Honey Bee Facts

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Some estimates suggest that honeybees must collect pollen from two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

They live in hives that can number in the tens of thousands. The comb pictured at the top of the page was taken in a natural setting.

Beekeepers often use box structures to encourage hive formation, thereby gaining easy access to the honey.

Hive social structure consists of a queen, workers (female non-queen bees) and drones (male bees).

Honey bees do sting, and unlike others bees, such as yellow jackets, if they lose their stinger they die.

Across the United States, and in various other areas around the world, record numbers of honey bee colonies have collapsed, or have experienced population decreases of fifty per cent or more.

The phenomena is called Colony Collapse Disorder, (CCD) and scientists are trying to determine the cause. Currently they are examining three possible causes including the effects of pesticides, the outbreak of new bee parasites and/or viruses, and other environmental causes such as decreases in the availability of high value pollen plants, water pollution and stress due to over work.

Will Global Warming Help Honey bees Dance?. Read the article and decide for yourself. In the meantime, here are some additional honeybee facts.

• Honey bees, a native European bee species in the Apidae family, are European natives. They were introduced into the United States by the early settlers.
• Four subspecies of the Honey Bee (Apis mellifera) are recognized in the United States, including the Africanized honey bee.
• Honey bees produce beeswax, the substance used to build a comb, using eight paired glands on the underside of their abdomen
• A good size honey bee colony can have a population between 40,000 to 60,000 bees during the late spring or early summer.
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture has estimated that there are between 139,600 and 212,000 beekeepers in the United States. The vast majority (95%) are hobbyists with less than 25 hives and about 4% are part-timers who keep from 25 to 299 hives.
• A 1999 Cornell University study concluded that the direct value of honey bee pollination annually to U.S. agriculture is $14.6 billion.
• The top five honey producing states in 2008 were: North Dakota, South Dakota, California, Florida and Minnesota.

© 2007-2010 Patricia A. Michaels