Till a couple of years back I didnt know that we celebrated May 20th as the World Bee Day ! We eat a spoon of honey nearly every day, but didnt realise that UN had designated a day to celebrate the hard working honey bees.
Fun Facts about Honey Bees
- If a honey bee stings you, IT dies …. wish we had known this when Krishnan and I were attacked by a honey bee swarm in Nalagarh while cycling. It was a scary experience, but we escaped with just some red patches for a couple of weeks. Neither of us is allergic to the bee sting. Didnt know that some of those bees would have died after stinging us. 🙁
- Honeybees have 5 eyes and hair on their eyes … don’t think anyone except bee keepers get that close to a honey bee.
- There are three kinds of bees in every hive – the Queen bee, Worker bee and the Drones. The Queen bee lays 1500 eggs each day and lives upto 3 or 4 years. Worker bees are truly the hardworking bees … they collect the nectar and pollen from flowers to make honey. Drones are male bees without a stinger, they just mate with the Queen bee and never work.
- One Spoon of honey is enough to keep a person alive for 24 hours.
- Propolis is a resin that bees create. It contains a mixture of bee saliva, beeswax, and substances from plants and trees. It’s a natural anti biotic that helps heal minor wounds and sores.
- One spoon of honey is made by 12 honey bees in their entire lifetime.
- The buzzing sound that honeybees make is because their wings rub against each other 11,400 times per minute.
- Honey bees help pollinate flowers, crops and plants while collecting nectar they are also transferring pollen and fertilising the plant.
A beehive is also called a colony and it can have upto 60,000 honey bees. In a year, a beehive produces 181 kilos of honey. Honey is 20% water and 80% sugar. The most amazing thing about honey is that it never spoils. Egyptians believed that their ancestors required food in their afterlife and all the tombs of the pharaohs contained jars of honey. Honey is the only food that contains all the substances needed to maintain life.
I clicked a couple of pics of honeybees collecting nectar from flowers –
A honey bee has to collect nectar from 2 million such flowers to make 1 pound (approx 500 gms) of honey. Do say a silent thank you to these honey bees that not only give us life sustaining honey but they do truly sustain life on Earth. If honey bees were to die, life as we know would also be gone.
If you would like to buy good quality pure honey, please contact Mr. Jagpal Phogat at the following number – +91 94166 61961.
