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Bees – fun facts

Below are some interesting facts about bees and honey.

Find out more about bees and pollination.

  • All worker bees are female.

  • A bee produces a teaspoon of honey (about 5 grams) in her lifetime.

  • To produce a kilogram of honey, bees fly the equivalent of three times around the world in air miles.

  • The type of flower the bees take their nectar from determines the honey’s flavour.

  • Male bees (drones) have bigger eyes to help them find the Queen Bee.

  • Bees mate high in the sky. Afterwards the male bee loses his reproductive organs and dies.

  • A Queen Bee can produce 2,000 eggs a day. Fertilised eggs become females and unfertilised eggs become males, with the help of pheromones.

  • To get more bees in your garden grow more colour.

  • Bees love blue and love cluster plants like lavender and rosemary.

  • Bees don't want to sting you because they die.

  • There are over 20,000 different species of bee, found on every continent except Antarctica.

  • Honey has been shown to have many health benefits both when eaten and when applied to the skin. The darker the honey the better.

  • The bee is the only social insect to be partially domesticated by humans.

Honey bee with its head into a pink flower.

Honey bee on flower

This honey bee has pushed its head into a flower to search for nectar. Pollen from the stamens will rub off on its body and get carried to another flower.

Rights: Neville Gardner

Published: 30 June 2007