• Honeybees are the only insects that produce food for humans.

• A typical bee hive makes more than 400 pounds of honey.

• About 220,000 U.S. beekeepers manage 3.2 million bee hives.

• One healthy hive contains approximately 40,000 to 45,000 bees.

• During the production period, a bee's life span is only six weeks.

• Honeybees visit approximately two million flowers to make just one pound of honey.

• A bee travels an average of 1,600 round trips to produce one ounce of honey — and up to six miles per round trip. To produce two pounds of honey, bees travel a distance equal to four times around the earth.

• Honey bee wings flap 11,400 times per second, and bees fly an average of 13 to 15 miles per hour.

• Bees can smell fear.

• Queens lay approximately 2,000 eggs per day at a rate of 5 or 6 per minute — between 175,000 and 200,000 eggs a year.

• The average temperature of a hive is 93.5 degrees Fahrenheit.

• Beeswax production in most hives is only about 1.5 to 2 percent of honey yield.

• Approximately eight pounds of honey is consumed by bees to produce one pound of beeswax.

• USDA estimates about 1,100 bee stings are required to be fatal to a human.

• Apitherapy uses bee venom and bee products for medicinal purposes.

• Scientists say it should be aerodynamically impossible for bees to fly, because their bodies are not in proportion to their wing span. Somehow, they still fly.