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The Legacy Club

Buzzing About Bees

May 20, 2025

a bee flying up to a long flower.
Bee Business A bee lands on a prairie blazing star at Smiley Meadow Smiley-Woodfin Native Prairie Grassland, Paris, Texas. © Sean Fitzgerald.

Are you buzzing with excitement about World Bee Day? Us too! May is the perfect time of year to take a wildflower walk and appreciate these amazing pollinators as they zip among vibrant spring blooms. But we won't drone on. In honor of these remarkable creatures, here are some of our favorite facts, jokes and puns that are all about bees! Earn your stripes by reading them all.

BUZZWORTHY BEE FACTS

metallic green sweat bee Bees have existed for more than 100 million years. © Chris Helzer/TNC
HONEYBEE COLLECTING POLLEN All worker honeybees are female, with an average lifespan of just 5-6 weeks. She’ll produce around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey. © Andrew Lancaster /TNC Photo Contest 2019
Bee and Manuka Bloom Just like us, bees sleep when they need rest. © Comvita
Pollen-covered honeybee Honeybees are fast flyers. They fly at a speed of around 15mph and beat their wings 200 times per second! © Scott Sumiko
Native bee and leadplant Pollinators are responsible for one in every three bites of food we eat. © Chris Helzer/The Nature Conservancy
Bee on Rosinweed: Bees exhibit a behavior called flower constancy, meaning they repeatedly visit one particular plant species on any given foraging trip. © Chris Helzer/TNC
BEE ON CONEFLOWER There are an estimated 20,000 species of bees worldwide. Approximately 3,600 species are native to North America north of Mexico. © Chris Helzer/TNC

Wisecracks and Beeswax

No buzzkills here. You'll bee in stitches after reading these humdingers!

Sweet Morsels: All About Honeybees

  1. If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly“. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen.

  2. The first civilization to practice widespread, organized beekeeping was the ancient Egyptians, who began beekeeping around 2,500 BCE.

  3. Honeybees are one of the only types of bees that die after stinging. And because stingers are modified egg-laying organs, only female bees have them.

We're Not Pollen Your Leg - These Bee Puns Are Something to Write the Colony About

a bee rests on a flower

What's a bee's favorite novel?

The Great Gats-bee
a bee rests on a flower

What do bees chew?

Bumble gum
test

What do bees do when a friend moves?

Throw them a house-swarming party
a bee rests on a flower

What do you call a bee that holds an elected office?

A pollentician

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