World Honey Bee Day Celebrates Pollinator Power

Posted August 13, 2020 by Alyssa Stahr

There’s a buzz in the air, and that’s because Saturday, Aug. 15, is World Honey Bee Day! These little insects pack some mighty power, and the day is reserved to honor both the honey bee and beekeepers who work so hard to make hives better homes for the pollinators of 80% of the world’s plants. 

Our work with the National Honey Board is a nine-year partnership filled with fun, facts, love and outreach not only about honey, but also about bees themselves. We’ve compiled 10 of our favorite not-so-known facts about honey bees thanks to the American Bee Journal, and once you’re done checking those out, be sure to watch Celebrating Beekeeping: A Labor of Love, a video that showcases beekeepers and their profession. It brings to life the human element, hard work and craft behind beekeeping and honey production. 

  1. A worker bee on average has a lifespan of six to eight weeks, but in this short amount of time, she (yes, 99.9% of honey bees are female) accomplishes so much including producing honey and pollinating flowers.
  2. Bees have 5 eyes, 6 legs and fly about 15 mph
  3. The queen lays up to 2,500 eggs per day
  4. An average beehive can hold around 60,000 bees
  5. Nectar from about 2 million flowers makes about 1 pound of honey, and the average forager bee makes about 1/12th of a teaspoon in a lifetime
  6. An 8,000-year-old cave painting in Spain shows us that honey and honey bees have been around thousand of years
  7. On average, a beehive will produce about 65 pounds of surplus honey each year. 
  8. More than 100 crops are pollinated by honey bees
  9. Honey bees produce beeswax from 8 paired glands housed underneath their abdomens
  10. The honey bee’s wings stroke on average 11,400 times per minute

How can you help celebrate World Honey Bee Day? Plant bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden and yard. Reduce use of chemicals and pesticides. Water thirsty bees with a shallow basin of fresh water for bees to land in outside. Donate to an organization dedicated to helping protect and promote honey bees.

Tags: , , , , ,

CATEGORY:

Let us know your pursuits. We’ll find the best way to get you there.