The poop on pollinators

Bee Informed

Here are some facts to help you Bee educated about one of our wonderful pollinators: the honey bee.

A small positive charge builds up when honey bees fly, and plants have a small negative charge, so when a bee lands on a petal or leaf, plant pollen literally jumps onto the bee.

All five of a bee’s eyes contribute in some way, shape, or form to their survival. Their eyes help them perceive a range of the visible light spectrum and polarized light, allowing them to detect threats and locate food sources.  Although bees can’t see as far as humans can, they have a wider field of vision having 280 degrees of vision vs. humans’ 180 degrees.

When honey bees do a long slow “waggle” dance it means that food is far away or not a great quality, but a short fast dance means great food is nearby. The waggle dance includes information about the direction and energy required to fly to the goal. Energy expenditure (or distance) is indicated by the length of time it takes to make one circuit. For example a bee may dance 8-9 circuits in 15 seconds for a food source 200 meters away, 4-5 for a food source 1000 meters away, and 3 circuits in 15 seconds for a food source 2000 meters away.

Honey bee queens lay between 1,200 to 3,000 eggs every single day.  That is EVERY SINGLE DAY!

That’s just a few of the senses and activities of bees.  Every little fact helps you Bee informed! 

Citations: https://bee-health.extension.org/ and https://beeswiki.com/bee-vision