AMAZING BEEKEEPING FACTS
Compiled by Bob Sitko
Stillwater, MN
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➡Bees have 4 wings, 5 eyes, and 6 legs.
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➡A single beehive usually contains 10,000 to 40,000 bees.
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➡It takes 8 to 10 pounds of nectar to make one pound of honey.
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➡Bees smell through their antenna and feet and have no ears.
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➡A honeybee can fly about 15 miles per hour.
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➡A bee makes up to 20 trips a day gathering food or water.
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➡A bee produces less than one-quarter teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
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➡The 6 sided hexagon shape of honeycomb is the strongest shape per material weight.
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➡To make a pound of honey, bees have to travel 55,000 miles and visit 2 million blossoms.
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➡Bees normally forage up to 2 miles from the hive, covering more than 8,000 acres.
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➡Two tablespoons of honey would fuel one honeybee to fly around the world.
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➡There is only one queen bee in each hive, and she lays about 1,500 eggs per day
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➡Queens only mate during one session in their lives and can live for 7 years.
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➡All worker bees are immature females and during the summer live about 6 weeks.
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➡Drones don’t feed themselves and don’t have a stinger (or a defensive attitude.)
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➡Bees require only nectar, pollen, and water to survive on earth.
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➡Propolis is tree sap used by the bees to varnish, glue and caulk the inside of the hive.
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➡Man uses propolis in pharmaceuticals (Russian penicillin) both internally and externally.
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➡Bees don’t freeze solid in winter (like ants) but cluster and shiver in the hive to stay warm.
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➡Honey was used as a healing antiseptic by the Romans on war wounds.
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➡Honey is so hygroscopic; it can absorb moisture from bacteria, killing them.
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➡Mead, a wine made from honey, was man’s first alcoholic beverage.
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➡Bee stings make your body produce cortisone, warding off arthritis and cancer.
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➡The queen can lay fertilized eggs, which hatch to be females, workers or unfertilized eggs, which hatch to be males, drones.
