5 Reasons We Love Bumblebees & Honey Bees

It's World Bee Day on the 20th May 2022! We’re slightly bee-crazy here at Sophie Allport and to celebrate our love for everything bees, we wanted to share some interesting insights into our friends with wings.

Here are some facts we’re buzz-ing about…

1. The honey bee is the only insect that produces food eaten by humans. We can thank these impressive creatures for all of that gorgeous honey! And If you’re a bit of a honey monster like most of us here at Sophie Allport, then you’ll love this Bees jam jar just as much as we do! Honey is the perfect addition to your Sunday morning breakfast and the bees make it possible. 
   
2. Honey bees are social beings. They live in colonies with other bees, working together for the good of the colony. They also communicate through dance to show others where to find food, passing on information through what’s known as a ‘waggle dance’ when they find a good location. Who knew? 
   
3. They’re hard workers. As you know, bees feed on flowers (nectar and pollen) and pollinate (fertilise) the flowers at the same time. Impressively, bees will visit 50 to 100 hundred flowers in one journey and if they were to make just one pound of honey, they would need to visit over 2 million. But bees are used to lots of flying time, they have been known to fly 90,000 miles together for big honey collections. That’s the equivalent of three orbits about the world. 
   
4. They have been keeping us alive for almost 150 million years! Bees are one of natures most important creatures, pollinating around a third of everything we eat. No more pollination would mean no more plants and that’s bad news for mankind! It’s even been rumoured that Albert Einstein recognised the importance of bees, saying, “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years left to live.” 
   
5. They’re unique from each stripe to every species. The difference between honey bees and bumble bees? There are only one species of the honey bee and you will usually find them in hives (close to the nearest beekeeper). There are 24 species of bumblebees and they tend to live in nests in the wild. You know, the cute fluffy ones you tend to see out on a picnic or when you’re tidying up the garden. 
   

Sadly, both types of beautiful bees are declining, particularly bumblebees and they need our help. Even planting the right type of flowers could help to make food more accessible. Purple plants such as lavender, for example, are great for grabbing their attention. We hope things get better for these magnificent creatures because we all love them here at Sophie Allport.