Random bee fact: each workerbee trip returns ~40mg nectar to the hive.
<3 Not Your Beekeeper
Random bee fact: each workerbee trip returns ~40mg nectar to the hive.
<3 Not Your Beekeeper
And it takes them approximately 1 hour and 1,000 flower visits in order to collect enough nectar or pollen to fill up for the return trip. It is so taxing that the muscles in their wings wear out after around 2 weeks.
Queens live up to 5 years but 2-3 on average, just spawning new ephemeral pods to do work.
Winter bees have to live longer because the colony has to "hibernate" through the cold winter months, doing nothing but keeping warm, then in the spring it needs enough bees to reboot the cycle. On the other hand winter bees don't have to forage. Summer bees live less because a) they don't fatten up, b) they fly a lot.
If you take a California queen to a state like CO they tend to do poorly the first year. They're not used to things like other hives raiding honey stores in winter. It's pretty fascinating!
Wow. I know a lot about bees (and kept bees with my father for several years), but never thought about this and of course didn't know the details of the wear effect on wings.
Also, if interested, the best book I read this year was recommended on this site and is this: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14359367
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Add Dr. Thomas Seely's "Honeybee Democracy" to your reading list.
And may all your honeyflows remain prosperous.
—Two-hive Beeker
You had my hopes up that I could keep some bees to apply fertilizer to my crops for minute.