• Bees pollinate 80% of our nuts, fruits, and vegetables
• Bees have been around for almost 100 million years, and cave paintings show that honey collection dates back as far as the stone ages
• In ancient Egypt, citizens paid their taxes with honey
• European settlers introduced European honeybees to New England in 1638. Honey was used to prepare food and beverages, make cement, preserve fruits, concoct furniture paste, polish, and varnish, and for medicinal purposes.
• Fermented honey, known as Mead, is the most ancient fermented beverage. The term "honey moon" originated with the Norse practice of consuming large quantities of mead during the first month of a marriage
• Bees have 7,000 eyes in each big eye
• An average beehive can hold about 50,000 bees
• The queen may lay 600-800 or even 1,500 eggs each day during her lifetime. This daily egg production may equal her own weight.
• Foragers must collect nectar from about two million flowers to make 1 pound (1/2 kilo) of honey
• To make that same 1 pound of (½ kilo) of honey, that bee might fly a distance equivalent to two trips around the world
• To fuel a bee’s flight around the world, they would need to consume about two tablespoons of honey.
• To make 1kg of wax (2 lbs), a bee must consume 4 kg of honey (8 lbs)
• An average forager makes about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime
• The queen makes one mating flight during her life, and stores the sperm from up to 20 drones that she collects on her flight
• A worker larva is fed an average of 1300 meals a day
• In the U.S., the honeybee is the official state insect in Missouri, Utah, New Jersey, Maine, and South Dakota
• Since honey has the ability to absorb and retain moisture, it is used in the baking industry to keep baked goods fresh and soft
• Honeycomb’s hexagonal interlocking structure makes it one of the strongest lightweight structures known to engineers