Bee Trivia

Interesting Facts About Bees

The Australian Aboriginals have long used both the honey and nests as a source of food and wax. The wax is used around the mouth area of a didgeridoo (musical instrument).

Toasted honeybees are a delicicy in some countries.

The Bumblebee uses 21 muscles to sting.

The Honeybee only dies after using its stinger on a mammal or a bird. The bee can use its stinger without threat of death when fighting amongst other bees and insects. The stingers original function was for inter-bee combat.

Honey has long been used for the treatment of wounds because the sugar concentration is so high that no bacteria can live in it.

A bee sting is well known as a cure for rheumatism.

Bees never sleep.

Not all bees were blessed with a sting.

Australia has five major bee families, Colletidae, Halictidae, Megachilidae, Anthophoridae and Apidae.

The African Honeybees (aka Killer bees) were introduced into South America in 1957, when they were accidently released in Brazil, during a science experiment. These agressive little creatures, which are known to attack in large numbers, have slowly moved north following their release and can now be found in the south-west of the United States. 

The European Honey bee is the only known bee in Australia  which leaves its sting behind in the flesh of its victim. Sadly for the bee it results in its death. The sting is attached to muscles, which in the stinging process, result in the bee's entrails being dragged out along with the sting and poison glands (charming!).

The queen bee has a smaller brain than a worker bee, given she lays about 1,500 eggs a day, that may explain it.

When a beekeeper smokes out a hive, the bees go into a frenzy. They race around, stuffing their little faces with food, thinking the hive is about to go up in flames. Because their stomaches are full (distended) they become rather slow and lathargic and in no mood to sting.

Bees are born fully grown.

The buzzing sound made by a bee comes from their rapidly moving wings which flap between 11,000 - 11,500 times a minute.

Death by bee sting is more likely than death by snake bite.

Symbols and Emblems

Some Egyptian pharaohs used bees as a their royal symbol from 3000 - 350 BC.

Bees were part of French emblems of sovereignty during the First and Second Empire from 1804 to 1814 (First Empire) and from 1852-1870 (Second Empire). The bee was considered  the oldest emblem of the sovereigns of France however the golden bees were infact cicadas. They appeared on the emperors and empresses clothes.

Napoleon Bonaparte III used the bee as a symbol of immortality & resurrection during the Second Empire period (1852-1870) and had bee prints on his red cape.

Mephan Ferguson, the man famous for inventing the Lock Bar pipes, had a family crest depicting a bee on a thistle with the motto "Dulcius Ex Asperis" (Sweetness After Difficulty).

The coat-of-arms of Pope Urban VIII depict bees.

The honey bee is the state insect for North Carolina, Arkansas, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, Maine, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Jersey, South Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, Vermont, Tennessee and Wisconsin.

One of Sacramento's leading newspaper is named after our furry friend, The Sacramento Bee, but unfortunately they don't use the bee as their logo.