Bees are important because they pollinate approximately 130 agricultural crops in the US including fruit, fiber, nut, and vegetable crops. Bee pollination adds approximately 14 billion dollars annually to improve crop yield and quality. A third of our food relies on bees for pollination.

Did you know...

• Bees have 5 eyes
• Bees fly about 20 mph
• Bees are insects, so they have 6 legs
• Male bees in the hive are called drones
• Female bees in the hive (except the queen) are called worker bees
• Losing its stinger will cause a bee to die
• Bees have been here around 30 million years!
• Bees carry pollen on their hind legs called a pollen basket or corbicula
• An average beehive can hold around 50,000 bees
• Foragers must collect nectar from about 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey.
• The average forager makes about 1/12 th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
• Average per capita honey consumption in the US is 1.3 pounds.
• Bees have 2 pairs of wings.
• The principal form of communication among honey bees is through chemicals called pheromones.
• The honecomb is composed of hexagonal cells with walls that are only 2/1000 inch thick, but support 25 times their own weight.
• To make one pound of honey, workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers.
• The honeybee is not born knowing how to make honey; the younger bees are taught by the more experienced ones.

Queen Bees

• The queen is the only sexually developed female in the hive.
• The queen mates in flight with approximately 18 drones.  She only mates once in her lifetime.
• A queen can lay 3,000 eggs in a day.
• Queens can life for up to 2 years.
• A queen can lay her weight in eggs in one day and 200,000 eggs in a year.
• Fertilized eggs will become female offspring, while unfertilized eggs will become males.