Bee Facts | McGregor Farms Honey

Bee Facts & Benefits

Interesting
Bee Facts

Bees use the sun as a compass and on cloudy days they use polarized light to find their way
A honeybee visits between 50-100 flowers during one collection flight from the hive
In a healthy hive, a worker bee can produce 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime
This converts to 2 million flowers and bees flying about 50,000 miles to make 1 pound of honey
It takes around 1152 bees to make a jar of honey 16 oz. (one bee produces 1/12 tsp honey so we need 12 bees to produce one teaspoon.
Due to colony collapse disorder, bees have been dying at a rate of 30% per year
Honey bees are the only type of bee that dies after stinging a person or animal, they can sting each other and survive
Only female bees have stingers
Beekeepers suit is usually white because bees react strongly to dark colors
Bees use a sticky substance gathered from the buds of trees called propolis in order to fill in the cracks and waterproof their hives
Bees have four stages of life: eggs, larvae, pupae and adult
Bees communicate in two ways: with the use of pheromones and with the waggle dance
Every species of bee perform their communication dances differently
During the winter some of the worker bees only have the job to vibrate and heat the hive in order to keep it at optimal temperature
Newborn bees ask for food by sticking out their tongues at passing worker bees
Every bee colony has its own particular scent in order for the colony member to identify each other
A honeybee will produce about a quarter of a teaspoon of honey in their life span
For every pound of honey produces one hive must collect 10 pounds of pollen
Every bee has two stomachs – one for eating and one for storing nectar
Bees have 5 eyes, 3 simple and 2 compound eyes
Honeybees are the only insects that produce food that people consume
Honeymoon originates from the ancient tradition of supplying a newlywed with a months supply of honey in order to ensure happiness and fertility
In the USA more than 300 different varieties of honey are produced every year and the variety of color and flavour depends on the types of flowers and plants the bees collect nectar.
The darker the honey, the greater amount of antioxidant properties it has
A productive queen can lay up to 2500 eggs per day
Drones die after mating with the queen
A queen can survive stinging unlike worker bees which die after stinging
Honey bees sense of smell is 50 times more powerful than a dog’s and they have 170 smell receptors
A worker bee can carry nectar or pollen to 80% of it’s own body weight
Beeswax is used in many products including medicine, cosmetics, candles and furniture polish

5 Ways
You Can Help the Bees

Honey bees, beekeepers, and the honey industry are direct contributors to the success of American agriculture. Today, the honey industry faces many challenges, such as hive loss, drought, colony collapse, and shrinking forage areas. Here are a few ways you can help the honey bees:

Plant bee-friendly flowers and flowering herbs in your garden and yard.
Let the weeds grow - you may not like them, but bees love them! Reduce the use of pesticides to treat your lawn or garden while flowers are in bloom.
Bees are thirsty. Put a shallow basin of fresh water with marbles or rocks in it for the bees to land on outside your home.
Donate to an organization dedicated to helping protect and promote honey bees and other pollinators.
Support beekeepers by purchasing and eating honey.

Source Honey.com

Beeswax Candle Benefits

Just like honey, Beeswax varies in color, depending on various factors related to the bees themselves as well as the flowers from which the honey is derived
Beeswax is known for its long, slow, clean, smoke-less burn
Beeswax candles burn stronger and brighter
Beeswax candles exudes the aroma of honey
Facilitates the elimination of airborne pollutants
Created by the bees, beeswax candles are 100% natural, all chemical-free
Beeswax candles have significantly longer (2-5 times) burn time and drip very little, if any at all
Hypo-allergenic, beeswax candles benefit those with environmental allergies, sensitivities, and asthma
Many people know that beeswax is used in a vast range of cosmetic and skin care products such as body balm, hand creams, lip gloss, mascara, moisturizers, and concealers. It is also used for making candles

The Many Benefits of Honey

Honey Benefits in Skin & Body Care

Used cosmetically, Beeswax hydrates, conditions, soothes, and calms the skin. It exfoliates, repairs damage, promotes the skin’s regeneration, diminishes the appearance of the signs of aging, soothes itchiness and irritation, and creates a hydrating, long-lasting protective barrier against environmental pollutants. Used in hair, Beeswax nourishes, conditions, and softens the strands while and promoting the hair’s luster. It brightens your complexion, has anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties, fades scars, and is a natural emollient that softens and moisturizes the skin to prevent dryness and itching.

