I think we should get some facts about honey bees, after all many healing and health promoting opportunities for humans begin with this busy little creature. As you read the following 20 statements about the great creator of Honey, you’ll be as intrigued as I am by this little guy’s extraordinary abilities.
1. The honey bee has been around for 30 million years.
2. It is the only insect that produces food consumed by man.
3. Honey bees are friendly to the environment and are vital as pollinators.
4. They are insects with a scientific name – Apis mellifera.
5. They have 6 legs, 2 eyes and 2 wings, a nectar bag and a stomach.
6. The wings of the bee move 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.
7. A honey bee can fly up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour, so it would have to fly around 90,000 miles, three times around the world, to produce a pound of honey.
8. The average honey bee will actually produce only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
9. About 556 workers are needed to collect 1 pound of honey from about 2 million flowers.
10. It takes an ounce of honey to power a bee around the world.
11. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a foraging trip.
12. A bee colony consists of 20,000 to 60,000 bees and one queen.
13. Worker bees are female, they live 6 to 8 weeks, and they do all the work.
14. The queen bee lives about 2-3 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. It is most active in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, laying up to 2,500 eggs per day.
15. Male honey bees are called drones, and they don’t do any work, they don’t have a stinger, all they do is mate.
16. Each bee colony has a unique scent for identification of members.
17. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and die once stung. The queens have a stinger, but don’t leave the hive to help defend it.
18. It takes an estimated 1,100 bee stings to be fatal.
19. Honey bees communicate with each other by “dancing.”
20. During the winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collect during the warmer months. They form a tight group in their hive to keep themselves and the queen warm.
My most memorable fact about honey bees is number 19: Honey bees communicate with each other by “dancing.” And the most incredible thing for me is number 2: it is the only insect that produces edible food for man!
Source: http://www.beneficios-de-la-miel.com/