Fun Facts
• A single bee colony can
produce more than 100 pounds (45 kg) of extra honey and this is what is
harvested by the beekeeper.
• Some beekeepers in Alberta and Saskatchewan regularly harvest over 300
lbs (136 kg) of honey per colony.
• It takes one colony of honey bees (around 30,000 bees) to pollinate an
acre of fruit trees. Pollination success increases if there are more honey
bees present at the time of peak flowering.
• A colony of honey bees in early spring has 10,000-15,000 bees.
• A colony of honey bees in summer has 50-60,000 bees.
• A honey bee flies up to 24 km
/hr or 15 mph and its wings beat 200 times per second or 12,000 beats /
minute.
• A normal colony of honey bees contains only one QUEEN who may lay 2,000
eggs per day during her busy season
there may be 60,000 or more WORKER bees (undeveloped females ) who do all
the work. There will also be several hundred DRONES (Male bees).
• A worker bee gathers in her entire life 0.8 gram (0.0288 ounce) of
honey.
• It requires 556 worker bees to gather a pound of honey.
• Bees fly more than once around the world to gather a pound of honey.
• The average life of a honey bee during the working season is about six
weeks.
• Nectar as gathered by the bee contains about 70% water (Honey is about
17% water).
• Bees remove the excess moisture from nectar by rapidly fanning their
wings over the open cells in the hive.
• Honey varies in colour from white through golden to dark brown and
usually the darker the colour the stronger the flavour.
• The value of bees pollinating fruits vegetables and legumes is 10 times
the value of honey produced (over $1 billion in Canada)
• Natural pollinators are disappearing rapidly and each year we become
more dependent on honey bees for many of our daily foods
• Honey is one of the safest food- most harmful bacteria cannot live in
honey for any length of time.
* From The Canadian Honey Council booklet The Story of Honey
by L K Dennis illustrated by Robert Kunz and the Canadian Honey Council
Teachers Kit


Bee Trivia
Test your bee knowledge with
these great trivia questions:
Q. How many bees in a hive?
A. 50,000 or more
Q. How many flowers must a bee
tap to make 454 g (one pound) of honey?
A. Two million (here's
the calculation)
Q. How far does a hive of bees
fly to bring you 454g (one pound) of honey?
A. Over 55,000 miles (here's the calculation)
Q. How much honey does the
worker bee make in her lifetime?
A. 0.8g (1/10 teaspooon)
Q. How fast does a honeybee
fly?
A. About 24 km/hr or 15 mph
Q. What is the name given to
wine made with fermented honey?
A. Mead
Q. How long have bees been
producing honey from flowering plants?
A. About 10-20 million years
Q. What Scotch liqueur is made
with honey?
A. Drambuie
Q. How many wings does a bee
have?
A. Four
Q. How many sides does each
honeycomb cell have?
A. Six
Q. How many flowers does a
honey bee visit during one collection trip?
A. 50-100
Q. How do honeybees communicate
with each other?
A. By dancing. Honeybees do a dance which alerts other bees where nectar
and pollen is located. The dance explains direction and distance.
Q. What is the per capita
consumption of honey in Canada?
A. One kilo (2.2 pounds) per year.
© 2010 Canadian
Honey Council. All Rights Reserved.
Scott Stackhouse
Beekeeper
scott@northumberlandhoney.ca
Copyright © All rights reserved
No part of this website may be reproduced
without the expressed written consent of Amy Stackhouse
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