This week is World Bee Day (Friday 20th May), and to celebrate the Honey Thief Founder, Deborah McLaughlin, has prepared some facts about our wonderful world of bees.
The award-winning honey producer understands the importance of bees not just for honey production, but also to the greater environment generally. In particular, the recent rains of NSW have dramatically affected bee populations and it’s important we all realise why bees are so important, and how everyone can assist in helping bee populations to thrive.
24 Things You Didn’t Know About Bees
The main purpose of World Bee Day events is to spread awareness of the significance of bees and other pollinators for our survival.
“When we think of bees, we think of honey, we don’t often think about the vital role that bees play in feeding us all.”
Wheen Bee Foundation
1. There are around 20,000 species of bees worldwide and around 2000 native bees in Australia, most of them are solitary.
2. Honey is a superfood! Honey and honey products such as pollen and Royal Jelly have been shown to have many health benefits both when eaten or applied to the skin.
3. Honey bees were first introduced in Australia in the 1800’s and are our most prolific pollinators and are responsible for a third of our fruit and vegetable production, that’s every third mouthful. A healthy bee population means a healthy supply of fruit and vegetables such as apples, citrus, berries and nuts.
4. Honey bees are also necessary for the pollination of important textile crops like cotton and flax (linen). Consumers can make an important environmental choice by opting to purchase organic cotton and linen to avoid the use of toxic agricultural sprays.
5. Everyone can play their own part in the preservation of bees, by planting honey bee attracting flowers, buying Australian made honey and hive products, or even finding out more about starting your own hive, it’s a wonderful way to connect to nature.
6. Simple acts like occasionally not mowing your lawn to encourage dandelions and flowering weeks to grow and letting your vegetables go to seed and flower is a small way you can help the bees.
7. Support bee friendly gardening practices. Many pesticides and domestic and agricultural chemicals are harmful to bees. Where possible, buy or grow organic food without the use of chemicals.
8. Around 2 million flowers to create one jar of honey!
9 A drone bee’s sole purpose in life is to mate with a Qu11.een – after which he dies.
10. Bees must visit around 2 million flowers to create one jar of honey.
11. Honey has been shown to have many health benefits both when eaten or applied to the skin.
12, The darker the honey, the better.
13. To attract more bees to your garden, try planting rosemary and lavender. Honeybees see in ultra violet and love blue and purple flowering varieties.
14. All worker bees are female and all are infertile.
15. A bee produces a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
16. The type of flower the bees take their pollen and nectar from determines the honey’s colour, flavour and texture.
17. A honeybee colony has about 50,000 bees.
18. A Queen Bee can lay 2,000 eggs a day.
19. A Drone bee is a male bee whose sole mission in life is to mate with the Queen bee. The Drone doesn’t work or forage or do anything really! The Drone bee has big eyes so he can spot the Queen.
20. Bees mate high the sky and afterwards the male bee loses his reproductive organs and dies.
21. A Queen bee will mate only once in her lifetime, with as many as 15 drones on what is called a mating flight.
22. A bee flaps its wings up to 200 times per second, which produces the familiar bee buzz.
23. Worker bees communicate with a dance, called the waggle dance. She will rapidly shake her body from side to side in a certain direction to tell worker bees which direction and how far food sources can be found.
24. Drones do not have a father, just a mother and a grandfather. The drone is created from an unfertilised egg and inherits all its genetics from its mother and its grandfather.
Everyone is invited to come into The Honey Thief this Saturday, either before or after you have voted, to dress up in bee themed outfits to show your support for World Bee Day. Free honey pops will be given out during the day to those wearing bee colours.
The Honey Thief Shop address: Shop 3, The Acre, 391-397 Bong Bong Street, Bowral, NSW, Australia.
