Day 203: Bees

Hello again,
Today I am thankful for bees and all that they do. Bees not only pollinate our flowers but they produce honey and beeswax that we use for alot of different stuff. I have read that bees will visit about 2 million flowers to produce one pound of honey! One bee will visit up to 1000 flowers in a single day! The reason I think this is so amazing is that each flower they visit is a flower that is pollinated that will produce seeds for new plants or food for us to consume. If we did not have bees, we would have to find a way to pollinate all of those flowers ourselves and I can not imagine doing that! I also don't know if we could quite do as good of a job as bees can. I realize that bees can be a nuisance as well if they build nests in bad spots and it becomes dangerous for people and sometimes stuff has to be done but for the most part, I think bees are not so bad. I also don't have an allergy to bees so I suppose it is easier for me to say that. I do think the work that bees do is quite amazing and would hate to see all of the bees disappear. Reading about bees is quite fascinating because all that they do.

Here are a few bee facts to leave you with!
Bees have a very good sense of smell.
Different bees have different jobs within the colony and work together.
Bees wings go about 200 beats per second which makes the buzzing noise.
Bees have a remarkable ability to learn and remember things.
Apparently a bee's life span is about 6 weeks and Honey bees will produce about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in their lifetime. Bumble bees don't produce much honey like the honey bees do.
A bee collects enough nectar and pollen in one trip to weigh over half their weight.
Unlike Honey bee queens, bumblebee queens will work in the hive with the other bees.
Bumble bees don't lose their stinger and die like Honey bees when they sting.