More than Honey

Everybody in the bee-world is atwitter about extracting honey these days, so I thought a little honey fact-check is in order. However, the results are not very satisfying. Maybe you can help me to figure this out.

I am sure there is some variation in the activity and productivity of honeybees around the world. But I doubt that it is as big as one would expect if all these numbers were correct.

It’s about the distance that bees fly to produce a kilogram of honey. It’s far, that much we know. But just how far, specifically, how often “around the world” seems to be – well… open.

(Photo via mpg)

According to the British Beekeepers Association bees fly “about 55,000 miles to make just one pound of honey, that’s 1½ times around the world” (or 3x for 1kg). However, if you take the circumference of the earth to be roughly 24.900 mi (ca. 40.000 km), British bees are actually flying a bit more than twice around the earth for the pound (or 4x for 1kg).

Similar seems to hold for American bees who “…travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just a pound of honey.” (again: approximately four trips around the world for one kilogram)

However, on the FAQ-page of the International Bee Research Association (IBRA), I find the following information:
“Q: How far does a honey bee fly to get food?
A: Honey bee foragers commonly fly up to four miles (6.5 km) to collect nectar and pollen from flowers, and can potentially cover 50 000 acres (20 000 hectares). It is estimated that it takes 10 million foraging trips to make the equivalent of one jar of honey (1lb or 454 g).”

Now, unless I am missing something here, even with a very conservative estimate of just one kilometer per foraging flight, this would result in a distance of 20 million kilometers for 1kg of honey or 500 times around the world. Really?!

In Germany, the numbers also vary: From “Twice around the World” for one glass of honey (0,5 kg) (i.e. 4x around the world for 1kg) to three times around earth for 0,5 kg (i.e. 6x for 1kg) to just ONCE around earth for one kilogram.

The last number seems to be a bit of an outlier, but comes with the most detailed explanation of how it was calculated and also from a very respectable source, so I am inclined to believe it. But this still doesn’t explain the differences between German and British or American bees. It’s probably an artefact (people copying from each other, some mixup with units…), but is there any good data on this? Anywhere? I would love to know!