In honor of earth and arbor day, I decided to share some odd bee facts on Twitter. My friends on Plurk asked if I would share them on Plurk.
How could I not share them with you?!? I tried to pick facts that I haven't shared before. I've expanded the facts for the blog.
Thursday Thirteen : Odd, and interesting facts about honeybees
1. In the US, native tribes called honeybees 'the white man's fly' as bees would arrive 5-10 miles ahead of a wagon train.
Beehives were considered as essential as water or food. Not only did they predict the weather (bees won't fly if it's due to rain), the honey and propilis provide effect antibacterial properties. Pollen collected by bees is an excellent protein source and honey is a sticky sweet carbohydrate. Wagon train folks weren't stupid!
2. A honeybee must visit at least 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey (the standard unit for honey).
Honey is generated from nectar taken from flowers. The worker honeybee ingests the nectar. Once at the hive entrance, the bee passes the nectar to another bee. This bee then passes the nectar at least one more time. It's the enzymes in a bees stomach that turn nectar into honey.
3. In the last 100 years, there have been 4 recorded bee plagues: 1916, 1960s, 1970s, and now.
In 1916, 90% of Europe's honeybees were destroyed by a traceal mite. (The mite wasn't discovered in the US until 1984. It exists now only in moist regions.) European bees were saved by a noble Capuchin monk called Brother Adam at Buckfast Abby. He traveled over 100,000 miles collecting the survivor hives then breed them until he created the Buckfast bee. (He's a hero of mine.) The 1970s saw the rise of the varroa mite. This is a particularly nasty mite that destroys hives over winter. Further, an infected hive becomes sensitive to viruses and disease.
4. The first thing a hive does every morning is flying back and forth in the direction of the sun. This is called a beeline.
Imagine, if you will. You wake up in the morning, cup of coffee in hand, and wander out to the bee yard. What you will see is seemingly frantic bees fly up toward the sun and back to the hive. Over and over again they fly. Once they have it, off they go. Because bees navigate using the sun, they must know where their hive is in relation to the sun.
5. Beekeeping was well established in Egypt by 2400 BC as depicted on 5th dynasty temple reliefs.
The Egyptians used honey in embalming bodies because they believed that bees were the 'zootype of the Soul.' Thus bees were the messengers of the dead and speaking with them akin to speaking with the spirits of the dead. This the English tradition of telling a hive when someone has died in the house stems. (Ancient Egyptians - the Light of the World by Gerald Massey) Recently, a 3000 year old man made Honeybee hive was discovered in northern Israel at an archaeological dig in the huge earthen mound called Tel Rehov.
6. Honeybees recognize individual's faces.
For a beekeeper, this can be an awesome thing or a horrible thing. I've pissed off a few bees who definitely recognized me later. That said, my bees tend to be calm, happy and hardworking. They let me sit right by their entrance and never investigate. I've taken hives to other locations where other people attended them. Those bees became anxious and hostile, like the people who attended them. Once home? They calmed right down. Go figure.
7. The oldest honeybee specimen is over 100 million years old. 
For reference, human beings are believed to have evolved 3 million years ago. Crocodiles evolved 80 million years ago. Honeybees are believed to have evolved form carnivorous wasps.
8. Through pollination, honeybees are responsible for the creation of every flowering plant on earth.
Prior to honeybees, the earth was covered with coniferous trees.
9. Bees are mentioned in both the Bible and the Qur'an.
Bible:
- Deut.1 [44] And the Amorites, which dwelt in that mountain, came out against you, and chased you, as bees do, and destroyed you in Seir, even unto Hormah.
- Josh.21 [27] And unto the children of Gershon, of the families of the Levites, out of the other half tribe of Manasseh they gave Golan in Bashan with her suburbs, to be a city of refuge for the slayer; and Beesh-terah with her suburbs; two cities.
- Judg.14 [8] And after a time he returned to take her, and he turned aside to see the carcase of the lion: and, behold, there was a swarm of bees and honey in the carcase of the lion.
- Pss.118 [12] They compassed me about like bees; they are quenched as the fire of thorns: for in the name of the LORD I will destroy them.
Qur'an:
- 16:68-69: 'And thy Lord taught the bee to build its cells in hills, on trees and in (men's) habitations..... there issues from within their bodies a drink of varying colours, wherein is healing for mankind. Verily in this is a Sign for those who give thought'.
- 'Honey is a remedy for every illness and the Qur'an is a remedy for all illness of the mind, therefore I recommend to you both remedies, the Qur'an and honey.' (Mohammed)
10. The 'Killer Bee' (also called the 'Africanized Honeybee') was created by the USDA. Go team!
The idea was to create the 'superbee' by crossing the gentle Italian honeybee with the more aggressive, but hardworking African honeybee. The hope was to create a gentle and hardworking. They created a very aggressive, high swarming, low honey creating bee. Of course, a queen bee got loose in the Brazilians jungle and the rest is history. Africanized honeybees were seen in So. Utah this year. I've seen them in So. Colorado. These bees offer are a legitimate threat to the American (meaning entire continent) honeybee population. As they spread north, they breed with more winter tolerant bees. Once they can tolerate the cold, world domination will be next. Or something like that.
11. Honeybees will always stop what they are doing to take care of baby bees.
When we collect a swarm of bees, we often add a frame of baby bees. The swarming hive will alway stay to care for the baby bees. In fact, a honeybee will give another bee water and food even if it's not from the same hive. Moreover, if a bee from another hive ends up inside a hive when night comes, they will stay to become part of that colony.
12. Honey is the only food source that does not spoil.
Honey changes form - from liquid to crystal - but it does not degrade. Honey found in Tutankamen's tomb, or the site in Israel, is as good, and good for you, as honey taken from a modern hive.
13. Colony Collapse Disorder is a big freakin' deal.
Originally described in 1896 as 'Disappearing Disorder'. In the 1960s, disappearing disorder caused wholesale havic causing many beekeepers to go out of business. It's back, and it's worse. Why is this a big deal?
- This is a world wide problem. This round of the syndrome was first sited in the 1990s in Europe.
- Honeybees are not the only pollinators effected. In the United States, there has been a wholesale die off of all pollinating species including bats.
- 36% of US beehives and 15% of UK beehives have been lost.
- No one has any idea what's going on. There's a million theories. But there's always been a million theories. No one knows why this is happening. If someone tells you they do? Just smile and walk away. No one knows. (Best guess? Some kind of bee stressor.)
Read more Thurday 13s by going here.
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