Neat Facts About Bees | All About Ontario Honey (2024)

FAQs

What are 5 facts about honey bees? ›

A honey bee can fly up to 15 miles per hour. A honey bee worker only makes an average of 1/12 of a teaspoon in her lifetime. One ounce of honey would fuel a bees flight around the world. A pound honey is made by 2 million flower visits.

Ontario honey is available pasteurized or unpasteurized, liquid or creamed, or as comb honey. Honey may also be sold by nectar source, such as clover, basswood, canola, sunflower, alfalfa, buckwheat or goldenrod varieties.

Our Most Important Pollinators

There are approximately 800 species of bees in Canada and roughly 400 in Ontario.

In general, honey doesn't spoil. However, it can go bad if it's contaminated or incorrectly stored. If your honey has visible mold, or if it smells fermented or "off," then it's time to toss it.

A honey bee colony typically consists of three kinds of adult bees: workers, drones, and a queen.

In fact, honey bees are relatively new to Ontario. They were an agricultural import, brought to North America for honey production and crop pollination. Before honey bees crossed the ocean, Ontario's major pollinators were native bees, whose behaviour is often very different from the stereotypical honey bees.

Canada natural honey wholesale price. In 2022, the approximate price range for Canada Natural Honey is between US$ 3.42 and US$ 3.25 per kilogram or between US$ 1.55 and US$ 1.47 per pound(lb). The price in Canadian Dollar is CAD 4.27 per kg. The average price for a tonne is US$ 3420.16 in Montréal and Ottawa.

Without bees pollinating these plants, there would not be very many fruits or vegetables to eat. A single beehive can make more than 100 pounds (45 kg) of extra honey. The beekeeper only harvests the extra honey made by the bees. The average life of a honey bee during the working season is about three to six weeks.

Large Carpenter Bees are one of two distinct groups of Carpenter Bees in Ontario. Carpenter Bees, sometimes called Large Carpenter Bees, are more colorful and nest in larger, harder wood like telephone poles, dead logs, and suburban decks.

What is killing bees in Ontario? ›

Beekeepers say the main culprit for bee deaths is the varroa mite, a parasitic mite that feeds on honeybees and has existed in Canada since 1989. "It's a very serious threat. It's a parasite that it has been with beekeepers for many, many years.

There is a heart or, rather, hearts that form a tube running from the abdomen to the head. The hearts work in tandem and are made up of muscle cells that pump rhythmically, creating circulation of hemolymph from the abdomen to the head and back again.

A queen bee is the only female bee in the hive that gets to reproduce. Worker bees are all female, and are all offspring of the queen. But there are males in the hive called drones. Drones fly off to reproduce with other young queens who will start a new colony.

Bees are important pollinators that are essential to maintaining healthy ecosystems and a healthy environment.

It's estimated the honey bees contribute between 4 to 5 billion dollars per year to Canada's economy. In 2020, Canadian bees produced around 82 million pounds of honey, which equalled over $208 million in value!

Any person who owns or is in possession of honey bees or used beekeeping equipment in Ontario requires a valid certificate of registration from OMAFRA's Apiary Program. As a beekeeper, you must register yourself and the location(s) where your bees or used equipment reside.

Please note, the black honey described above is honey made by bees. It is not to be confused with another product on the market called black honey, which is not made by bees but is mechanically produced by people from raw cane sugar plants in southeast Asia, Egypt, India, the Caribbean and the USA.

Ontario beekeepers require a valid apiary permit to sell or give away (that is, transferring ownership) of live honey bees or used beekeeping equipment within Ontario. Permits are issued by the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Rural Affairs' ( OMAFRA ) Apiary Program.

Do bees sleep at night? ›

Fascinating facts. It was the first record of sleep in any invertebrate. Honeybees sleep between 5 & 8 hours a day. More rest at night when darkness prevents them going out to collect pollen & nectar.

The prairie provinces of Alberta Saskatchewan and Manitoba are the major honey producers in Canada. Approximately 533,000 (69%) colonies are located in the prairie provinces and they produce 79% of Canada's crop.

Carpenter bees are one of the primary wood-damaging insects in the U.S. While numerous species of these bees are found throughout the country, the eastern states are especially hard hit by Eastern carpenter bees' distinctive damage.

Bumble Bee

Bumble bees are large and very fuzzy! Unlike many other bees, the fuzz (which is called “pile”) covers it's whole body, including it's butt, making them look extra cuddly.

The bee, Megachile pluto, also known as Wallace's giant bee, is a massive unit. It is the largest bee in the world, four times larger than a honeybee and measuring about the length of a human thumb. Huge mandibles hang like dastardly garden shears from its head.

