Tuesday, May 08, 2018

The Great Bee Adventure Part 3

The sun is out and the bees are finding their bee-arings.
They fly in ever-increasing figure-of-eight moves all the while checking their position so they can eventually travel up to three miles from the hive and find their way back.

Things I have learned about bees this afternoon
1. The Queen can live for seven years.
2. Workers only live for about a month and they don't sleep!
3. During the night you can hear a humming from the hive: it's the flapping of wings to dry out the honey and make it evaporate down to 10% of its original quantity. Mead is made from the liquid form.
4. Worker bees only sting if threatened and then they die.
5. Drones don't sting.
6. The Queen only stings other queens. The first action of the first Virgin queen to be hatch is to kill all her potential rivals i.e. the other queens not yet born.
7. The workers are in charge. They decide when the it's getting too crowded or when the Queen is getting past it. They decide whether the queen needs to lay drone, worker or queen eggs.
8. Worker bees spend the first half of their lives cleaning the hive and doing repairs. Then they forage for pollen and nectar.
9. The drones are sex machines. They don't do anything else but they only do it once and then die.

So much more but I'll stop there for now as I was getting a little confused.

6 comments:

BrightenedBoy said...

This is so interesting! The social dynamics (if you can use that term) of bees are fascinating, but I've been scared to death of these creatures since I was a child. Mead is great, though. I do love mead.

Anonymous said...

bees have always fascinated me! i love them.
some of these amazing facts i knew but so many i didn't. thank you!!!
btw...
i finished your wonderful Ebook "This Time Next Year by Liz Hind."
i say that with your name because apparently a lot of people have used that title!
that is the most wonderful book Liz! i gave it a 5 star review at the end of it in my kindle.
but i need to go to amazon and leave a written review.
you should have an agent! or maybe you do. it could even be a fantastic movie. it's what Diane Keaton would play to a Tee if she were a bit younger! and David Davies! YES!
i hated for it to end. i would love to have gone on with Aliss and David and their wedding... i can see her setting the wedding tent on fire or something equally mind blowing. LOL! i just fell in love with her and the whole family and the whole book! it's a MUST READ. especially for summer! i'm always using the LOL ... but i truly did.
(and we though Evanovich is good. she doesn't hold a candle to you dear bean!)

Anonymous said...

shoot. it just dawned on me.
hurry. delete my comment. i spoiled the ending for anyone who might read it! i would change it but it's already published! sorry!

Liz Hinds said...

BrightenedBoy, bees are good! But I can understand you being scared.

THank you, Tammy! What a fabulous review. I'm so glad you enjoyed it.

Liz Hinds said...

I'm not going to delete such a lovely review! I don't think the ending is very surprising.

nick said...

I'm watching your big bee adventure with great interest. I never knew any of those facts about bees, that's really fascinating. It's amazing that they can travel so far and still find their way back to the hive. One thing that puzzles me is that bees are supposed to be keen on dandelions, yet the few bees I've seen this year have totally ignored the dandelions.