The Buzz About Bees  –  Why Beehive Bow Ties Cares

• Bees have inhabited and flown on our earth for 150 million years

• One in four North American bee species are imperiled and at an increased risk of extinction

• The food we eat depends on pollinators

• Bees produce more than 1/3 of all foods we consume

• Bees pollinate $15 billion worth of U.S. crops each year

• 40% of honeybee colonies collapsed from Spring 2017 to spring 2018

• The honeybee is the only insect that produces food eaten by humans

• There are 25,000 known species of bees

• The honeybee is an herbivore

• The honeybee is an invertebrate

• Bees can see the same colors as humans, except for the color red

• Bees can see UV light, so she can see patterns on flower petals that lead her to nectar that humans cannot see

• The bee buzz is created by their vibrating wings, which beat 11,400 times per minute

• The bee’s brain is about the size of a sesame seed

• An average bee colony flies about 12.4 million miles each year, which is about half as far as the earth’s equator

• Bees communicate by dancing

• The waggle dance is done by bees to share with others in the hive where a good source of pollen is located. The waggle dance positions where the flowers are located with relation to the sun and the hive

• Each type and species of bee performs their waggle dance slightly differently

• Honey is medicinal and used for sore throats, burns, digestive disorders, wound healing, hay fever, and dermatological issues

• The fruit sugars that are in honey are fructose and glucose, which are both easily absorbed in the human body

• Honey is 80% sugars and 20% water

• Honey has vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and water, which are all essential to human life

• Honey is the only food that has pinocembrin, which is an antioxidant that improves brain function

• Honey never spoils

• Honey has natural preservatives in it that bacteria cannot grow on

• It takes nectar from over 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey

• A beehive typically makes about 45 lbs of honey during the winter

• Each bee produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey during its lifetime

• One pound of beeswax is produced every time that a bee makes about 17 to 20 lbs of honey

• A single bee colony can pollinate 300 million flowers every day

• The honeycomb is the shape of a hexagon

• The hexagon is the most efficient shape for storage purposes

• The cell wall of a honeycomb is only 0.05 mm in width, but can support 25 times its own weight in honey

• A hive that weighs about 100 grams can hold up to 4 kilograms of honey

• A bee can fly up to 6 miles each flight

• A bee can fly at a max speed of 15 mph

• On one flight a bee normally visits between 50 to 100 flowers

• The temperature of a hive is constantly 92 to 93 degrees Fahrenheit, no matter what the temperature is outside of the hive