Top 10 Interesting Bee Facts for Beekeepers

Thanks to small but interesting creatures – bees, the process of pollination of most plants takes place. Arrange their lives is truly surprising: the bee family is strictly organized, all work in the hive is performed by worker bees (they are females). There are about 200 honey insects in the world, and only 000 of them are social. It is more or less clear with bees, but what do beekeepers do?

A beekeeper is a person who breeds and keeps bees. When we eat honey, we rarely think about how much effort it took to get it.

Beekeeping is a rather hard work, and sometimes it requires full dedication. You can study for this profession both in a secondary specialized educational institution and in a higher one.

If you are here, then you are interested in this topic. We will not delay and immediately tell you about the 10 most interesting facts about bees for beekeepers. It’s educational!

10 The bee will always find its way home

The answer to the question: “How do bees find their way home?” is actually very simple, despite the fact that bees are amazing and unusual creatures. When they fly home, they are guided by the polarization of light in the sky, by the position of the Sun, by the surrounding landscape.

In addition, for several days they remember the way to their hive. If the weather is cloudy and visibility is poor, the bee will still find its way home.

Interesting fact: it is believed that the older the bee, the greater the distance it can fly and remember the way to its hive.

9. “Sealed” for the winter

From the title of the paragraph, you might think that the bees themselves are somehow sealed, but this is a little different. In order for the bees to be healthy, strong and live long, the beekeeper must take care of their favorable wintering..

Many insects, unfortunately, do not survive the winter, so their hives are insulated. Wintering begins after the process of collecting honey – insects are “sealed” inside the hive. There they form dense tubers and, thanks to the heat, warm each other.

At low temperatures, the bees become more active, so more food is consumed. It is these factors that determine the need to take care of the insulation of the hive.

8. Lift and carry 40 times their own weight

It’s hard to believe that these tiny creatures can carry 40 times their own weight! The insect has only 12-14 mm. in length and 5-6 in height. Its weight is (if measured on an empty stomach) about 1/10 of a gram.

Sometimes these wonderful creatures – bees, have to lift even more weight into the air: flying out of the hive with the corpse of a drone, the bee carries twice as much as it weighs itself.

The flight speed of bees depends on the load with which they fly, on the strength of the wind and many other reasons. Interestingly, ants also have the ability to carry 40 times more weight than their own.

7. The Egyptians were the first beekeepers

It was with the Egyptians that the domestication of winged workers began.. The ancient Egyptians were especially fond of bees – they believed that the tears shed by the sun god Ra during the creation of the world turned into these insects. After that, the bees began to bring good luck, and, of course, honey and wax to their creator – the man who bred the bees. Figures of various pharaohs and gods were made from wax, using them as Voodoo dolls.

The Egyptians believed that through them you can influence the gods and people. It is curious that the bee has become a symbol of the Egyptian goddess – Maat, personifying the Law of Universal Harmony. People believed that if you live according to the laws of the goddess, you can gain eternal life.

Beekeeping originated in ancient Egypt, according to archaeological excavations, 6000 years ago.

6. In ancient Egypt, honey was used for embalming

And not only in Egypt. Honey was used to embalm corpses in Assyria and ancient Greece.. The process of embalming was carried out rather terribly: first, the Egyptians removed the brain from a human corpse, removing it with an iron hook through the nose, followed by pouring liquid oil, which hardened there.

The oil consisted of beeswax, various vegetable oils and tree resin (the resin of coniferous trees was brought from Palestine). The process did not end there – it included the cleansing of the body from other organs. After 40-50 days (during this time the corpse dried up), the body was rubbed with oil – its composition was the same as that used for pouring into the skull.

5. Worker bees have different life spans

A bee is an insect with a short lifespan. It is impossible to say exactly how long she lives, because it depends on many factors..

For example, worker bees are female creatures; due to their physiological characteristics, they do not have the ability to reproduce. The life expectancy of such a bee is influenced by many factors: nutrition, climatic conditions (including during winter), etc. If an individual was born in the summer, then it may live for 30 days. If in the fall – up to six months, and spring lives for about 35 days.

4. Most of the country collects honey in Siberia

To the question: “Where is the best honey produced? experts will answer that Siberia – virgin honey land of Russia. Today, beekeeping is well developed even in northern Siberia, not to mention regions with a warmer climate.

Beekeepers are constantly developing new methods, thanks to which they get more honey, and, I must say, excellent quality. Siberian, Altai and Bashkir honey are recognized as the best in the world – the products collected in these parts are saturated with healing composition and meet quality standards.

In Siberia, when the weather does not interfere, the honey conveyor operates without interruption and the bees work tirelessly throughout the season.

3. Richard the Lionheart used bees as a weapon

Bees have been used as weapons since ancient times. Currently, bees and other insects cannot be used as a type of biological weapon.

Even the ancient Greeks, Romans, and other peoples used vessels with bees to hold back the onslaught of the enemy.

For example, the soldiers from the army of Richard the Lionheart (English king – 1157-1199) threw vessels with bee swarms into the besieged fortresses. Even armor (as you know, they were metal) could not save from angry bees, and stung horses could not be controlled.

2. A bee swarm collects about 50 kg of pollen per season.

Exkert (1942) calculated that a full-fledged colony collects about 55 kg of pollen per year; according to Farrer (1978), a healthy and strong bee colony collects about 57 kg. pollen per year, and studies by S. Repisak (1971) suggest that in within one year, these tiny and wonderful insects collect up to 60 kg. flower pollen.

Interestinglythat bees collect and carry pollen to their body surfaces.

1. To get 100 gr. honey bees need to fly around 2 million flowers

One bee in its short life will not be able to collect so much nectar to get 100 gr. honey (in her life she collects no more than 5 gr.) But if we are talking about the number of flowers in general, then for 1 kg. honey comes nectar from about 19 million flowers. For 100 gr. 1,9 million flowers are obtained.

It is noteworthy that a single bee visits up to several thousand flowers per day, landing on an average of 7000 flowers.