Bee enthusiasts by the score gathered last Saturday morning at Tradewinds Park in Coconut Creek to learn the value of bees and admire their virtues. The occasion was the dedication of the Educational Honeybee Micro Apiary, thought to be the first in the nation.
About 75 people, many of them children, heard remarks from The Urban Beekeepers, the South Florida Beekeepers Assn., and Congressman Ted Deutch who praised the bees value and importance to the environment.
The speakers provided interesting bee facts, including:
- Bees are social and protect each other from the weather
- They live for about three months
- The queen lives three to four years
- They visit plants as many as 50,000 times
- There wings beat up to 11,000 times a minute making their distinctive buzz
- They eat pollen and honey
- The can fly about 15 miles an hour and could circle the globe on one ounce of honey
- Honey bees never sleep
Following a ribbon cutting opening the apiary, the crowd was given a tour of the hives, a display of beekeeping equipment and the Urban Farming Institute’s crops.
Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service placed some bumblebees on the endangered list (previous story). Â