On the 20th May each year we celebrate World Bee Day. 🌎🐝
However, we believe that bees should be celebrated all year round especially as bee populations have been in decline in recent years due to factors such as habitat loss, pesticide use, and climate change.
Bees are absolutely fascinating creatures and are critical to our environment, but did you know these fun facts?
- Bees are important pollinators, responsible for pollinating 1/3 of the world's food crops. 🌾
- Honey bees can fly up to 15 miles per hour.
- There are over 20,000 species of bees in the world.
- Bees communicate with each other through dance and pheromones. 💃
- Bees have five eyes and can see ultraviolet light.
- Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life. 🍯
- Beeswax is used to make candles, cosmetics, and even furniture polish. 🕯
- The queen bee can lay up to 2,500 eggs per day.
- Bees are the only insect that produces food for humans.
- Bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years.
- Bees have been around for about 30 million years.
- In addition to honey, bees also produce other useful substances such as royal jelly and propolis.
- Bees are able to recognize individual human faces, which is quite impressive for such a small creature.
- Bees are capable of flying at high altitudes, with some species able to fly up to 29,000 feet above sea level. 🏔
- Bees are very important to the world's economy, with the value of their pollination services estimated to be around $200 billion per year.
- The most likely colours to attract bees, according to scientists, are purple, violet and blue. Bees also have the ability to see colour much faster than humans. Their colour vision is the fastest in the animal world, around five times faster than humans. 💜
- Some bee species are able to sting multiple times without dying, while others can only sting once before they die.
- Bees are able to navigate using the sun and the earth's magnetic field. ☀
- The oldest known bee fossil dates back over 100 million years.
- Bees play a crucial role in maintaining biodiversity, as they help to pollinate a wide variety of plant species. 🌱🌼