Wonders of Honey Bees

Wonders of Honey Bees

An Introduction

            Do you know ?  Honey bee itself, a wonder. Let see the facts why its called WONDER.

Largest Honey producer in the world

The world record for honey production is by a man Ron Smith who lived for one year in the tropical forests of Australia he lived and worked his 400 bee hives on Eucalyptus trees they averaged 672lbs per hive some produced over 1000 lbs through the year. average production of 346 kilograms (762 lbs) per hive from 460 hives.

For an Ounce of Honey

The Average honey bee will produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. To make one pound of honey it would take 556 workers and 2 million flowers. Honey bees fly about 55,000 miles to bring in enough nectar to make one pound of honey.

            Honey bees make an average of 1,600 round trips in order to produce one ounce of honey.About one ounce of honey is all it takes to give the honey bee enough energy to fly around the world

Bee Wax

            Secreted from glands, beeswax is used by the honeybee to build honey comb. It is used by humans in drugs, cosmetics, artists' materials, furniture polish and candles.Beeswax production in most hives is only about 1.5% to 2.0% of the honey yield. Approximately eight pounds of honey is eaten by bees to produce one pound of  beeswax.

Royal Jelly- A Life changing thing

Royal Jelly is the substance that turns an ordinary bee into the Queen Bee. It is made of pollen which is chewed up and mixed with a chemical secreted from a gland in the nursing bee's heads. This "milk" or "pollen mush" is fed to all the larvae for the first two days of their lives.

Honey bees can fly at speeds of up to 15 miles per hour.           

That might seem fast, but in the bug world, it's actually rather slow. Honey bees are built for short trips from flower to flower, not for long distance travel. Their tiny wings must flap about 12,000 times per minute just to keep their pollen-laden bodies aloft for the flight home.Its recorded that the bees can go farthest distance of 13.7 km.

An industrious worker bee may visit 2,000 flowers per day. 

She can't carry pollen from that many flowers at once, so she'll visit 50-100 flowers before heading home. All day long, she repeats these round trip flights to forage, which puts a lot of wear and tear on her body. A hardworking forager may live just 3 weeks.

Honey bees maintain a constant temperature of about 93º F within the hive year-round.       

As temperatures fall, the bees form a tight group within their hive to stay warm. Honey bee workers cluster around the queen, insulating her from the outside cold. In summer, the workers fan the air within the hive with their wings, keeping the queen and brood from overheating. You can hear the hum of all those wings beating inside the hive from several feet away.

A queen honey bee stores a lifetime supply of sperm. 

The queen bee can live 3-4 years, but her biological clock ticks a lot faster than you might think. Just a week after emerging from her queen cell, the new queen flies from the hive to mate. If she doesn't do so within 20 days, it's too late; she loses her ability to mate. If successful, however, she never needs to mate again. She holds the sperm in her spermatheca and uses it to fertilize eggs throughout her life

The queen honey bee lays up to 1,500 eggs per day, and may lay up to 1 million in her lifetime. 

Just 48 hours after mating, the queen begins her lifelong task of laying eggs. So prolific an egg layer is she, she can produce her own body weight in eggs in a single day. In fact, she has no time for any other chores, so attendant workers take care of all her grooming and feeding.

  

Their sting has some benefits

A toxin in bee venom called melittin may prevent HIV. Melittin can kill HIV by poking holes into the virus's protective envelope. (Meanwhile, when mellitin hitches a ride on certain nanoparticles, it will just bounce off normal cells and leave them unharmed.) Scientists at Washington University in St. Louis hope the toxin can be used in preventative gels. 

They can help us catch serial killers

Serial killers behave like bees. They commit their crimes close to home, but far away enough that the neighbors don’t get suspicious. Similarly, bees collect pollen near their hive, but far enough that predators can’t find the hive. To understand how this “buffer zone” works, scientists studied bee behavior and wrote up a few algorithms. Their findings improved computer models police use to find felons.

They can recognize human faces

Honeybees make out faces the same way we do. They take parts—like eyebrows, lips, and ears—and cobble them together to make out the whole face. It’s called “configular processing,” and it might help computer scientists improve face recognition technology, the New York Times reports.

They’re job creators

Americans consume about 285 million pounds of honey each year. On top of that, the U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that honeybees pollinate 80 percent of the country’s insect crops—meaning bees pollinate over $20 billion worth of crops each year.

Pollination
            Agriculture depends greatly on the honeybee for pollination. Honeybees account for 80% of all insect pollination. Without such pollination, we would see a significant decrease in the yield of fruits and vegetables. 50-100 flowers are pollinated during one collection trip.  

So next time you're eating any fruit or vegetable, thank a honey bee!

Honey – Amazing Facts

ü  Honey never spoils. No need to refrigerate it. It can be stored unopened, indefinitely, at room temperature in a dry cupboard.

ü  Honey is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tutankhamun and was still edible (a little dry) as honey never spoils because it is naturally anti microbial. (Anti fungal, anti bacterial, anti everything nasty) which is why it's also such an incredible healer.

ü  Honey has been used for medicine by the Egyptians as far back as 5000 years!

ü  Honey is very good for burns, abrasions, and indigestion.

ü  The sting of the honey bee is used for arthritis; which is called Apitherapy.

ü  There are over 300 varieties of honey, because there are over 300 kinds of flowers.

ü  Darker honey has higher mineral content and antioxidant potential.

ü  Honey should not be fed to babies under the age of 1 year due to the botulin toxin.

ü  Honey is an effective antimicrobial agent, which inhibits growth of bacteria.

ü  Honey has an approximate pH of 3.9

ü  That there are 75 substances found in honey.

ü  Is highest composition of Glucose, and fructose.

ü  Has monosaccharide (simple sugars), which are more easily assimilated than any other forms.

Reference

ü  www.beeman.ca

ü  www.honeybeesonline.com

ü  www.beesource.com