Honey bees are not only vital to humankind, they are simply fascinating!  Check out these interesting facts:

A honeybee’s wings beat about 11,400 times per minute, creating their distinctive buzz.

Honey Bees can fly for up to six miles and as fast as 15 miles per hour.  A honey bee would have to fly around 90,000 miles (three times around the globe) to make just one pound of honey.

Honey bees are almost the only bees with hairy compound eyes. The honey bee has two compound eyes and three simple eyes, and they need all of them to do what honey bees do! The hairs aid in determining wind direction and flight speed of the bee. Honey bees can perceive movements that are separated by 1/300th of a second.  Humans can only sense movements separated by 1/50th of a second.  It is believed that the bee can see images in extreme detail when as close as 3 – 4 feet away from an object.

Compound eyes enable honey bees to lock onto fast-moving objects and to see in color. When a honey bee sees an object speeding by, the honey bee becomes alarmed and goes into protective instinct mode. She thinks something might be invading the colony.  This is one reason why beekeepers are careful to move slowly and deliberately when working in the apiary.