Here are 12 facts about bees, and there's always one you wouldn't expect

12 interesting facts about bees

Bees are vital to agriculture. As you probably already know, a significant portion of what we eat is due to crop pollination, and bees are one of the most studied organisms on earth. Here are 12 interesting facts about bees that you probably didn't know.

1. Bees may top out at 15-20 miles per hour, but they're not the fastest in the insect world. That's because they were built for short trips from flower to flower, not long distances. Their tiny wings have to flap 12,000 to 15,000 times a minute to keep their bodies in the air -- typically traveling at about 12 miles per hour -- while laden with pollen and heading back to the hive

2.Bees have five eyes. "Look, there are two, and three smaller ones in the middle of their foreheads." 'said Mortimer. "Even on cloudy days, they know the polarity of the sun. It's how they set up their internal GPS."

3. About a third of our food comes from pollination by bees, which collect nectar and pollen from flowers. Bees pollinate more than 80 percent of the plants on earth.

4. Royal jelly is an emulsion made from digested pollen, honey or nectar, and a chemical from Suckling bees. Suckling bees feed the queen throughout their lives, while worker bees receive royal jelly only when they are mature. This jelly is sought after by humans as a dietary supplement.

5. Each bee from the same hive has its own unique color recognition.

6.Bees have two stomachs. One digests food; The other is the nectar they collect and bring back to the hive. Bees for agricultural transport are typically loaded in 408 to 412 beehives and transported to a variety of crops across the country.

7.Bees communicate through a series of dance movements. When bees find the perfect nectar source, they do a "waggle dance" to alert other bees in the hive. "If it's farther than a football field, the dance is a number eight. If it's close, they dance in a circle, "Mortimer said, adding that the bees also give directions based on the Angle of the sun. "The more excited the bees, the larger or richer the food source."

8. There are currently an estimated 2.7 million bee colonies in the United States, two-thirds of which travel to the Country each year to pollinate crops and produce honey and beeswax.

9. When the temperature drops, bees keep warm by forming tight groups inside their hives. Worker ants surround the queen to protect it from the cold outside. In the summer, worker bees fan with their wings to keep the queen and the colony from overheating. You can hear the hum of all the wings beating in the hive from a few feet away.

10. The youngest worker bees make beeswax, which they use to build their hives. Eight pairs of glands in the lower abdomen produce wax droplets that harden into thin flakes when exposed to air. Workers put pieces of wax in their mouths to soften them into a pliable building material.

11.Bees can visit 5000 flowers a day.

12. As for the expression "busy as a bee," consider one final fact: bees rest at night, but they don't sleep.