Interesting Facts About The Bees And Their Honey (PHOTOS)

They bring us food, keep our ecosystems functioning, and even provide a fun hobby for those in beekeeping.

Bees are amazing creatures, and we want to celebrate their awesomeness by sharing with you some things you might not know about our buzzing buddies.

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They Haven’t Heard Of Feminism

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We’ve long since recognized that women have more value than just having babies. But tell that to bees. The queen bee’s only job is to lay eggs, without which the hive will die. The queen doesn’t get to leave the house either, except for once to mate with several drones. From these encounters she will store the sperm to last her entire lifetime. A hive only has one queen bee at a time. But any young female bee, less than 48 hours old, can become a queen bee once fed a special food called “royal jelly” by the workers. That's a queen bee is pictured in the center.

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We’ve long since recognized that women have more value than just having babies. But tell that to bees. The queen bee’s only job is to lay eggs, without which the hive will die.

The queen doesn’t get to leave the house either, except for once to mate with several drones. From these encounters she will store the sperm to last her entire lifetime.

A hive only has one queen bee at a time. But any young female bee, less than 48 hours old, can become a queen bee once fed a special food called “royal jelly” by the workers.

That's a queen bee is pictured in the center.

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Comments

[Gronkie]

10:45 AM on 10/14/2010

I was attacked by a swarm of mud bees in a forest when I was a kid. Another kid distrubed their hive and for some reason they all came after me! I took about 100 stings and had the worst experience of my life. To this day, bees are about the closest thing I have to a phobia. As an organic vegetable gardener, however, I certainly appreciate their usefulness.

I read recently that they solved the hive collapse problem. It was a combination of a couple of things, I think a parasite and a virus hitting simultaneously.

[WildlifeHelper]

04:57 AM on 10/05/2010

Honey bees and beekeepers have a role to play in conservation, because honey bees act like a 'canary in the mine'. Of course, everyone says this, but the reasons this is so are explained very clearly, and very well here http://bit.ly/bmlx0Q - worth a quick read. What we must not do is watch the number of beekeepers increasing, then say 'we don't need to worry about bees any more'. We have to get to the route of the problems, and remember that we are seeing declines in many insect types.

[2garen]

11:42 PM on 10/04/2010

We used to have bee hives. The honey was wonderful and having them around does help the environment.They are amazing!
When we can get back in a location where we can set up our hives again we will go for it.

[Betty DotsonLewis]

08:23 PM on 10/04/2010

The Bee Keepers
By Betty Dotson-Lewis (B. L. Dotson-Lewis) West Virginia Author
A local gentleman bee keeper stirs up childhood memories of my father's love of the bees
and honey.
I have an aversion to honeybees.
Yes, I know they are a keystone species and our ecosystem depends on their work for balance. My parents may be responsible for these negative feelings toward the hard-working, well-organized honeybee. You see, Dad practically lived outdoors and even the bees were his friends. Electric company right -of- way workers, hunters and timber men came to our home to tell Dad when they had spotted a “wild bee” tree or they had noticed a bee swarm. His eyes lit up and the preparation began to bring in the swarm or move the colony from the bee tree to a hive at our home.
read more . . .http://www.dailyyonder.com/bee-keepers/2010/09/30/2971

[rikster]

08:12 PM on 10/04/2010

I've heard that bees that pollinate organic crops have no hive problems...

[jsarets]

12:08 AM on 10/05/2010

My understanding is that it has more to do with the use of honeybees to pollinate massive monocultures of seed crops to which they are not well adapted, such as alfalfa and canola.  Honeybees are very inefficient pollinators of these crops, collecting plenty of energy-rich nectar but not enough protein-rich pollen.  The lack of pollen causes the larvae to become malnourished, and the hives collapse.

Honeybees need access to a variety of flowering plants for good nutrition, and crops that are not well-suited to honeybees should be pollinated instead by more efficient pollinators such as leafcutter bees, which do not live in communal hives or produce honey.

We should take pressure off the honeybees by growing self-pollinating crops such as hemp and by breeding self-pollinating varieties of fruit and nut crops, as is being done with almonds.  Leave the honeybees to produce honey from polycultures of wildflowers as they were intended to do.

[Lunamoth]

08:34 AM on 10/06/2010

I have never heard this. Thank you for sharing your wisdom.

[Matthew Harrold]

06:48 PM on 10/04/2010

"along with a list of exotic animals like vulture, ferrets, and whales. (Which begs the question, who is trying to keep a whale as a pet?)"

I actually really want that question answered. Also...are ferrets really exotic pets?

[thecoffeegod]

10:48 AM on 10/06/2010

Unusual, perhaps but exotic? Nah.

