FUN FACTS

• A honeybee can fly up to 15 miles per hour.
 

• The average worker honeybee makes 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime. To make one pound of honey, honeybees must tap 2,000,000 flowers.
 

• A hive of honeybees must fly over 55,000 miles to bring in one pound of honey.
 

• It would take about one ounce (two tablespoons) of honey to fuel a honeybee’s flight around the world.
 

• The U.S. per capita consumption of honey is 1.31 pounds.
 

• To make one pound of honey, honeybees must gather 10 pounds of nectar.
 

• A honeybee visits between 50-100 flowers during one collection trip.
 

• Honeybees communicate through a series of “dances” and use the sun as a reference point to communicate to other bees the angle of flight to be followed to arrive at newly discovered nectar-bearing flowers.
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FAQ

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Getting Started

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• How much does it cost to get started beekeeping?
 

This depends completely on the new beekeeper, equipment can be build, and items purchased new or used. Depending on how many hives is desired, access to bees and so forth. A complete hobbyist beginner may spend any where from $0 to $1000.

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•How much time does it take to keep bees?

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Beekeeping is a seasonal task. During the winter there is little to be done, during the spring your time may be completely occupied. Once a beekeeper becomes accustomed to keeping bees it may take any where between five to thirty minutes per hive per week during the active season. However, this is not to say that beekeeping can’t consume more time if desired. Is a license or permit required to keep bees? This is wholly dependent on where you live and possibly the number of hives you wish to keep. If you call your local agricultural department they can likely point you in the right direction.
 

• Do I need to join a local association or club to keep bees?
 

Joining a club or association will likely never be a requirement, though doing so is greatly advised. Some clubs require yearly dues, but often this money is quickly more than paid back through the resources that the club provides.

Bee Stings

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• How often do beekeepers get stung?
 

This is dependent on many factors, including the race of bees the keeper keeps, the temperament of the individual colonies, the number of colonies and the beekeepers attitude and skill. Every beekeeper that does his or her job properly will get stung at some point; it is rarely the goal, but sometimes the result. A beekeeper may expect more stings as they begin keeping bees, and fewer as they continue.

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• Does being stung hurt?
 

It can, although likely won't, all depending on where the sting occurred. The best protection against being stung is not to bother the bees, however the second best is to wear the proper protective gear such as a veil or bee suit. Some beekeepers even purposely get stung around ten times a season to build and keep a tolerance to bee venom, causing intermediate stings to hurt and swell less. How many people in the US die as a result of bee stings? Statistics show that lightning is more likely to lead to death than bee stings.
 

• A bee stung me, how should I remove the stinger?
 

The stinger should be removed as soon as possible by scraping it out, such as by using a finger nail or credit card. Squeezing the stinger, and attached venom pouch, may cause the release of more venom in to the skin.
 

• Do bees really die after stinging a person?
 

Yes, if the bee that stings is a worker bee it will lose its life shortly after stinging. A queen bee may survive after stinging, however it is extremely unlikely to be stung by a queen.

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• I was stung by a bee and received some redness and swelling in the immediate area, was this an allergic reaction?
 

No, this may be a standard reaction to a bee sting, however consult a doctor to be sure.
 

Hive Population

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• How many bees live within a colony?
 

There may be any where between 10,000 to 80,000 bees in a colony, all depending on how many Hive bodies you have placed and how many frames you allow the queen to lay in. Here is a simple math solution that may help you with your hives. 

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**** Count the number of bees returning to the hive for 1 minute (B/M). To estimate the number of deep frames of bees in the colony, B/M times 30 minutes X .0005 = numbers of deep frames of bees. The .0005 assumes one deep frame, covered both sides, and contains 2000 bees. The 30 minutes assumes the amount of time one bee needs to make a return trip.
Population is highly dependant on the activity and season of the bees.

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• How many queen bees exist in a hive?
 

Normally there only exist a single mated queen bee within a hive, though it is not unheard of to have two, but it is even rarer to have three.

Bee Flight

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• How fast can bees fly?
 

Bees can fly between six to 15 miles per hour.

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• How far do bees fly in a life time?

 

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Worker bees may fly up to 500 miles during their foraging existence, which may last, on average between 5 and 30 days.

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• What is the radius that bees will fly from their home site in order to forage?
 

Bees will only fly as far as they need to, but may fly as far as 5 miles from home.

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Foraging / Nectar Collecting



• What percentage of foraging bees collect nectar?

Around 50 to 80 percent

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• How many trips will a single bee make a day to forage for nectar?
 

As many as 30 trips for a single bee have been recorded

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• How much nectar can a bee collect during a single trip?
 

A full load of nectar may weigh about be about 85% of the body weight of a bee.
Pollen Collecting

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• What percentage of foraging bees collect pollen?
 

Around 15 to 30 percent

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• How many trips will a single bee make a day to forage pollen?
 

As many as 50 trips for a single bee have been recorded How much pollen can a bee collect during a single trip? Rarely more than 15 mg
Castes / Queen Bee

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• Does the queen sting and lay eggs with the same body part?
 

Yes, other than its use to deposit eggs in the center of an empty cell, the queen bee's stinger secondary function is inject other competitive queens with venom in order to eliminate them. The bee’s stinger is a modified ovipositor, which developed in to a defensive mechanism.
 

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Eliminating Bees

• How can neighbors be prevented from keeping bees?

In most areas there is no legal way to prevent a neighbor by force from keeping bees on their own property. If a law does not already exist preventing beekeeping in your community, you may wish to speak to a local government representative in order to instate one. However, there is often no good legal reason to instate such a law and beekeepers associations tend to fight as a group preventing any such law from being created. Checking zoning laws may be a secondary option, but most allow beekeeping as long as the hive population is below a certain level, which is often in the hundreds. The best option is to speak to your neighbor and explain your grievances in order to work out compromise, though be aware that in most cases they have no legal requirement to make you happy. As for swarms it is best to call your local Beekeeper to assist in removing them safely. 

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Hive Products

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Honey

• Is it a good idea to feed infants or people with immune deficiencies honey?
 

No, honey should not be fed to infants under the age of 1 or to people with severe immune system deficiencies. This is due to possibility of botulism spores being present within the honey. This level of botulism present should have no ill effect on a healthy person.