Need-to-Know Bee Facts

Here’s a lesson from our Bee Master, Scott, on just how interesting these little creatures really are…

Fact #1

A Bee’s Life

A bees life span is summed up in travel. In summer, bee wings wear out in several weeks due to the wear and tear of flight. In the fall, summer bees raise winter bees. The winter generation of bees are special because they can survive for several months (3-4) inside the colony without needing to fly. They consume honey and vibrate their wing muscles to create heat and keep each other warm.

fact #2

They’re Nice!

Bees are herbivores, life loving creatures which are very reluctant to sting unless in defence of their home. They are only interested in foraging on flowers. They’re not the insects that come around your picnic table or BBQ. They are not interested in animals or foods that humans eat! Often confused with wasps.

fact #3

Apis Melifera

While there are hundreds of indigenous stinging insects, honey bees (Apis Melifera) are unique because they are one of the only insects that produce and store honey to sustain them through winter. They began to store food to keep them alive over periods of several months while there was no food available.

fact #4

Bee Vision

Honey bees see ultraviolet light, which helps them locate the nectar in flowers. The bee has a much broader range of colour vision. Their ability to see UV light, gives them an advantage when seeking food sources. Many of the colours and patterns on flowers are invisible to the human eye. The nectar source actually looks like a target which they can see from a great distance.

fact #5

The Waggle Dance

The waggle dance, used for orientation, communicates the specific location, direction and abundance of a food source in relation to their colony.

Fact #6

Honey

It takes a single honey bee an entire lifetime to produce one teaspoon of honey. On one flight from the hive, a bee will visit between 50-100 flowers. They use their antennae to smell nectar which they can detect up to 2km away.

fact #7

Queen Bee

There is a single queen in each colony and her pheromones dictate all the behaviour carried out by the bees. Her pheromone is a form of communication and makes the colony calm and cooperative to produce food and carry out their daily duties. She is the nerve centre of the colony.

fact #8

Female Power

All the worker bees in a colony are female. The female bees are responsible for all the duties in the colony; food collection, housekeeping and brood production (raising the babies).

Males bees are called drones, their only purpose within a colony is for reproduction. When a drone is at home in the colony resting, he begs for food.