10 Fun Facts About Bees

🐝 1. Bees Can Dance

Bees use a “waggle dance” to tell their hive-mates where to find the best flowers. The direction and duration of the dance communicates distance and location!

🍯 2. One Bee Makes Just 1/12th of a Teaspoon of Honey

It takes about 12 bees to make a single teaspoon of honey. A hive may fly over 55,000 miles to make one pound!

🧠 3. Bees Have Excellent Memories

Bees can recognise shapes, colours, and even human faces. They also remember which flowers give the best nectar and will revisit them.

🌍 4. Bees Are World Travellers

Some bees can fly up to 5 miles from their hive in a single trip—and reach speeds of 15 mph!

🌸 5. Bees Love Blue and Purple Flowers

Bees are especially drawn to blue, purple, and violet blooms—they can even see ultraviolet light, which makes certain flowers appear to glow.

🏡 6. Not All Bees Live in Hives

Only honeybees and some bumblebees live in colonies. Most bees—like the solitary mason or leafcutter bee—live alone in nests made in wood, soil, or stems.

🌎 7. There Are Over 20,000 Species of Bees

Bees come in all sizes and colours—from tiny metallic sweat bees to the fuzzy bumblebee. Only a small percentage actually make honey.

💼 8. Bees Are Super Workers

A single worker bee may visit 2,000 flowers in one day. And during its short 5–6 week life, it works tirelessly from sunrise to sunset.

🎶 9. Bees Buzz in Musical Notes

The buzzing sound comes from rapid wing movement—around 200 beats per second! The pitch changes depending on their mood and activity.

💛 10. Bees Can Be Gentle

Despite their reputation, most bees won’t sting unless provoked—and many (like male bees) can’t sting at all!

Why are bees so important - learn more here