Honey bees produce the food we all know and love: honey! Packed full of essential vitamins, minerals and enzymes, honey serves as an all-natural preservative when stored properly in its comb – never going bad!
Bees possess five eyes: two large compound eyes and three smaller ocelli eyes in their center of their head. Furthermore, their tongue can store up to 2 million pollen grains!
1. They can sting once
One common belief about honey bees is that they can sting repeatedly; however, in reality they often die after their first sting. Their stingers contain barbed lancets that stick into your skin once activated; when stuck there it also tears off part of its abdomen and causes its demise within minutes.
Female workers that possess stingers provide care and protection to the queen bee, guard the hive from threats, gather nectar for feedings and only sting in an emergency situation.
When bees sting you, their stinger often becomes detached and continues to inject venom into the wound. Therefore it is crucial that its removal as soon as possible in order to minimize further injection and potential reactions; unlike yellow jackets or bumble bees that may sting multiple times, honey bees only tend to do this once.
2. They are peaceful creatures
Many bees can be peaceful creatures, yet some can become aggressive for various reasons such as lack of resources or territorial disputes. If this occurs they will release an alarm pheromone which alerts other bees nearby that there may be danger to their colony.
Honey bees are essential pollinators that play an essential role in helping produce fruits, vegetables, flowers, nuts, and seeds. Unknowingly transfer pollen between flowers as they forage – thus aiding plant reproduction.
Bees communicate with one another through their waggle dances. Additionally, their antennae touch one another to indicate food sources or potential new hives sites. Their sense of smell allows them to detect predators or threats to their hive’s security; when fear strikes they eject pheromones signalling to other bees that something may be amiss in order to warn of imminent danger.
3. They are highly protective
Honey bees have played an invaluable role in the propagation of flowers over millions of years by unwittingly spreading pollen from one flower to the next – essential in allowing plants to reproduce themselves or they would perish altogether. Without bees’ assistance many plants would no longer have the chance to reproduce themselves and would eventually perish altogether.
Bees have bodies covered with feather-like branches of hair which capture pollen grains. Bees also communicate food sources to their hives through dance language called the “waggle”, which acts like an alert system for their colony.
Bees’ vibrantly coloured bodies provide a powerful deterrent against predators and honey robbers, as their dark-to-light striations is an alarm signal to other bees when danger approaches; alarm pheromone and vibrations also warn them when danger approaches. If their queen and young bees are being threatened outside the hive, they will attack in order to defend them – this attack may even prove fatal for an attacker!
4. They live in hives
Honey bee colonies have only one queen that controls them all. She lays eggs that produce new generations of bees for the colony while also controlling it through chemicals, such as pheromones.
Hives contain two different kinds of bees – female workers and male drones – with worker bees possessing stingers while drones do not.
Worker bees forage for food and create the honeycombs used to store nectar, while simultaneously cleaning their hive and tending to young bees. Furthermore, worker bees communicate with other bees through dance signals that communicate quality nectar sources – when foragers discover an abundant food source nearby they perform complex figure eights and straight lines while shaking their wings simultaneously and this informs other foragers that rich resources exist nearby.
5. They communicate through dance
The waggle dance is the most sophisticated form of animal communication we have uncovered to date, used by experienced foragers to inform their hive mates about food and nest sites.
The dance is a physical display utilizing four pheromones that communicate distance, direction and quality of resources to other bees within their hive. This form of navigational signalling has proven its worth throughout nature’s vastness: bees can communicate locations over several miles by using this system.
Researchers have demonstrated that novice foragers can follow an expert forager’s waggle dance and locate flower patches by following scent cues. Yet it remains unknown why honey bees use such a “dance language.” Recent theoretical and empirical research indicates its utility when food sources vary greatly in quality or are difficult to access.
6. They can fly in zero gravity
Researchers recently conducted experiments in space aimed at understanding honey bee flight. To do so, they placed them in an environment rich in oxygen and helium – less dense than regular air – which forced the bees to work harder at staying aloft, and allowed scientists to observe how they adjusted by expanding their wing stroke amplitude without altering wingbeat frequency. They observed this to be significant evidence for adaption rather than change among bees.
The study confirmed that bees use celestial cues for navigation, including sky polarization patterns and sun’s position, to navigate. Unfortunately, specifics remain unknown about what specific cues they use to navigate; no specific frequency was ever mentioned as their “wing beat frequency,” although it likely is not 7.83Hz as claimed in a false Facebook post; rather their flexible wings create pressure differentials between air above them and below them that helps them fly.
7. They can do simple math
People generally associate mathematics lessons with pencils, paper and desks; but cognitive scientists have taken an unusual approach: they are teaching algebra or geometry not to high school students but instead to honey bees with brains 20,000 times smaller than our own!
Scarlett Howard and her colleagues trained 14 free-flying bees to associate blue and yellow shapes with addition and subtraction, before sending them into a Y-shaped maze with two options; for instance if their initial stimulus included two blue shapes they needed to fly towards an arm with three symbols which represented “two plus one”.
Correct responses were rewarded with sugar water while incorrect choices were penalized with quinine solution. Bees generally picked the correct answer about 70% of the time – an impressive achievement from such tiny brains! – but much still needs to be learned by buzzers.
8. They have a sense of direction
Honey bees use various cues when searching for food sources, including scent, light patterns from the sun’s polarized light source and landmarks that stand out in their surroundings. Honey bees also rely heavily on Earth’s magnetic field as an aid in finding resources.
Researchers conducted tests to verify this theory by observing the flight patterns of experienced forager bees released into unfamiliar territories, where they explored linear landscape elements like irrigation channels more thoroughly than any other features in their environment. Researchers discovered that experienced forager bees tend to explore linear features like irrigation canals more often.
These results indicate that honey bees have the ability to utilize familiar features in new regions to navigate effectively. This is vital, as honey bees serve as vital pollinators that enable plants to reproduce; without their assistance many flowering species would likely not exist today.
9. They are busy
An easy way to gauge a honeybee colony’s strength is by watching how many bees arrive and depart at its entrance every minute; strong colonies will see hundreds, while weak ones may only have few passing by.
Worker bees, which perform the majority of honeybee work, are constantly on the move but take frequent breaks to rest their muscles and conserve energy by not working during extreme hot and humid days – saving their precious resources fighting against nature instead.
Although she may be the only female bee in her hive, the queen works tirelessly. Each day she lays over 1,000 eggs while maintaining an optimal temperature level in the hive – an effort which takes an enormous amount of energy. Furthermore, she does her part to keep it clean by collecting hairs and debris that accumulates within.
10. They can sting
Honey bee stings release alarm pheromones which alert other bees of imminent danger, so running or swatting at them may only increase their aggression as they attempt to defend their hive from attack.
Bee stingers have barbs similar to fish hooks that dig into skin when they attach themselves, eventually becoming stuck and pulling free when bee tries to fly away, killing it instantly.
Bee venom contains three proteins, such as acid phosphatase, that destroy cells. Normal reactions to being stung include swelling and itching; however, symptoms may differ depending on who’s being stung if allergic. Consult a medical professional if symptoms worsen after being stung – you can even use bee venom medicinally, known as apitherapy, to treat arthritis, bursitis and other ailments.