- Pollination Agriculture depends greatly on the honeybee for pollination.
- Honeybees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables.
- Bees collect 66 lbs of pollen per year, per hive.
- Pollen is the male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for fertilisation and plant embryo formation.
- The Honeybee uses pollen as a food.
- Pollen is one of the richest and purest natural foods.
- Honey is used by the bees for food all year round.
- There are many types, colours and flavours of honey, depending upon its nectar source.
- The bees make honey from the nectar they collect from flowering trees and plants.
- Honey is an easily digestible, pure food.
- Honey is hydroscopic and has antibacterial qualities.
- Eating local honey can fend off allergies.
- Secreted from glands, beeswax is used by the honeybee to build honey comb.
- It is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, artists’ materials, furniture polish and candles.
- Collected by honeybees from trees, the sticky resin is mixed with wax to make a sticky glue. The bees use this to seal cracks and repair their hive.
- It is used by humans as a health aid, and as the basis for fine wood varnishes.
- The powerful, milky substance that turns an ordinary bee into a Queen Bee.
- It is made of digested pollen and honey or nectar mixed with a chemical secreted from a gland in a nursing bee’s head.
- It commands premium prices rivalling imported caviar, and is used by some as a dietary supplement and fertility stimulant.
- It is loaded with all of the B vitamins.
- The “ouch” part of the honeybee. Although sharp pain and some swelling and itching are natural reactions to a honeybee sting or most, a small percentage of individuals are highly allergic to bee venom.
- “Bee venom therapy” is widely practiced overseas and by some in the USA to address health problems such as arthritis, neuralgia, high blood pressure, high cholesterol and even MS.
- There is only one queen per hive.
- The queen is the only bee with fully developed ovaries.
- The queen mates only once with several male (drone) bees, and will remain fertile for life. She lays up to 2000 eggs per day.
- Fertilised eggs become female (worker bees) and unfertilised eggs become male (drone bees).
- When she dies or becomes unproductive, the other bees will “make” a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a diet of “royal jelly”.
- For queen bees, it takes 16 days from egg to emergence.
- All worker bees are female, but they are not able to reproduce.
- Worker bees live for 4-9 months during the winter season, but only 6 weeks during the busy summer months (they literally work themselves to death).
- Nearly all of the bees in a hive are worker bees.
- A hive consists of 20,000 – 30,000 bees in the winter, and over 60,000 – 80,000 bees in the summer.
- The worker bees sequentially take on a series of specific chores during their lifetime: housekeeper; nursemaid; construction worker; grocer; undertaker; guard; and finally, after 21 days they become a forager collecting pollen and nectar.
- For worker bees, it takes 21 days from egg to emergence.
- The worker bee has a barbed stinger that results in her death following stinging, therefor, she can only sting once.
- These male bees are kept on standby during the summer for mating with a virgin queen. Because the drone has a barbed sex organ, mating is followed by death of the drone.
- There are only 300-3000 drone in a hive.
- The drone does not have a stinger.
- Because they are of no use in the winter, drones are expelled from the hive in the autumn.
- Honey has been delighting humans for over 40 centuries.
- In ancient Egypt taxes were paid with honey.
- In early Greece and Rome honey symbolized fertility, love, and beauty.
- In the Bible this sublime nectar is called “the heavenly food”.
- North American Indians called honeybees “white man flies” because Colonists brought them from Europe.
- The average honeybee can fly at a speed of 15 miles per hour.
- A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey.
- It would take approximately one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the earth.
- An average worker bee makes about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
- To make honey, bees drop the collected nectar into the honeycomb and then evaporate it by fanning their wings.
- Honeybees dance to communicate the direction and distance of nectar sources.
- The fructose in honey makes it sweeter than sugar. At 21 calories a teaspoon it is sweeter than sugar.
- Honey makes baked goods brown faster, and improves their shelf life.
- Honey varies in colour from almost clear to very dark, depending on the floral source and its location, as well as the climate.
Characteristics of different honeybee races
- Probably the most common race of honeybees in this area.
- Colonies are usually large and winter well.
- Very good honey producers.
- Usually gentle and non-aggressive.
- Swarming instinct is not especially strong.
- Minimum propolis.
- Keep a clean hive and are quick to get rid of the wax moth.
- Queens lay all through the summer, so a large amount of stores are used for brood rearing.
- Italian bees have a strong tendency to rob.
- Yellow colouring with bands on the abdomen.
- Very gentle bees.
- Do not swarm excessively.
- Brood build up is later in the spring.
- A good honey producer, not exceptional.
- Caucasians produce and use a good deal of propolis.
- Brown in colour.
- A very gentle race of bees.
- Probably the best wintering bees.
- Little use of propolis.
- Builds up very rapidly in the spring.
- Summer brood rearing depends on pollen and nectar flow.
- Usually not inclined to rob.
- These bees tend to swarm more. Probably due to rapid spring build up.
- Developed by Brother Adam at Buckfast Abbey, Devon, England.
- Very rapid spring build up.
- Very gentle bees.
- Low tendency to swarm.
- Low consumption of winter stores.
- Well adapted to areas with damp cold winters.
- Excellent honey producers.