What’s the buzz?! At Discovery Gateway, we love bees and everything they do for the environment! From pollinating the flowers and foods we love to creating delicious honey, we appreciate everything bees work so hard to accomplish! We even have our own Live Hive to help restore the endangered bee population and educate our visitors on how all the bees have an important job in their colony. Here are some fun facts about our busy little friends!

  • About one-third of our food is the result of honey bee pollination. Different fruits, beans, and veggies depend on bees to survive.
  • Honey bees don’t sleep! Instead, they spend their nights motionless, conserving energy for the next day’s busy activities.
  • One hive can produce anywhere from 60 to 100 pounds of honey every year!
  • To make one pound of honey, the bees require 10 pounds of pollen.
  • Bees have 2 stomachs, one for eating, and one for storing nectar.
  • Bees react strongly to dark colors. This is why beekeeper’s suits are white.
  • If the queen bee dies, workers will create a new queen by selecting a young larva and feeding it a special food called “royal jelly “. This enables the larva to develop into a fertile queen!
  • The average worker bee produces only about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in their lifetime.
  • Honey bees must gather nectar from two million flowers to make one pound of honey.

Come visit Discovery Gateway today and see our Live Hive, provided by BEEZ HIVES N HONEY! Take a peek at how a bee colony runs and see if you can spot our new queen bee! Queen Steve reigns from her HoneyClimber castle while her wonderful workers fly around Salt Lake City, collecting pollen for their delicious honey.