Wednesday, November 29, 2017

Fun Facts: Bees can eat eggs

It is surprising to learn that if the queen lays an egg that is somehow damaged or faulty or if a worker lays an egg when she's not supposed to (since that's the queen's job) the workers will eat the egg.

I thought that was weird since bees eat pollen and honey but when I thought about it a bit more I realized that the egg could be good food for the bees as a source of protein.

If they threw the egg out as garbage it would be a waste of protein which keeps the bees healthy.

These fun facts are taken from an excellent book written by Jurgen Tautz.  It's called The Buzz About Bees - Biology of a Superorganism.