It’s National Honey Bee Awareness Day: Seven Fun Facts

What’s all the buzz about today’s holiday? Well, in case you haven’t heard, honey bees are a vital part of our ecosystem so they deserve to bee recognized for it.

Originally created in 2009 to educate beekeepers on the importance of honey bees and their lifestyle, it is now a national holiday so that we can all learn more and appreciate these bugs that do so much for this planet we call home. Keep reading for some fun facts about honey bees!

7 Fun Facts About Honeybees

#1. A Honey bee Queen lays about 1,500 -3,000 eggs PER DAY!

#2. A single bee only makes about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in her entire lifetime (which is about five to six weeks).

.#3. It would take approximately 864 honey bees to make enough honey for a typical 12oz. squeeze bottle

#4. If the Queen bee dies, a young larva will be selected and fed a special substance called “royal jelly” which helps it become a fertile Queen.

#5. All worker bees are female, and they collect all of the food for the colony, as well as protect the hive. Only the Queen bee can mate.

#6. The “drones” are all male, and their role in the hive is to mate with the Queen to make the next generation of honey bees.

#7. Honey bee colonies sadly have been disappearing, so we need to do what we can to help them!

You can celebrate this holiday by helping to save the bees! This can be done by planting a garden with bee friendly plants, creating a shallow water garden for them to drink out of, and avoiding the use of pesticides in your yard. Together we can bring them back!

So next time you put honey in your tea, remember to thank a bee!