Here at The Naturality Lab we love honey bees and are fascinated by how they live and work and how much we rely on them. It’s estimated that one third of the human food supply that we consume depends on insect pollination. Without bees, the amount and variety of the food that we eat would be significantly reduced, which could heavily impact our way of life and nutrition. So it’s clear that bees are an extremely important part of our lives, but how much do we actually know about them?
That's why we've compiled a list of 13 of our favourite facts about honey bees:
1. Honey Bees are very social creatures that live in hives, otherwise known as colonies. Each hive population consists of one queen, a few hundred drones (male bees) and thousands of worker bees (female bees).
2. A new study shows honeybees can recognise and remember human faces.
3. You should never give honey to bees, it can be dangerous and in some cases can kill them.
4. Bees are attracted to scented herbs like rosemary, sage, thyme, lavender, basil etc, while they find fragrances such as peppermint, spearmint, eucalyptus and thyme off-putting.
5. Bees release a special attraction pheromone that smells like lemons to help foraging bees find their way home and release a warning pheromone when they sting that smells like bananas to humans, this attracts other bees to come and protect the hive.
6. Bees see dark colours such as red, brown and black clothes as a threat.
7. If the queen produces lazy, sterile males then she will be killed and the bees will choose one of her daughters to become the new queen.
8. Male honey bees don’t have stingers, while female honey bees are the only bees to die after stinging.
9. Come winter, when the hive goes into survival mode, the male drone bees are kicked out.
10. The average worker bee lives for around 5-6 weeks and produces around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey.
11. The queen bee can live up to 5 years and can lay up to 2500 eggs a day in the summer.
12. When the colony needs a new queen bee they choose a healthy larva, hatched from the egg of the current queen, and feed it royal jelly, a special super nutritious food which helps the larva grow into a queen bee.
13. Honey Bees have a special dance called the ‘waggle dance’, which is used as a special form of communication to tell each other where to find the best food.
What can we do for honey bees?
Bee numbers are in serious decline which has serious implications for us all. Rob Macklin, the head of food and farming at The National Trust says: ‘the decline of bees and other pollinating insects has been linked to the loss of flower-rich habitats due to the intensification of agriculture, the use of pesticides, urbanisation and industrial development.” He implores that “it’s vital for wildlife and crops to make space for these beneficial insects.”
It’s important that we do what we can to help protect the bees. Anything we can do, no matter how small, can make a difference to these essential wildlife friends. You could:
- Plant some flowers in your garden, or windowsill, so bees can have access to nectar.
- Plant throughout the seasons so bees can have food and shelter all year round.
- Research the best bee-friendly plants and flowers and pick your favourites.
- Refrain from using pesticides and herbicides as these have been implicated in the bees decline.
These are just some small things you can do to help the bees, but remember - even doing something small can have a big difference.
Click here to learn more about how to be bee-friendly from the WWF website.
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