Honey Bee (Apis) Facts

From Reader’s Digest; A honey bee resting on a yellow flower.

The most common honey bee is the Western Honey bee, or the apis mellifera. These bees are found on every continent except Antarctica. They stay away from colder climates, unlike bumblebees.

Courtesy of Wikipedia; A map where honey bees are natively found.

Honey bees are generally social creatures, as they have hives with a queen, worker bees, and drones. Here are more fun facts about the honey bee:

• Honey bees communicate about food sources through dance, like the round dance and the waggle dance (where this website gets its name)!

• Pheromones are the other way of bee communication.

• While worker bees cannot survive after they sting, queens can.

• Honey bees have five eyes.

• All worker honey bees are female. Talk about girl power!

• A queen Western honey bee can live for 2-3 years. A worker will live for less than half a year.

• Honey has different flavors and colors depending on the region it was made in and the kinds of flowers it was made from.

• Honey was found in King Tut’s tomb. It was over 2000 years old and still edible!

• The honey bee is a state insect of 18 different states!

• Honey bees have been trained to locate landmines!

• Honey bees were the first kind of bees in space, and they travelled on the Columbia Space Shuttle in 1982!

Courtesy of CBC; A honey bee flying up to a flower.