Quiz of the Day
Bees & Pollinators
Wednesday, 20 May 2026
World Bee Day — bee facts, pollination, honey, endangered insects
1. How many eyes does a honeybee have?
- 8
- 2
- 3
- 5
Bees have two large compound eyes on the sides of their head, each with about 6,900 tiny lenses, plus three simple eyes (ocelli) on top that detect light intensity. This setup gives them nearly 360-degree vision.
2. What is the primary purpose of a bee's 'waggle dance'?
- Attracting a mate
- Cooling the hive
- Defending territory
- Communicating the location of food
Karl von Frisch won the Nobel Prize in 1973 for decoding the waggle dance. The angle of the dance relative to the sun indicates direction, and the duration of the waggle indicates distance — accurate to within about 15% of the actual location.
3. Approximately how many flowers must bees visit to produce one pound of honey?
- 20 million
- 20,000
- 2 million
- 200,000
A single honeybee produces only about one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its entire lifetime. That pound of honey also requires bees to fly a cumulative distance of roughly 55,000 miles — more than twice around the Earth.
4. What percentage of the world's food crops depend on animal pollination?
- About 55%
- About 35%
- About 75%
- About 15%
While staple grains like wheat and rice are wind-pollinated, most fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds rely on bees and other pollinators. Without them, your diet would essentially be bread and porridge — no apples, strawberries, coffee, or chocolate.
5. What is 'Colony Collapse Disorder'?
- When a hive gets too large and splits
- When worker bees mysteriously disappear from a hive
- When honey ferments inside the comb
- When the queen bee dies unexpectedly
CCD was first widely reported in 2006 when beekeepers lost 30-90% of their hives. The likely causes include a combination of pesticides (especially neonicotinoids), parasites like the Varroa mite, habitat loss, and disease.
6. Which type of bee in a hive is the only one that can sting multiple times?
- Guard bee
- Drone
- Queen bee
- Worker bee
A worker bee's stinger has barbs that catch in skin, ripping out the stinger and killing the bee. The queen's stinger is smooth, allowing repeated stings — but she almost exclusively uses it to kill rival queens, not to defend against humans.
7. What is the average top flight speed of a honeybee?
- 45 mph
- 5 mph
- 15 mph
- 30 mph
Honeybees beat their wings about 200 times per second, creating their distinctive buzz. When unladen they can reach 15-20 mph, but when carrying a full load of nectar and pollen they slow to about 12 mph. They can fly up to 5 miles from the hive.
8. Which ancient civilisation was among the first to practise organised beekeeping?
- Ancient Egyptians
- Romans
- Aztecs
- Vikings
Egyptian beekeeping dates back to at least 2400 BC. Honey was used as a sweetener, wound treatment, and embalming fluid. Pharaohs used the bee as a royal symbol, and sealed jars of still-edible honey have been found in 3,000-year-old tombs.
9. What do male bees (drones) primarily do in the hive?
- Collect pollen
- Mate with the queen
- Build honeycomb
- Guard the entrance
Drones have no stinger, cannot feed themselves, and do no work in the hive. Their sole purpose is to mate with a queen from another colony — and the act of mating is fatal. Before winter, worker bees drag surviving drones out of the hive to conserve food.
10. Which pollinator is responsible for pollinating most of the world's cocoa (chocolate) plants?
- Hummingbirds
- Honeybees
- Tiny midges (Ceratopogonidae)
- Butterflies
Chocolate midges are so small — about 1-3mm — that they were only identified as cocoa pollinators in the 1970s. Without these tiny flies, there would be no chocolate. Efforts to hand-pollinate cocoa are far less effective than the midges.
11. What substance do bees produce to build the honeycomb structure?
- Propolis
- Royal jelly
- Beeswax
- Pollen paste
Worker bees secrete wax from glands on their abdomen. They chew it and mould it into perfect hexagonal cells — a shape mathematically proven to use the least wax while storing the most honey. Bees must consume about 8 pounds of honey to produce 1 pound of wax.
12. Which of these is NOT a real type of bee?
- Sweat bee
- Plumber bee
- Mason bee
- Carpenter bee
There are over 20,000 known species of bees worldwide. Mason bees use mud to build nests, carpenter bees drill into wood, and sweat bees are attracted to human perspiration. The UK alone has around 270 species, most of which are solitary and don't make honey.
13. What colour can bees see that humans cannot?
- Ultraviolet
- Infrared
- X-ray
- Microwave
Flowers have UV patterns invisible to humans but vivid to bees, acting like runway lights guiding them to nectar. Conversely, bees cannot see red — a red flower looks black to a bee. This is why very few flowers pollinated by bees are pure red.
14. How does a hive decide where to build a new nest when it swarms?
- They follow the wind
- The queen chooses
- The oldest workers decide
- Scout bees hold a democratic vote
When a swarm needs a new home, hundreds of scout bees inspect potential sites and report back using waggle dances. Other scouts visit the advertised sites and dance for the ones they prefer. The debate continues until a quorum agrees — a process remarkably similar to how neurons make decisions in the human brain.
15. Why is 20 May celebrated as World Bee Day?
- Bees first appeared in the fossil record in May
- The UN formed its pollinator task force on this date
- It is the birthday of pioneer beekeeper Anton Jansa
- It marks the spring honey harvest
Anton Jansa (1734-1773) was a Slovenian apiculture pioneer who was appointed the first royal beekeeper by Empress Maria Theresa of Austria. Slovenia championed the UN resolution establishing World Bee Day in 2017, and beekeeping remains a beloved national tradition there.