We are delighted to be able to give residents to 4 beehives on the resort. Managed by a professional licensed beekeeper we will be giving regular updates on their progress but for now a few interesting facts you may or may not know!
Male bees cannot sting. The stinger, or sting, is a modified egg-laying device. Therefore, only females have them. However, despite having a stinger, the females actually never want to sting. Bees sting to defend their nest, so most bees won't sting unless they are provoked or feel threatened.
Bees forage in quiet unpopulated areas, unlike wasps they are not attracted to human food or areas populated by people.
Bees are vegetarians, collecting pollen and nectar for their young, unlike wasps which are carnivores and can be very aggressive. Bees are usually nonaggressive insects unless threatened.
Bees do not want to sting, that is the last form of defense for them. We are coming into their quiet season now so they will be stocking up on food for the winter.
Bees are workers, so are out foraging during the day. Foragers must collect nectar from about 2 million flowers to make 1 pound of honey. The average forager makes about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
An average beehive can hold around 50,000 bees and they are generally, gentle and calm and often misunderstood
Bees are one of the most beneficial agricultural insects and they are part of The Wyboston Lakes Environmental plan going forward. Sadly bee population is in decline and there is a significant threat to bees from our changing land use and pesticides. As cities grow and agriculture becomes more intensive, bees are losing the wild spaces, hedgerows, and meadows where they can find flowers and food.
Without a population of bees, we would lose all the plants that bees pollinate, all of the animals that eat those plants, and so on up the food chain. This means a world without bees could struggle to sustain the global human population of 7 billion. Our supermarkets would have half the amount of fruit and vegetables!