How much do you really know about bees? As bee-removal specialists, we’ve been around bees for a long time. Over the years, we’ve learned a lot about bees and bee removal, bee relocation and bee extermination.

But we also have a lot of love for bees and the important role they play in our world — a world which would be a lot less sweet without them!

Here’s part 1 of our 4-part series on Fascinating Bee Facts:

1. The honey bee is quite the veteran of this planet; it’s estimated to have been around for millions of years.
2. The bee is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.
3. Honey is a super healthy food! In fact, it’s the only food that includes all the necessary life-sustaining substances. These substances include enzymes, vitamins, minerals and water. But wait, there’s more… and also the only food with “pinocembrin.” Pinocembrin is an antioxidant linked to improved brain functioning. (Hmm… perhaps a little honey before your next school test will help??)
4. The honey bee’s wing stroke is super-fast, estimated at about 200 beats per second. This is why you hear that distinctive buzz.
5. Despite their small size, honey bees can fly for up to six miles at a time.
6. A honey bee’s top speed? About 15 miles per hour.
7. During an average worker bee’s lifetime, she only produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey. Every drop of honey is precious! This is why AZ Beehive does bee relocation whenever possible.
8. A hive of bees will fly about 90,000 miles (that’s around the world about three times!) to collect 1 kg of honey. Sounds like dedication to me.
9. Honey bees have an amazing sense of smell. This is due to their 170 odorant receptors. (To put this in perspective, fruit flies have 62 and mosquitoes 79.) The honey bee’s sense of smell is so precise that it can differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from many meters away.
10. What a honey bee’s anatomy? Well, here you go:
    a) 6 legs
    b) 2 compound eyes that consist of thousands of tiny lenses
    c) 3 simple eyes on the top of the head (guess the compound eyes weren’t enough?)
    d) 2 pairs of wings
    e) a nectar pouch
    f) a stomach
11. A honey bee really is “busy as a bee” as she visits up to 50-100 flowers during each honey-collecting voyage.
12. Each bee colony consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen.
13. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work. (That must be why honey is so sweet!)
14. The queen bee can live up to 5 years and has one main mission in life: fill the hive with eggs.
15. The queen bee is the busiest in the summer months. She can lay up to 2,500 eggs daily.

Want Some More Bee Facts?

If bees swarm to your yard to establish their new home in your attic or under your roof, they can do damage to your home and should be removed as soon as possible. Call The Beehive at 480-468-8763 for live bee removal. Whenever possible, we’ll find them a new home where their colony can continue to thrive.

SOURCES

https://www.thoughtco.com/fascinating-facts-about-honey-bees-4165293

https://www.beepods.com/101-fun-bee-facts-about-bees-and-beekeeping/

https://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-bee-facts.html

https://www.natgeokids.com/za/discover/animals/insects/honey-bees/