly and each year we become more dependent on honey bees for many of our daily foods.

• Honey is one of the safest food - most harmful bacteria cannot live in honey for any length of time.

Honey Trivia

Q. How many bees in a hive?
A. 50,000 or more

Q. How many flowers must a bee tap to make one pound of honey?
A. Two million

Q. How far does a hive of bees fly to bring you one pound of honey?
A. Over 55,000 miles

Q. How much honey does the worker bee make in her lifetime?
A. 1/10 teaspoon

Q. How fast does a honeybee fly?
A.  15 mph

Q. What is the name given to wine made with fermented honey?
A. Mead

Q. How long have bees been producing honey from flowering plants?
A. About 10-20 million years

Q. What Scotch liqueur is made with honey?
A. Drambuie

Q. How many wings does a bee have?
A. Four

Q. How many eyes does a bee have?
A. Five. Two with compound lens, and three light sensors on top of her head. 

Q. How many sides does each honeycomb cell have?
A. Six

Q. How many flowers does a honey bee visit during one collection trip?
A. 50-100

Q. How do honeybees communicate with each other?
A. By dancing. Honeybees do a dance which alerts other bees where nectar and pollen is located.  The dance explains direction and distance.