Learn about Honey

Enjoyed the world over, honey is a rich golden fluid produced by honey bees and collected from the nectar of plants.

Other than producing honey, most people may be unaware of the “behind the scenes” action that occurs to create this delicious and sweet alternative to sugar that has been collected since ancient times.

Here’s some interesting facts about the tiny creatures that work so hard to make the honey that we enjoy so much.

Ten Facts about Bees that you might not know:

1. Honey bees help other plants such as fruit, vegetables and flowers to grow! In their daily travels, bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts of the plants, encouraging them to grow seeds and fruit.
2. When the queen bee of a hive dies, worker bees choose a young larva and feed it “royal jelly“ as it develops. This special food that makes the chosen larva to grow into a fertile queen.
3. Returning honey bees perform a “waggle dance” at the hive to tell other bees where they should go to find the plants they need.
4. Sadly, the average worker bee only lives for just five to six weeks and during this time, they only produce a tiny portion of honey – only enough to over one of your finger nails!
5. Bees are fast! They can fly at nearly 25km per hour and move their wings at a rapid 200 times per second!
6. Australia has more floral sources for honey making than any other country. This means we have the widest range of tastes and colours of delicious honey!
7. Honey is the only food in the world made by an insect, and eaten both by the insect and humans.
8. A “brood box” is the area in a hive that is used by the queen to lay eggs and raise new bees from larva.
9. A “super” is the hive box used to store honey for collection. Bees actually can produce nearly three times more honey than they need. That’s why they can share it with us!
10. There’s a good reason that worker bees have earned that name. A single worker bee can visit 50-100 flowers on one single trip out of the hive.