Honeybee Fact #1: Some Nectar Is Spiked

Not all nectar is simple sugar water. Citrus and coffee flowers lace their nectar with small amounts of caffeine — not enough to taste bitter, but enough to work on a bee's brain.

A 2013 Newcastle University study found the caffeine boosts a bee's memory of that particular flower, so she's more likely to remember it, return to it, and recruit her nestmates to it through the waggle dance. In effect, the plant is hijacking the bee's own reward system to get pollinated more often than its neighbours.