Subject Guides: Beekeeping: Introduction

Fun Facts About Bees

In the course of her lifetime, a worker bee will produce 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey.

To make one pound of honey, workers in a hive fly 55,000 miles and tap two million flowers.

A productive hive can make and store up to two pounds of honey a day. Thirty-five pounds of honey provides enough energy for a small colony to survive the winter.

Theoretically, the energy in one ounce of honey would provide one bee with enough energy to fly around the world.

Most researchers believe the honeybee originated in Africa. The first European colonists introduced Apis mellifera, the common honeybee, to the Americas. Native Americans referred to the bees as "White Man's Fly." Today honeybees can be found all over the world.

Bees have five eyes. The three ocelli are simple eyes that discern light intensity, while each of the two large compound eyes contains about 6,900 facets and is well suited for detecting movement. While bees cannot recognize the color red, they do see ultraviolet colors.

Podcast on plants and their pollinators, poisons and pests
Adam Rutherford finds out how some plants deal with pollinators and sneaky nectar thieves and how others limber up their defenses at the mere sound of the munching of caterpillars.
Beyond The Hive: The Wonderful World Of Native Bees
Science Friday.
On Beeing
Farmers have known for centuries that putting a hive of honeybees in an orchard results in more blossoms becoming cherries, almonds, apples and the like. Yet it’s only in the last 30 years that pollination services have become such an enormous part of American agriculture.