Where it hums and buzzes

5 exciting facts about bees

1. Bees can sniff out explosives

Bees have about 60,000 scent receptors on their antennae. This enables them to detect even the tiniest scent molecules from a distance and determine the direction from which the smell is coming. With their fine sense of smell, they could even detect explosives.

2. Elephants are afraid of bees

It's hard to imagine when you compare the size of an elephant to that of a bee, but it's actually true: elephants are afraid of bees. They take flight when they hear the buzzing of a swarm of bees.

3. Bees can get drunk

Well, who's staggering around? A bee! How it happens: At particularly high temperatures, alcohol can develop in the flower nectar. When bees help themselves to it, they can get drunk. Their condition is then similar to that of humans: they are uncoordinated and stagger around.
Sobering up in the beehive now? Out of the question. The guard bees make sure that drunk bees are not allowed to fly back in until they have sobered up.

4. Bees travel around 100,000 kilometres for a jar of honey.

To fill a 500-gram jar of honey, bees fly, symbolically, 2.5 times around the world. They cover between 25,000 and 500,000 kilometres in the process.

5. Bees dance to communicate with each other

Bees communicate with each other by dancing. There are two types: the round dance and the tail dance. When a bee does the round dance, it points to food sources that are no more than 100 metres away from the hive. If a food source is further than 100 metres away, it performs the tail dance.

Why bees are so important in the vital world

Bees are the invisible heroes of the Vitalwelt, especially when it comes to our fruit trees and most production. Their busy pollination work is the key that turns the blossoms of our fruit trees into delicious fruit. Without bees, there would be no apples, no pears and thus no most, which is so appreciated in this region.

The close relationship between bees, fruit trees and most production is a perfect example of the harmonious combination of nature and culture at Vitalwelt Bad Schallerbach. The bees not only take care of the harvest, but also contribute to the preservation of biodiversity and the ecological balance.

Our bee-friendly communities

Municipalities can contribute a lot to bee and soil protection by making public green spaces bee-friendly and maintaining them without chemical-synthetic pesticides. Or by creating awareness among the population and businesses. This is why the Environmental Department of the Province of Upper Austria has launched the project "Bee-Friendly Municipality" under the motto "Our Soil for Bees": Targeted measures are designed to support municipalities in setting a good example and sustainably anchoring bee and soil protection. Three of the seven Vitalwelt locations already have the distinction of being a bee-friendly municipality.

Visit the bee house with its show beehive in the nature discovery park and learn all there is to know about the useful little honey bees.

How much honey does a bee colony produce in a year? What are the tasks of the queen bee? What does a bee's home look like and what is the bee's function in our society? Young and old can find out the answers to all these questions on the bee trail of the municipality of Grieskirchen.