One mouthful in three of the foods you eat directly or indirectly depends on pollination by honeybees.
The value of honeybee pollination to U.S. agriculture is more than $14 billion annually, according to a Cornell University study. Crops from nuts to vegetables, and as diverse as alfalfa, apple, cranberry, pumpkin, and sunflower, all require pollinating by honeybees.
Fun Bee Facts
A bee travels an average of 1,600 round trips to produce one ounce of honey; up to six miles per trip. To produce two pounds of honey, bees travel a distance equal to four times around the earth.
A honeybee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
Nearly all of the bees in a hive are worker bees, which are female. A hive consists of up to 30,000 bees in the winter, and up to 80,000 bees in the summer.
To produce a single pound of honey, the honeybee must bring in approximately 75,000 loads of nectar.