Print E-mail

Fun Facts and Trivia

This page is setup in groupings of topics so beekeepers may print out a copy and use for educational purposes as a guide for a basic bee talk. You can add, delete, highlight, or expand on what we have here. We kept it basic with some points just "outlined" so you can expand the information for any group being presented. That way, everyone from school kids to adult programs may enjoy.

There are three types of honey bees in the hive: The queen, workers, and drones.

The Queen:

  • Will live normally between 1 and 4 years
  • Fed royal jelly by the workers
  • Has a non-barbed stinger
  • Can lay in excess of 1000 eggs per day
  • Without a queen, the colony will eventual die
  • Develops in 16 days

The Worker:

  • Can number between 40-60,000 in a strong colony
  • Workers are all female
  • Performs a multitude of tasks to include: Tending to the queen, feeding larvae, feeding drones, nectar ripening, producing heat, collecting water for cooling, housecleaning, guard duty, and field collection of pollen, propolis, and nectar.
  • Will die if she stings. Has a barbed stinger that is left behind.
  • Will live 6-8 weeks in summer, working till her wings give out.
  • Will live 4-6 months in winter when not actively working/foraging.
  • Develops in 21 days

The Drones

  • Sole responsibility is fertilization.
  • Leaves the hive for 2-3 hours each day.
  • Has no stinger
  • If the workers stopped feeding the drones, they would starve.
  • Develops in 24 days

General Facts

  • A single bee may collect 1/12 teaspoon of honey in a lifetime.
  • To make 1 pound of honey, bees may need to fly 50,000 miles.
  • Honey bees may forage up to 2-5 miles from the hive.
  • Bees do not hibernate, but cluster for warmth and remain active in winter.
  • Bees will maintain an internal cluster temp of 92 degrees in the coldest part of winter, while rearing brood.
  • Bees will disconnect their wings allowing themselves to pump their wing muscle to provide heat.
  • Bees will fly outside the hive when temps rise above 50 degrees.
  • A beekeeper's main tools are a protective veil, smoker, and hive tool.
  • Smoke inhibits alarm pheromones from alerting other bees. They also gorge themselves as their instinct tells them that a fire is approaching and if they need to flee, they want to take as much resources as possible.
  • A beekeeper harvests the extra honey the bees provide beyond what they need to survive. The record harvested from one colony was 404 pounds from the Aebis family in 1974.
  • Raw honey contains many beneficial minerals and vitamins. Honey also has antibacterial properties and anti-oxidant benefits. Many claim relief from allergy symptoms by using local raw honey containing pollen.
  • There are many varieties of honey. From orange blossom produced in the South, award winning Tupelo, clover and alfalfa, to apple and blueberry.
  • Honey comes as extracted or liquid, creamed, or in the comb.
  • We only produce about 50% of the honey we consume in the U.S.
  • Honey bees pollinate 1/3 of all fruits and vegetables.
  • There are about 1/2 the number of beekeepers there were 25 years ago.
  • We have lost about 1/3 of the colonies we had 25 years ago.
  • For every 100 beekeepers, 95% are hobbyists, 4% sideliners, and less than 1% are fulltime or commercial beekeepers.
  • Beekeeping can be a sustainable endeavor.
  • Beekeeping produces the most "green" sweetener you can buy locally or produce yourself.
  • Besides honey, you can harvest beeswax, propolis, and pollen.
  • Renting bee hives to farmers in need of pollination generates a source of income for some beekeepers
  • Beekeeping is dated at least 4500 years.
  • Beehives are kept on farms, in backyards, on balconies and high-rise rooftops, and all areas across the country.
  • Honey Bees are kept or managed in all 50 states
  • There are local, county, state, and national bee associations