Bees Facts

Honey bees fly at 15 miles per hour.

The sting from a killer bee contains less venom than the sting from a regular bee!

Elephants are terrified of Bees and actually have a special, distinct vocalization for “Run away the Bees are angry”

Only female bees work.

A queen bee primarily uses her smooth, unbarbed stinger to eliminate rival queen bees, allowing her to sting multiple times without dying.

When a male honey bee climaxes during sex, his testicles explode and then he dies.

When a queen bee becomes too old or diseased to serve the colony, worker bees form a tight cluster around her until she dies from overheating—a process scientists call "balling" and others have nicknamed "cuddle death."

Honeybees have a type of hair on their eyes!

Honey never spoils. Archaeologists have found 3,000-year-old honey in Egyptian tombs that was still perfectly edible.

Some farmers in Kenya are using elephants' natural fear of bees and building "beehive fences" that keep wild elephants from trampling the crops. It keeps the farms safe, and prevents farmers from having to kill elephants to defend their livelihood!

When a drone bee mates with a queen, its ejaculation is so powerful that it can even be heard by the human ear.

Worker bees must visit around 4,000 flowers in order to make one tablespoon of honey.

It takes about 12 bees their entire lifetime to produce just one teaspoon of honey.

In 2014, Morgan Freeman converted his 124-acre Mississippi ranch into a bee sanctuary. He imported 26 hives from Arkansas, planted acres of clover and lavender, and became a beekeeper himself — all to fight Colony Collapse Disorder. He never wears a protective suit. The bees have never stung him.