busy bees

read an article about honeybees...knew they were vitally important but didn't know some of these fun facts and more!

• foragers bring nectar back to the worker bees, and at an empty set of wax cells they work in teams to pump nectar in and out of the cells -- this digests and dehydrates the nectar at the same time. they fan their wings to create more evaporation, the nectar reduces by 80% and the end product is honey.
• females do all of the work in the colony and develop from fertilized eggs; the average colony has 50,000 females
  
• males do not forage for pollen or nectar and do no other work -- they develop from unfertilized eggs, mate with the queen, then die; the average colony has 300 males
• 1 lb. of honey = est. 50,000 miles of flight
• 1/12 teaspoon of honey = may take an individual worker bee its entire lifetime to produce
  
• thought to be the only food capable of passing into bloodstream without having to be digested first
• good as an antiseptic, antioxidant, relaxant, burn remedy among other uses
• used as an embalming fluid -- honey was discovered in king tut's tomb and was still edible after 3,200 years
• 1990's -- 1/4 of america's beekeepers put out of business due to the varroa mite
• 2007-2008 -- 36% of colonies in u.s. died (est. 30 million bees) due to colony collapse disorder (a disease); led to 37% increase in global food prices during that time
• many people have started small colonies in an effort to increase populations -- there might be a hive near your home that you don't even know about but that is extremely important and helping nature's cycles
  

so don't kill them if you see them or if you have them near your home, call someone to remove them and relocate them versus killing them!

btw - american beekeeping federation