Honey Bee Facts
Did you know that ...
- Bees have 5 eyes and 6 legs
- Male bees in the hive are called drones; Queens and Workers are female
- Bees fly about 20 mph
- Number of eggs laid by queen: 2,000 per day
- Losing its stinger will cause a bee to die
- Bees have been here about 30 million years!
- Bees carry pollen on their hind legs in a pollen basket or corbicula
- An average beehive can hold around 50,000 bees
- Bees have 2 pairs of wings. The two wings on each side hook together to form one larger pair when flying, and then unhook when they’re not flying.
- Honey bees have a dance move called the ‘waggle dance’. It’s not actually a dance move at all, rather a clever way of communicating between themselves to tell their nestmates where to go to find the best source of food.
- If the queen bee dies in a honey bee hive the workers can create a new queen bee. They do this by selecting a young larva and by feeding it special food called ‘royal jelly.’ When fed enough, that larva will develop into a fertile queen.
