Honey bees are some of nature’s most interesting, intelligent creatures. They do so many things that no one even knows about, yet they are changing the world. We have 12 fascinating honey bee facts.
1. One Bee Produces 1/12 A Teaspoon Of Honey
Worker bees are always working hard to produce honey. Together, they need to make 60 pounds of honey to help the colony stay afloat during the winter. Each bee makes about 1/12 of a teaspoon. They work in numbers to get their goal accomplished.
2. Bees Need Rest
Read More »3. They Have Distinct Personalities
Bees aren’t all the same. Some love a good thrill and seek out adventure. Others are shy and like to be on their own. Some bees just love to work. Agitated bees are negative and even pessimistic about their life.
4. Male Bees Are A Drain
There is only about 15 percent of male bees in a population. The drones mean the hive is healthy because the colony has enough food if they have male bees. Males are still thrown out at the end of the season because they just drain the food. Drones eat and mate, then they die. Male bees don’t have a stinger to keep themselves protected even.
5. Honey Bees Dance To Talk
Honey bees actually have a very complex symbolic language. Their brain is packed with millions of neurons. Their small brain is only a cubic millimeter. This is because bees must be very intelligent to work with each other for the hive’s safety. Worker bees do different jobs all of their life. Foragers find their food source and bring it home. They share details about their food in a form of a choreographed dance. This “waggle dance” is paired with various odor cues from secreted pheromones that help bees chat with each other.
6. An Emergency Queen Can Be Created
A queen bee runs the hive, so it’s critical she is replaced if she dies. The hive can create this emergency leader if the queen has laid eggs within five days. To do so, they must feed the new queen royal jelly instead of honey and beebread. The latter will shrink the ovary of a bee. She must eat royal jelly to be as successful as the original queen bee.
7. The Hive Is In Control Of Their Population
The hive is in control of the types of honey bees made by their colony. Whatever the larvae are fed leads to the type of bees produced by their eggs. Queens are fed only royal jelly. The rest of the bees that eat fermented pollen or honeybread and only honey will be the female workers.
8. Queens Produce Thousands Of Eggs A Day
An ambitious queen bee will often make 2,000 eggs in one day. The ones that are fertilized become the females. The unfertilized ones, with the help of pheromones, become males. The queen must work to keep up her population so it doesn’t disappear.
9. Bees Change Their Brain Chemistry
Bees’ brains are wired to do a particular job. Scout bees search for adventure and new sources of food. Soldier bees are always protecting the hive. Many times middle-aged bees must take the job of removing the dead bees from their hive. Regular honeybees will take on many different jobs over their lifetime. This means their brain chemistry must change each time.
10. They Can Recognize Your Face
Bees are so smart that they can recognize a human face. They take it every part of the face, from your lips and eyes to your ears and eyebrows. By “configural processing,” a bee might be able to know its beekeepers. This could help scientists with facial recognition technology.
11. Bees Are Intelligent Builders
Historians have been baffled by the honeycomb for years. Centuries ago, Roman scholar Marcus Terentius Varro and Greek mathematician Pappus said they were the most practical structures of a home. The wax used to create honeycombs is the least amount, meaning it’s the most sound of all the structures of its kind. Their perfect hexagon construction has walls that create a 120-degree angle.
12. Serial Killers May Act Like Bees
Scientists have noticed that a serial killer often acts like a honey bee. Serial killers often commit their alleged killings close to where they live, yet at a distance where no one is suspicious of them. Bees get the pollen they need as close as they can to their hive, yet they throw off predators along the way. They do this by collecting pollen far enough away from their hive that predators don’t find them. Scientist calls this a “buffer zone.” These findings help investigators dive into the mind of serial killers.
