What's the Buzz About Bees?

Although THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES is not a movie about bees (you can read the movie's synopsis here), they do play an important role in the lives of the film's characters, most of all the Boatwright sisters, who do some beekeeping of their own.

So we thought it might be nice to introduce you to the bee. Many thanks to the always dependable Wikipedia, "How Stuff Works," PBS's "Nova," and National Geographic for the following fun little factoids on these busy little creatures.

From Wikipedia

• "There are nearly 20,000 known species of bee."
• "Bees are found on every continent except Antarctica."
• "A bee uses its long proboscis (a complex 'tongue') that enables them to obtain the nectar from flowers."
• "It is estimated that one third of the human food supply depends on insect pollination, most of which is accomplished by bees."
• "Most bees are fuzzy and carry an electrostatic charge, which aids in the adherence of pollen."
• "Pollen and nectar are combined to make a firm substance typically shaped like a sphere, into which an egg is deposited. The cell is typically sealed after the egg is laid, and the adult and larva never interact directly."
• "Visiting flowers can be a dangerous occupation. Many assassin bugs and crab spiders hide in flowers to capture unwary bees. Other bees are lost to birds in flight. Insecticides used on blooming plants kill many bees, both by direct poisoning and by contamination of their food supply. A honey bee queen may lay 2,000 eggs per day during spring buildup, but she also must lay 1,000 to 1,500 eggs per day during the foraging season, mostly to replace daily casualties, most of which are workers dying of old age."
• "Recently, managed populations of western honey bees have experienced substantial declines. This has prompted investigations into the phenomenon amidst great concern over the nature and extent of the losses. One aspect of the problem is believed to be "Colony Collapse Disorder" but many of the losses outside the US are attributed to other causes."
• "In terms of their evolution, bees, like ants, are a specialized form of wasp."

From the Web Site "How Stuff Works"

• "According to Egyptian mythology, bees were created when the tears of the sun god Ra landed on the desert sand."
• "Until the 17th century, many people, including beekeepers, thought that bees reproduced spontaneously, without the aid of sexual reproduction."

From "Tales from a Hive" from PBS's "Nova"

• "The social organization [of a hive] rivals that in the best-run corporations, with each bee and each cell possessing a rigidly specific function." (Read more in "Anatomy of a Hive.")
• On average it takes the nectar of 10 million flowers to make one liter of honey."
• "A worker bee can carry half her weight in nectar and pollen and still fly." (Read more in "The Buzz About Bees.")
• (Individual honeybees will perform a specialized, wing-fluttering dance to inform other bees of the distance, direction, and richness of a new source of nectar. (Read more and interpreting a bee ballet for yourself in "Dances With Bees.")

From National Geographic

Mystery Bee Disappearances Sweeping U.S.

February 23, 2007: "Without a trace, something is causing bees to vanish by the thousands. But a new task force hopes to finger the culprit and save the valuable crops that rely on the insects..."

Also from National Geographic (and via YouTube), find out in the below video how killer bees came to the western hemisphere:

THE SECRET LIFE OF BEES Opens In Theatres
Across the Country October 17th

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