Some interesting and amazing information about bees

1. Bee amazed
ŸA honey bee can
detect movement
at around 1/300th of
a second
compared to a
human who takes
around 1/50th of a
second

2. Bee amazed
It takes about
1,000 bees to
gather 1kg of
honey

3. Bee amazed
ŸWA holds the
world record for
the most honey
production – karri
flow in the 50’s

4. Bee amazed
Around 4 million
flowers will be
visited to make
1kg of honey

5. Bee amazed
ŸA honey bee will
visit between 50
and 250 flowers
on each foraging
flight

6. Bee amazed
The queen bee
can lay up to
2500 eggs a day
at the height of
the season

7. Foraging honey bees
are able to “tell” other
bees where rich sources
of nectar can be found
by performing a “waggle
dance”. The dance
appears to demonstrate
the direction in relation
to the sun and the
distance from the hive
Bee amazed

8. Bee amazed
Worker bees live
for
6 -7 weeks in
summer
&
6 months in winter

9. Bee amazed
ŸBees can smell
something a mile
off. In fact, it is
believed that honey
bees can sense
particular odours
over distances of
2-3 km

10. Bee amazed
ŸHoney bees can’t
see red. The
colour range of
honey bees is from
yellow through to
green, blue and
ultra-violet

11. Bee amazed
ŸŸA honey bee has 5
eyes (2 large
compound eyes
and 3 small eyes
called ocelli)

12. Bee amazed
ŸŸThe odour
detecting senses of
the bee are so
sophisticated that
the American
military have been
researching the
bee’s ability to sniff

13. Bee amazed
ŸFossils of solitary
bees have been
found dating back
100 million years

14. Bee amazed
ŸDuring the summer the bees can
maintain a temperature in the
colony of 35.5C (+/- 1.5C). During
the winter the centre of the cluster
[of bees] is maintained at around
20-25C with the centre never falling
below 15C and the outside of the
cluster never falling below 5C.
When clustered during the winter,
the bees continually shuffle around
with the outer bees gradually
working their way towards the
centre

15. Bee amazed
ŸBees can “talk”. The buzz of a bee
is traditionally thought to be made
by the beating wings. However,
bees can also contract their flight
muscles and make a buzzing sound
- without moving their wings -
causing air to vibrate through their
spiracles (breathing tubes). It is
believed that bees can
communicate by modifying the tone
of the buzz by controlling how air
passes through the spiracles.
American researchers have found
that bees can modify their buzz