I think we should get some facts about honey bees, after all, many healing and health promoting opportunities for humans start with this busy little creature. As you read the following 20 statements about the great creator of honey, you will be as intrigued as I am by the extraordinary abilities of this little one.

1. The honey bee has existed for 30 million years.

2. It is the only insect that produces food consumed by man.

3. Honey bees are environmentally friendly and vital as pollinators.

4. They are insects with a scientific name: Apis mellifera.

5. They have 6 legs, 2 eyes and 2 wings, a bag of nectar, and a stomach.

6. The bee’s wings move 11,400 times per minute, producing its distinctive hum.

7. A honey bee can fly up to six miles and as fast as 15 miles per hour, therefore it would have to fly about 90,000 miles, three times around the world, to produce one pound of honey.

8. The average honey bee will actually produce only one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.

9. It takes approximately 556 workers to collect 1 pound of honey from approximately 2 million flowers.

10. It takes an ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.

11. A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a gathering trip.

12. A bee colony consists of 20,000 to 60,000 bees and a queen.

13. Worker bees are female, live 6 to 8 weeks and do all the work.

14. The queen bee lives about 2-3 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. It is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays 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 honey bee colony has a unique scent for member identification.

17. Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but don’t leave the hive to help defend it.

18. It is estimated that 1,100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.

19. Honey bees communicate with each other by “dancing.”

20. During the winter, bees feed on the honey they collect during the warmer months. They form a tight group in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.

My most memorable fact about honey bees is number 19: honey bees communicate with each other by “dancing.” And the most incredible for me is number 2: it is the only insect that produces edible food for man!

Fountain: http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/