Honey Trivia

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Research On Sweet Uses of Honey

1. An average colony of honey bees contain only one queen, who may lay 2,000 eggs per day during her busy season. There may be 50,000 of more worker bees (undeveloped females) who do all the work. There will also be several hundred drones (male bees). 2. A worker bee gathers in its entire life .0288 of an ounce of honey. It required about 556 worker bees to gather a full pound of honey. The bees would fly approximately 35,584 miles or more than once around the world in doing this work. 3. The average life of a worker bee during the working season is about six weeks. Three weeks of this time is spent on work within the hive, and three weeks as a field bee gathering nectar and pollen. 4. Honey varies in colour from white through to golden to dark brown, and it is all of equal food value. Although the darker the honey, the higher the mineral content of calcium, phosphorous, iron, etc. 5. The value of honey bees is important in pollinating fruits, vegetables and legumes. Natural pollinating insects are disappearing rapidly and each year we will become more and more dependent on the honey bee for many of our daily foods. 6. Honey is one of our safest foods. Many harmful germs cannot live in honey for any length of time. THE COLONY Honeybees are social insects, with a marked division of labor between the various types of bees in the colony. A colony of honeybees includes one queen, workers and drones. THE QUEEN The queen is the only sexually developed female in the hive. She is the largest bee in the colony. A two-day-old larva is selected by the workers to be reared as the queen. She will emerge from her cell 11 days later to mate in flight with approximately 18 drone (male) bees. During this mating, she receives several million sperm cells, which last her entire life span of nearly two years. The queen starts to lay eggs about ten days after mating. A productive queen can lay 3,000 eggs in a single day. THE DRONES Drones are stout male bees which have no stingers. Drones do not collect food or pollen from flowers. Their sole purpose is to mate with the queen. If the colony is short on food, drones are often sent out of the hive. THE WORKERS Workers, the smallest bees in the colony, are sexually underdeveloped females. A colony can have 50,000 to 60,000 workers. The life span of a worker bee varies according to the time of year. Her life expectancy is approximately 28 to 35 days. Workers that are reared in September and October, however, can live though the winter. Workers feed the queen and larvae, collect nectar, guard the hive entrance and help to keep the hive cool by fanning their wings. In addition, honeybees produce wax combs. The wax combs are composed of hexagonal cells and the walls are only 2/1000 inch thick but support 25 times their own weight. Honey bees’ wings stroke 11, 400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz. *Courtesy of the National Honey Board  & Canadian Honey Council*