Beeswax also provides gentle exfoliation to keep you soft and smooth. Like honey, beeswax has potent antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties, which make it a popular ingredient in products targeted toward dry-skin conditions.

Beeswax Used Medicinally

Used medicinally, Beeswax helps soothe and facilitate the healing of abrasions. It prevents harmful bacteria from entering the body through chapped and broken skin and it provides the skin with a layer of protection against external irritants. Its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties benefit those who suffer from topical allergies or skin ailments, such as eczema and rosacea.

Source: https://www.newdirectionsaromatics.com/

Why are Bees Important

Bees are not only extremely important for humans, but also for entire ecosystems to function. Bees allow plants to reproduce through pollination. As bees visit plants seeking food, pollen catches on their bodies and passes between plants, fertilizing them – that's pollination. More than 90% of the leading global crop types are visited by bees.

Bees Pollinate Food Crops & Plants that animals consume.

Honey Bees are responsible for $30 Billion a year in crops
That’s only the start, consider all the plants the bees pollinate that animals eat and so on up the food chain.
A world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion.
Albert Einstein concluded “if the bee disappeared off the face of the Earth, man would only have four years left to live”
Cucumbers, cherries, apples, limes, lemons, almonds. All of these would not be here if bees disappeared just to name a few crops.
Honeybees travel incredible distances to look for pollen. It is because of these amazing journeys that fertilization takes place between food crops.
Without bees we would have a vastly diminished grocery missing most of the fruits vegetables, berries and nuts that we depend on for a healthy, balanced diet

They Pollinate Wild Plants

Bees not only help with food crops, but they also pollinate wild plants. We should never ignore the importance of wild plants in our lives. Wild plants are major components of biodiversity. They provide food to a wide variety of insects, birds and animals that constitute nature. Without wild plants, these key players in the ecosystem would disappear. There would be no milk, meat and other important foods we get directly from animals and birds. We would also lack enough oxygen without wild plants. It is important to keep the honey bees around so that many plants continue to exist.

Bee’s value to natural ecosystems as pollinators is incalculable. We can price pollination services that nature provides for crop production, but it’s more challenging to monetize the full range of services provided by the rich palette of plants that depend on bees. One way to assess the worth of bees for nature is to consider the extent to which advanced plants (angiosperms) depend on them for pollination. 20% of all angiosperms can be pollinated only be bees. Another 45 percent are pollinated by bees as well as by the wind or other animals, mostly beetles, moths, butterflies, birds & bats. That is 65 %, or 229,000 of the 352,000 species currently known, require or benefit from bee pollination.

They Produce Honey

All honeybees carry the nectar extracted from plants back to the hive. They mix the nectar with their saliva in a cell to produce honey. It is only bees who can produce honey for us. Honey is an important food that has immense benefits on our health. It helps prevent cancer, heart disease, gastrointestinal disorders and diabetes. Honey also reduces coughs, increases athletic performance, heals wounds and fight bacteria. Thanks to these wonderful creatures, the country produces more than 157 million pounds of honey every year.

Honey Products

There are several products that can be produced through honeybees. One of the most common products we have likely come across on the shelves is bee pollen. It is a food product that is low in calories but rich in proteins, enzymes, vitamins, beneficial carbohydrates, amino acids and bioflavonoids. It is capable of stabilizing cholesterol, rejuvenating the body, stimulating organs, accelerating the rate of recovery and strengthening capillaries. Another important product is bee wax. It is used in skin care products, candles and furniture polish.

Employment

Bee farms, APIARIES are major sources of employment in the US. According to the US Department of Agriculture, there are about 212,000 beekeepers in the country. These people employ at least four workers in their farms to help them manage the colonies. A considerable number of people work as honeybees pollination services providers while others are employed in organizations that deal directly with bee products, such as cosmetic, textile and candle companies. There are about 1.5 million people who benefit directly from honeybees when it comes to employment.

Honeybees might seem small and insignificant insects, but they play a huge role in food production, health and employment. It is the role of everyone to ensure we employ the best practices that can help keep honey bees alive and active.

Source: https://www.topmastersinpublichealth.com/lists/5-reasons-why-honey-bees-are-so-important/

Interesting Bee Facts

Interesting
Bee Facts