Honey Bees and Häagen-Dazs® products - A Natural Partnership

Over the last three winters more than 1 in 3 bee colonies has died nationwide, affecting many of our favorite nuts, fruits and berries – key ingredients in many of the most popular Häagen-Dazs flavors

• • Researchers believe there are many causes for the decline in the bee population including:
  • • Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD) – Symptoms were reported by more than 35 states across the continental United States and in two provinces in Canada, Belgium and Spain
    • Varroa Mites – Inadvertently introduced into the United States in 1987, these tiny, brown parasitic relatives of ticks feed exclusively on honey bees
    • Viruses – Israeli Acute Paralysis Virus (IAPV) is highly associated with CCD
    • Chemical Exposure – Pollen in CCD-affected hives show levels of 45 different types of insecticides, fungicides and herbicides
    • Lack of Nutrition – Limited supply of good pollen and nectar supplies due to drought has greatly impacted honey bees
  • Honey bees help to create ingredients that go into nearly 50 percent of Häagen-Dazs flavors
  • Ice cream production is dependent upon honey bees for alfalfa pollination, a key ingredient in milk production. Dairy cows rely on alfalfa for feed; without the cows we would not have milk, and without milk we would not have ice cream

Honey Bee and Food Supply Agriculture Facts

One of every three bites the average American eats is directly attributed to honey bee pollination

• • Honey bees are responsible for the pollination of more than 100 crops, including fruits, vegetables, nuts, and seeds, providing 80 percent of the country’s pollination service
  • The honey bee is responsible for pollinating $15 billion in agricultural crops each year. The California almond crop alone uses 1.3 million colonies of bees for pollination, approximately one half of all the honey bees in the United States
  • California is the largest producer of agricultural products with an estimated annual total gross crop value of $30.5 billion; Pennsylvania is also a major player in the agricultural world, with a total annual crop value of $4.5 billion

Honey bees, the unsung heroes of food production, dance far and wide for our favorite fruits, nuts and berries

• • Honey bees are the only insect that produce food for humans, flying approximately 15 mph and visiting about 50-100 flowers in each pollination trip
  • When a honey bee returns to the hive, it gives out samples of the flower’s nectar to its hive mates. Then it performs a dance that identifies the distance, direction, quality, and quantity of the food supply.  The richer the food source, the longer and more vigorous the dance
  • The principal form of communication among honey bees is through chemicals called pheromones

A single bee cannot make honey, it takes a whole hive

• • An average worker bee will only make 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime
  • One honey bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year
  • To produce 1 pound of honey, honey bees must visit 2 million flowers and fly 55,000 miles

The A, Bee, C’s of Honey Bees

• • Preceding humans by millions of years, the oldest bee fossil dates back more than 100 million years. Flowering plants appeared about 65 million years ago
  • Humans have been associated with honey bees since the era of cave men, and ancient societies in Egypt and Israel kept bee colonies for honey production
  • Apis mellifera, a honey bee’s scientific name, literally means “the honey-carrying bee”, but in actuality bees carry pollen on their hind legs in an area know as a pollen basket or corbicula
  • • A queen bee can live for 2-5 years, a worker bee 1-4 months and a drone 40-50 days