Unlike most insects, honeybees don't hibernate or go dormant in the winter months. Instead, a new caste of bees takes over the hive. Winter bees have the important task of keeping the Queen bee alive during these cold Ontario months. The Queen bee begins preparing for the winter in August by laying fertilized eggs.

Native Ontario Pollinator Plants

Black-eyed Susan Aug - Oct Full Sun Dry - Moist Yellow 2 – 3 ft. Blanket Flower July – Aug Full Sun Dry Red/Yellow 1-2 ft. Butterfly Weed July - Aug Full Sun Dry - Moist Red/Orange 2 – 3 ft. Canada Goldenrod Aug - Oct Full Sun Dry Yellow 4 – 5 ft.

Wallace's giant bee, known by the scientific name Megachile pluto, is the world's largest bee species — and now there is evidence it still exists. Females measure up to 63.5 millimetres from wing tip to wing tip (longer than a AA battery) and 38 millimetres from head to tail, although males are smaller.

There are two bumble bee species that have been recognized by the government via assessments by the Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC), as endangered species: the rusty-patched bumble bee (Bombus affinis) and the gypsy cuckoo bumble bee (Bombus bohemicus).

What pests harm bees? ›

Fact sheet on common honey bee maladies, including varroa mite, tracheal mite, bee louse, skunks, bears, foulbrood, and nosema. The key to protecting honey bee colonies from harmful diseases, parasites, and other pests is the ability to identify problems early.

The front and rear wings hook together to form one big pair of wings and unhook for easy folding when not flying. Eyes – Incredible as it may seem, the honey bee has FIVE eyes, two large compound eyes and three smaller ocelli eyes in the centre of its head.

Like other insects, bees have an organ that runs down their back, from the abdomen into their thorax and into their head. This is the bees' heart. The part in the abdomen is known as the dorsal heart, while the part in the thorax is known as the dorsal aorta.

A honey bee is able to sting a person or predator using its stinger. Honey bee stings are quite painful and even life threatening to a small percentage of people who are allergic to the venom. Honey bees usually sting as a form of defense of themselves or their colony.

Fascinating facts. It was the first record of sleep in any invertebrate. Honeybees sleep between 5 & 8 hours a day. More rest at night when darkness prevents them going out to collect pollen & nectar.

A bee is able to see color, because each of these tiny tubes contains eight cells that respond to light. Four of these cells respond to yellow-green light, two respond to blue light, and one responds to ultraviolet light. But a bee's super sight powers go much farther than seeing mere colors.

Bees are also thought to be trichromatic, but that bees cannot see red because they don't have a photoreceptor for it. However, they can see the ultraviolet (UV) end of the light spectrum and so so they make colour combinations from blue, green and ultraviolet.

Some bees do have night vision

Other bee species are crepuscular, which means that they are capable of seeing with little light.

Worker bees are all female, and are all offspring of the queen. But there are males in the hive called drones. Drones fly off to reproduce with other young queens who will start a new colony. There are three types of honey bee within every hive: workers, drones, and a queen.

Their bodies are filled with an extracellular fluid termed hemolymph that lacks hemoglobin or red blood cells. Hemolymph is not confined within vessels but circulates freely in the extracellular space. There is a heart or, rather, hearts that form a tube running from the abdomen to the head.

What is bee blood called? ›

Bees also have an open circulatory system, meaning that they do not have veins or arteries, but rather all their internal organ are bathed in a liquid called 'hemolymph' (a mix of blood and lymphatic fluid).

In a sense bees do indeed have teeth on their mandibles (jaws), although they are not 'teeth' like those found in the mouths of humans or other mammals. Instead, the mandibles are 'toothed' with narrow or rounded points. However, these 'teeth' are really extensions of the mandibles.

Can bees fly in the rain? They can fly in light rain, but they don't like to. They use the sun for navigation, so cloudy, wet weather isn't their favorite thing. A heavy rain can make their wings wet, slowing them down.

Study suggests all insects may be sentient. We swat bees to avoid painful stings, but do they feel the pain we inflict? A new study suggests they do, a possible clue that they and other insects have sentience—the ability to be aware of their feelings.

Summary. Interestingly, all species of bees that make honey also eat it. They use it as an energy source, and it is packed with the nutrients they need to remain healthy. Let's take a closer look at their eating process and why bees eat honey!

How busy are bees, really? Bees aren't as busy as you think. In fact, some are quite lazy.

Yes, bees drink water. They also use it to regulate the temperature of the hive, feed young bees, and dilute stored honey. Some research suggests bees receive nutrients from water as well.