How much do you know about honey? For most of us, honey is always in reach and is as close by as our own kitchen pantry. But for the honey bee, it takes hard work along with miles and miles of travel to just to collect the simple ingredients that form our favorite treat. Here are few new questions to test your Honey Trivia knowledge:

How long have bees been producing honey from flowering plants?
– 10-20 million years.

Honey was man’s first and most reliable source of sweetener. The oldest written reference to honey dates back to the Egyptians in 5500 B.C.E., and references to honey abound in antiquity. But honeybees are far older than man’s historical record, written or otherwise. Homo sapiens evolved 50,000 years ago; bees were making honey perhaps 40 million years before that.

How many wings does a honey bee have?
– Four wings.

Turns out bee flight mechanisms are more exotic than thought. “The honey bees have a rapid wing beat,” Altshuler told LiveScience. “In contrast to the fruit fly that has one eightieth the body size and flaps its wings 200 times each second, the much larger honeybee flaps its wings 230 times every second.”

How many flowers does a honey bee visit during one collection trip?
– 50-100.

Honey bees literally zoom through the air as they collect their nectar. On average, most bees travel around 15 miles an hour and most are capable of flying at speeds up to 20 miles per hour. When not carrying nectar, pollen, water or propolis (plant resin), they can fly even faster. Bees typically will collect nectar within a two-mile radius of their hive location, so finding a good source of flowers nearby is essential to their survival.

How much honey would it take to fuel a bee’s flight around the world?
– About one ounce.

Know any other interesting honey trivia? We invite you to send your suggestions to [email protected] and we may include them in a future blog posting. (Please make sure to reference your sources.)

Trivia Sources:

• The National Honey Board (https://www.honey.com)
• Beekeeping For Dummies – 3^rd Edition (http://www.dummies.com/home-garden/hobby-farming/beekeeping/honey-trivia)
• Sara Goudarzi – Scientists Finally Figure Out How Bees Fly (https://www.livescience.com/528-scientists-finally-figure-bees-fly.html)
• The Nibble – The History of Honey (http://www.thenibble.com/reviews/main/honey/honey-history.asp)
• Honey Bee Facts… Not Fiction (http://www.cherokeebeeclub.com/Bee%20Facts.htm).