Sure, you know that bees pollinate our crops and give us honey. But there's so much more to these buzzing insects than that.
1. Honeybees can fly at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour
2. A honeybee colony can contain up to 60,000 bees at its peak
3. A single honeybee worker produces about 1/12th of teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
4. The queen honeybee lays up to 1,500 eggs per day, and may lay up to 1 million in her lifetime
5. An industrious worker bee may visit 2,000 flowers per day
6. A honeybee colony will fly a total of around 55,000 miles to make just one pound of honey
7. Bees “dance” to communicate—a way of giving fellow bees directions to good food
8. Honeybees beat their wings 200 times per second
9. Each bee has 170 odorant receptors, which means they have one serious sense of smell
10. Honey contains all of the substances needed to sustain life, including enzymes, water, minerals and vitamins
11. One bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon on honey in its entire life
12. It would take an estimated 1,100 bee stings to produce enough venom to be fatal
13. Bees have been creating honey for more than 150 million years.
14. Bees have two separate stomachs; one for food and another just for nectar
15. Honey has natural preservatives so that it won’t ever go bad
So think again next time before you go harming these spectacular creatures, we all agree that they're pretty amazing.
Sources:
http://www.bees4kids.org.uk/fun-facts-about-honey-bees
https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-honey-bees-1968071