[Matthew Harrold]

03:04 PM on 10/06/2010

There's plenty of ferret owners here in the U.K, but I can understand why - it's like owning a cat that never breaks out of the playful kitten stage. I wouldn't mind owning a couple myself, but the initial out lay is a tad expensive when your out of work.

[Chase Kruppo]

02:12 PM on 10/04/2010

Bees are of exceptional interest because of how seemingly common they are, how integrated and dependent we are on the work they do, and for the products we enjoy because of bees. Understanding the systemic causes of Colony Collapse Disorder should reveal most remarkable details of our own environment. Bees may seem inconsequential in the grand scheme of environmental sustainability, but because their impact is so vast they are a good indicator of underlying problems.

I have 2 friends with bees, one as a recreational yard hobby featuring blue ribbon honey; the other a researcher from BC studying Colony Collapse in NJ.

Bees and bee products are an industry everyone should get behind and support with issues like Colony Collapse and Africanised bees becoming increasingly common.

[Zip Ominous]

11:19 AM on 10/04/2010

What do we really know about the bees? Who funds them? What is their agenda? Do they have birth certificates? They are shadowy and dangerous. They are proven to carry stingers, and they are willing to use them without provocation. My friends, it is time to STOP being SOFT on bees. This is a matter of US versus THEM, and we CANNOT co-exist.

[Papa Swamp]

10:54 AM on 10/04/2010

Of course no one mentions that bees aren't native to the US.....

[Papa Swamp]

10:55 AM on 10/04/2010

Sorry I should say honey bees are not native to US

[mutton]

11:20 AM on 10/04/2010

Yeah, they did. Check the last slide.

[Jen Green]

09:58 AM on 10/04/2010

As someone with a serious bee sting allergy, urban beekeeping seems risky. I wouldn't want my neighbor keeping a hive, I'm nervous enough of stings as it is. Epi-pen, hospital trip = not fun.

[pfods]

10:27 AM on 10/04/2010

the last time i was stung was because i was spraying a hive with a super soaker. that was 12 years ago.

you don't have much to fear from honey bees unless you bother them

[Matthew Harrold]

06:53 PM on 10/04/2010

Very true. We get plenty of bees in our back garden, and all they do is go about their daily business. If you don't bother them, they won't bother you. The only time I've been stung by a bee was as a kid, trying to catch them with a net. No...I don't know why it seemed like a good idea either.

[mutton]

11:22 AM on 10/04/2010

I'm a beekeeper, and what I've read is that people who are allergic to bee stings are generally not allergic to honey bees. Most of the allergies actually have to do with wasps and other types of bees. Nonetheless, bee stings are no fun, allergy or not, and the effect can be radically different depending on what part of the body is stung.

[lifeofthemind]

09:54 AM on 10/04/2010

I saw a pretty convincing article displaying a correlation between new cell phone towers and the sudden abandonment of hives.

[invirginia]

09:38 AM on 10/04/2010

'a special food called “royal jelly” by the workers. '

didn't realize that bees spoke English.

[roadwobbler]

10:02 AM on 10/04/2010

You beat me to it :)

[thecoffeegod]

09:29 AM on 10/04/2010

I am researching in order to start my own hive in my back yard. Bees rule.

[mutton]

11:24 AM on 10/04/2010

Do it! I recommend finding another beekeeper, club or bee researcher in the area who can show you the ropes. It's very helpful to have an old hand show you a few tricks. I've also found "The Beekeeper's Handbook" to be a good reference.

[thecoffeegod]

11:45 AM on 10/04/2010

Does it matter to the bees that I am somewhat scared by them or does a beekeeper have a healthy respect/fear of bees? I know they are pheromone sensitive creatures so I wouldn't want to go stinking up their world with my fear.

[AppleJuiceJunkie316]

09:21 AM on 10/04/2010

Whitewashing bees now. European bees = hardworking, valuable, harmless producers of honey and beeswax into the billions. Africanized bees = useless, violent, worthless destroyers that can kill human beings.

Yeah, that's all I got from this article. I like bees though.

[mutton]

11:28 AM on 10/04/2010

No whitewashing about it. I must have missed the part where it said that Africanized bees are useless and worthless (or could you be exaggerating?) They are decidedly much more aggressive and difficult to work. They were brought to Brazil originally by a researcher who thought he could breed some of the aggressiveness out of them. But a few queens escaped before that could happen, and they've been moving north ever since. Supposedly, they are better producers in the hotter climates than the European bees.

[Lunamoth]

08:40 AM on 10/06/2010

With the decimination of the populations of bees, in Florida, every wild bee colony is destroyed for fear of "contamination" by Africanized bees. It's very upsetting.

[SBB77]

09:12 AM on 10/04/2010

Bees rock.