Fun Facts About Bees

• Just a single hive contains approximately 40-45,000 bees!
• Bees fly an average of 13-15 mph.
• About 8 pounds of honey is eaten by bees to produce 1 pound of beeswax.
• The honey bee's wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz.
• A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
• It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.
• The honey bee has been around for 30 million years.
• Bees collect 66 lbs of pollen per year, per hive. Pollen is the male germ cells produced by all flowering plants for fertilization and plant embryo formation.
• Honeybees are not native to the USA. They are European in origin, and were brought to North America by the early settlers.
• The queen bee can live for several years. Worker bees live for 6 weeks during the busy summer, and for 4-9 months during the winter months.
• The practice of honey collection and beekeeping dates back to the stone-age, as evidenced by cave paintings.