KIDS BEE FACTS Honey bees (Latin name 'Apis Mellifera')

• Honey bees have hair on their eyes

• A full pollen load weighs about 1/6th of the weight of a bee

• A full load of nectar weighs about ½ the weight of a bee

• The oldest known record of humans interest in honeybees is a drawing on a cave wall in eastern Spain, which is dated to approximately 8,000-11,000 years old. It depicts a man climbing a ladder to collect honey from a nest. Similar drawings have also been found in caves in Zimbabwe and South Africa

• Ancient records show that beekeeping originated about 6,000 years ago in both China and Egypt

• The pollen baskets on a honey bee are situated on their legs and are called 'corbicula'

• Nectar is carried in the crop/honey stomach

• The average worker bee will fly approximately 500 miles before she wears out and dies

• A queen bee has to eat 80 times her own weight to produce 2,000 eggs per day

• A bee will visit 50-100 flowers during one trip

• Honey can range in colour from white to gold to dark brown and it usually has a stronger taste when its colour is darker

• A bee must tap 2 million flowers to make 1lb of honey and would have to fly 55,000 miles to get it

• One bee will make 0.8g (1/10 of a teaspoon) of honey during her lifetime

• Mead is made from fermented honey

• Drambuie is a scotch liquer which is made from honey

• Like the male Bumble Bee, drones (males) don't have stings

• A worker honeybee in summer lives only 6 to 8 weeks

• A hive can contain up to 70,000 bees in the middle of summer

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