According to the AI source Perplexity, bees are indeed essential to human survival. Bees pollinate about 70 of the 100 crop species that feed 90% of the world’s population. Without pollination, reproduction of many fruits, vegetables, nuts and other plants vital to human diet would be severely impaired causing the collapse of agricultural systems. And the balance of ecosystems would be threatened causing mass extinctions.

Perplexity says climate change, the use of pesticides, and loss of habitat are the biggest threats of extinction to all types of pollinators, which includes all species of bees, flies, moths, butterflies and more. Thanks to beekeepers and bee management practices, the honey bee species is not as much at risk. However large numbers of native wild bee species face significant extinction risk. 

Whereas the honeybee was imported to North America from England in the 17th Century, some native wild bees have actually co-evolved with specific native plants. Native wild bees not only support agriculture but also help to maintain the biodiversity of our entire ecosystem.

Here are some amazing facts about bees:

• Bees have existed for over 100 million years.

• A typical worker bee’s life is about 40 summer days. During that time, she may visit a thousand or so flowers and make under a teaspoon of honey.

• A bee may travel up to 6 miles in a day before returning to the hive at night. Bees typically forage for nectar within a 3-mile radius.

• Bees can fly at speeds up to 15 miles per hour.

• Bees collect nectar to bring home to the hive using a long straw-like tongue to suck it from flowers, and then store it in a special “honey stomach.”

• A pound of honey equates to about 2 million flower visits

• Pollen, which sticks to bees’ legs as they forage, is brought home to the hive each evening and fed to larvae in the hive.

• A bee can carry up to a third of its body weight in pollen.

• Bees do a “waggle dance,” a figure-eight style movement that tells other bees the direction and distance to nectar.

• The buzz sound bees make is the sound of their wings flapping.

A bee’s wings flap about 200 times per second, which enables them to change direction easily.  By contrast, a helicopter’s blades turn 3-5 times per second.

• Bees have a built-in GPS. They navigate using the sun and the earth’s magnetic field as a compass. They can detect polarized light, allowing them to find their way even on cloudy days.

• Bees have five eyes: two large compound eyes for detecting motion and color, and three smaller ocelli eyes that help gauge light intensity and aid navigation.

• According to a study done at Cambridge in 2004, bees can differentiate between human faces, and recognize their beekeepers over someone else.

• Bees are excellent weather forecasters and can sense atmospheric pressure. If a beekeeper sees bees going in the hive but none coming out on a midsummer day, it means rain is imminent.

• Bees can drown if exposed to heavy rain. When caught in a storm they may seek shelter in flower petals or leaves until the storm passes.

• If you see bees outside of their hive after dark it means they are older bees near the end of their lives. Bees do not want to die in the hive and burden the colony with their bodies.

• A honeycomb is a hexagonal cell structure built by honey bees out of beeswax through a well organized and coordinated process. It is used for honey storage, for birthing, and for shelter.

• Honey bees produce beeswax from glands on the underside of their abdomens to build their honeycomb, A bee will consume about 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of wax.

• Honey bees instinctively form these hexagon structures because this shape provides maximum storage space with minimal wax use, offering strength and stability without gaps

• Honey bees deposit nectar they have gathered into cells of the honeycomb where is it processed. Once processed, the cell is sealed.

• Honey bees maintain a temperature inside the hive of around 92 degrees regarding whether outside temperatures are below freezing or above 100.

• Honey bees raise the temperature inside the hive in winter just by huddling close together and vibrating their muscles.

• The queen bee, who is the mother of all the bees in the colony, lives inside the hive for most of her life and can most often be found in the center of the honeycomb. She can live 3 to 5 years.

• Honey is the only food humans eat that was produced by a insect.

• Honey has anti-bacterial properties. It contains anti-oxidants and 27 minerals, and can be used as a food preservative.

• Honey seems to have infinite shelf life. Pots of edible honey found in Egyptian tombs are estimated to be 3000 years old!

• “Go tell the bees” is an ancient Celtic tradition of verbally telling the bees if there is a birth or death or major change in the beekeeper household. 

• According to UK’s Daily Mail, palace beekeeper John Chapple told the thousands of bees kept on the grounds of Buckingham Palace that the Queen had died.