10 fascinating facts about bees!

Bees are amazing creatures and I bet you didn't know there are about 20,000 known species of bees in the world (according to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History and the Wildlife Trust). Over 270 of these species live in the UK, including wild bumblebees, honeybees and a large number of solitary bees.

The humble bumble

Most people will easily recognise a bumblebee as the cute, fluffy black and yellow striped visitor to plants in their garden. However, there are over 24 different types of bumblebee in the UK and they are typically categorised by the colour of their tail - yes really - which will be either white/buff, red/orange or ginger/yellow. The Bumblebee Conservation Trust has a brilliant website on which they show all the different species and also provide useful information on how to help and support bees in the wild. Check it out: https://www.bumblebeeconservation.org/learn-about-bumblebees/species-guide/

The honey bee

Before we became beekeepers ourselves, we often mistook honey bees for wasps! They may not have the same cuteness or visual appeal as a bumblebee but they play such an important role in our foodchain and natural survival strategies that they definitely deserve our recongition and respect. So here are 10 fascinating facts about honey bees!

1. Only females sting – Male bees (drones) don’t have stingers. Only female worker bees can sting, and they usually do so only in defence, but die immediately after the event.

   
   

2. One queen per hive – A honey bee colony typically has a single queen, whose main role is to lay eggs - up to 2,000 per day during peak season!

   
   

3. Bees are excellent dancers – Honey bees use the “waggle dance” to communicate the location of nectar and pollen sources to other bees.

   
   

4. They recognise human faces – Research shows that honey bees can distinguish between different human faces, much like we do, so they get to know their custodians.

   
   

5. Honey never spoils – Archaeologists have found edible honey in ancient Egyptian tombs that’s thousands of years old.

   
   

6. Bees contribute to our food supply – About one-third of the food humans eat depends on pollination by honey bees.

   
   

7. A bee’s lifetime honey output is tiny – The average worker bee produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her entire life.

   
   

8. Their wings beat super fast – Honey bee wings beat about 200 times per second, creating their distinctive buzzing sound.

   
   

9. Bees can fly far – A forager bee may travel up to 5 miles from the hive in search of nectar and pollen.

   
   

10. Colonies are highly organised – Worker bees have specialised roles (nurse, guard, forager, undertaker) at different stages of their short lives, making the hive function like a super-organism.

    
    
    

    

    

    

    

    

There is so much more we have learned about bees in the 4 short months we have had our own apiary - lots more to share with you in future posts. In the meantime, here is one of our bees who was struggling to make it home to the hive so she stopped off for a rest to enjoy some of the honey we extracted last week.