Honeybees are social insects that live in colonies. As pollinators, bees play an important part in the ecosystem of the world, as plants reproduce when they are pollinated. Almost 90% of wild plants and 75% of leading global crops depend on animal pollination. One out of every three mouthfuls of our food depends on pollinators.
And of course, bees produce honey for us! Bees have a long, straw-like tongue called a probiscus that allows them to drink the nectar from deep within blossoms.
Honey bees can thrive in natural or domesticated environments, though they prefer to live in gardens, woodlands, orchards, meadows and other areas where flowering plants are abundant. Within their natural habitat, honey bees build nests inside tree cavities and under edges of objects to hide themselves from predators.
Some common plants that attract bees are:
- Lilacs
- Lavender
- Wisteria
- Mint
- Sunflowers
- Poppies
- Black-Eyed Susan
- Honeysuckle
- Lantana
- Snapdragons
Some fun facts about bees:
- Bees actually have four wings. The two wings each side hook together to form one larger pair when flying and then unhook when they’re not flying.
- Honeybees have a dance move called the ‘waggle dance’. It’s not actually a dance move at all, rather a clever way of communicating between themselves to tell their nestmates where to go to find the best source of food. It took the researchers at Sussex University two years to decode the waggle dance.
- Scientists from the University of Bristol have discovered that bumblebees have the ability to use their ‘smelly footprints’ to distinguish between their own scent, the scent of a relative and the scent of a stranger. This means they can improve their success in finding food and avoid flowers that already have been visited.
- All worker bees are female
- A bee produces a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime
- To produce a kg of honey, bees fly as much a distance as 3 times around the world
- The honey flavor is determined by the nectar of the type of flower
- To attract more bees to your garden, grow colors
Almost 90% of wild plants and 75% of leading global crops depend on animal pollination. 1 One out of every three mouthfuls of our food depends on pollinators. Crops that depend on pollination are five times more valuable than those that do not.
(http://www.wwf.org.uk/learn/fascinating-facts/bees)
