.1. A honeybee visits two million flowers to make one single jar of honey.

2. One bee has to fly about 90,000 miles - three times around the globe to make one pound of honey.

3. A honeybee will only make 1/12th teaspoon of honey in its life time.

4. A honeybee will visit 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.

5. Honeybees will have visited two million flowers to make a jar of honey.

6. A honeybee can fly for up to six miles.

7. They can fly up to 15 mph.

7. The honeybee’s brain is about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has a remarkable capacity to learn and remember things. For example, it is able to make complex calculations on distance travelled and foraging efficiency.

8 Honeybees communicate with one another by dancing.

9. They also communicate using pheromones, chemical scents. Honeybee pheromones provide the glue that holds the colony together

10. Honeybees have been producing honey in the same way for over 100 million years.

11. The honeybee is the only insect that produces food eaten by man.

12. The honeybees’ buzz is the sound made by their wings which beat 11,400 times per minute (about 200 times a second.)

13. They have five eyes and six legs.

13. Honeybees can see all colours except the colour red.

14. They have 170 odorant receptors which means they have an incredible sense of smell.

15. Honeybees have two stomachs. One for eating and one for storing nectar collected from flowers or water to be taken back to the hive.

16. A honeybee produces wax from eight wax producing mirror glands on the underside of their bodies.

17. The wax they produce is clear. It becomes discoloured as a result of being mixed with pollen and propolis.

18. Each wax scale they produce is about 3mm accross and 0.1 mm thick.

19. About 1,100 scales are needed to make a single gram of wax.

20. Everything a honeybee does is for the good of her colony. She does not live long enough to benefit from her hard work.

Honeybees play a huge part in the ecosystem. As far as important species go, the bees are the top of the list. They are critical pollinators. They pollinate 70 of the 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world. Without bees we could lose all the plants that the bees pollinate, all the animals and insects that eat those plants and so on up and down the food chain. Even some plants grown to feed livestock for meat production, such as clover and alfalfa, depend at least partly on bee pollination. Bees are a fatastic symbol of nautre. That they are in trouble is a sign that our natural environment is not in the good shape it should be. They boost the colour and beauty of our contryside. A world without honeybees is unthinkable.

THE HONOURABLE HONEYBEE

The little honeybee is 100 million years old. It is one of the most ancient and noble of species. They are natures natural gardeners. Flowers have not developed their colours for us, they have done it for the honeybees. They work their whole lives, using one interaction at a time to change the world for the better.

What if we as a species could emulate the honourable honeybee. It starts with our next interaction, with the environment, business, the person you’re sitting next to and the next person you meet. What if we could find a sustainable way to help humanity, live continue and prosper. It’s admirable and achievable. Let’s not destroy in 100 years what the bees have spent 100 million years making.

Maybe, perhaps, we cannot just save the bees, but save the world and ourselves.

(Ted Curran)

Your final chance to win a signed copy of Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees a wonderful adventure about a young girl who takes off on a magical journey learning all about the secret life of the honeybees inside and outside of the hive.

Answer this simple question:

HOW LONG HAS THE HONEYBEE BEEN AROUND?

Send your answers to meriet@mdthequeenbee.co.uk or go to the contact page on this website and send in your answer. Don’t forget to put your name and address!

I’VE REALLY ENJOYED DOING THESE FUN FACT FRIDAY’S AND WOULD LIKE TO THANK EVERYONE WHO’S TAKEN PART!

My thanks to Google and the access I’ve had to the various websites I have used to gather information for these past six weeks. I’ve learned things I didn’t know as well!

If your entering the competition…. then… Good Luck…

All images used are from Betsie Valentine And The Honeybees - illustrated by Tegan Sharrard - and available from www.tegan-art.co.uk

If you would like to know more about:

“HOW TO PLANT A BEE FRIENDLY GARDEN”

Follow this link - https://www.plantedwell.com/bee-garden/