How Do Bees Make Honey? The 4 Fascinating Steps

Bees make honey through the following fascinating 4-step process:

1. Nectar Collection: Forager bees travel to flowers to gather nectar, storing it in their specialized “honey stomachs.”
2. Nectar Transfer: Once back at the hive, forager bees regurgitate the nectar to house bees, who then process it further.
3. Processing Nectar: House bees chew the nectar, breaking down complex sugars and converting them into simpler sugars, gradually turning the nectar into honey.
4. Storing and Sealing: The processed honey is placed into honeycomb cells. Bees then fan it with their wings to evaporate excess moisture, and once it’s sufficiently thickened, they seal the cell with beeswax.

In the below paragraphs, we will take a more detailed look at this topic.

Honey production is a fascinating process that has intrigued humans for centuries. The creation of this golden, sweet substance begins with the collection of nectar by the bees from flowers. The bees then store the nectar in their honey stomachs, where it mixes with enzymes and is broken down into simpler sugars. Once the bees return to the hive, they regurgitate the nectar and pass it on to other bees through a process known as trophallaxis. The bees then work together to remove excess water from the nectar by fanning their wings over the open cells, creating the thick, syrupy consistency we know as honey. The reasons why bees produce honey are complex and multifaceted, but ultimately it serves as a vital source of food for the colony during times when nectar is scarce.

Why Do Bees Make Honey?

Honeybees are known for their remarkable ability to collect nectar from flowers and transform it into honey, a sweet and nutritious food source. Nevertheless, the production of honey is not just a way for bees to satisfy their sweet tooth; it is a critical component of their survival strategy.

Bees live in highly organized colonies, with each individual bee having a specific role to play. The queen bee is responsible for laying eggs while the worker bees are responsible for everything else, including collecting nectar and pollen from flowers, caring for the young, and maintaining the hive. Honey plays a crucial role in the life cycle of bees, serving as both a food source and a means of storage.

The Process of Honey Production

To produce honey, worker bees first collect nectar from flowers using their long, straw-like tongues. They then store the nectar in a special stomach called the honey stomach, where enzymes break down the complex sugars into simpler sugars. Once the honey stomach is full the bee returns to the hive, where it regurgitates the nectar into the mouth of another bee.

This process is repeated several times, with each bee adding more enzymes to the nectar to further break down the sugars. The bees then spread the nectar throughout the hive and fans it with their wings to evaporate the water content. This thickens the nectar into honey. Finally, the bees seal the honey in a beeswax comb, where it is stored for future use.

The Role of Honey in Bee Nutrition

Honey is a highly nutritious food source, providing bees with the energy they need to carry out their daily activities. It is rich in carbohydrates, which provide a quick source of energy as well as antioxidants, vitamins, and minerals that support overall health.

In addition to providing energy and nutrients for adult bees, honey is also an important food source for developing bees. Worker bees feed young larvae a mixture of honey and pollen, known as bee bread, which helps them grow and develop into healthy adults. Honey is also used to feed drones, the male bees that are responsible for mating with the queen.

Honey Storage for Winter Survival

While honey is an important food source throughout the year, it is particularly critical during the winter months. Bees are unable to leave the hive during cold weather, and there are fewer flowers from which to collect nectar and pollen. To ensure their survival, bees must store enough honey during the summer months to last them through the winter.

Bees have evolved to produce more honey than they need, with the excess being stored for future use. However, it is important for beekeepers to leave enough honey in the hive for the bees to survive the winter as taking too much honey can lead to starvation and death.

How is Honey Made?

Now you know why bees make honey, we can talk about how they actually make it in more detail. And make no mistake, this is truly remarkable.

Something you might not know is that not every bee is capable of making honey. It is only the honeybee that can produce this sweet food source. Another interesting fact is that one single worker bee will ‘only’ make around a twelfth of a teaspoon of honey throughout its entire life (which is, incidentally, around six weeks). This is why it takes an entire colony of bees to produce the large amounts of honey that can be harvested by beekeepers.

There are a number of steps involved in the honey-making process:

1. Worker bees leave the hive in search of flowers, from which they can collect nectar. They will usually travel around four to five miles from the hive in search of nectar and pollen. Bees use their proboscis (tubular mouth part) to suck nectar from the inside of the flower. The honeybee will typically visit over one hundred flowers on each trip. The collected nectar is stored in the bee’s honey stomach, ready to be taken back to the hive.
2. In the hive, other worker bees (also called house bees) are waiting to begin making honey. When the foraging bees return, they pass the nectar from their honey stomachs to the house bees, who then chew it up before passing it along to another bee. This process continues until the nectar turns to a watery honey.
3. Before the honey can be stored for the winter, it must be dehydrated. Although some water is removed during the chewing process, it still contains too much at this stage. Bees will spread the honey out across the honeycomb, allowing water to evaporate from it. To speed up the process, the bees will set about flapping their wings near to the honey. This increases airflow and ensures that more water evaporates.
4. When the water content is down to just under twenty percent, the bees can begin the final stage, which is capping the honey with beeswax. When the honey is ready and the water content is at the right level, the bees will place it in a honeycomb cell and then cap it with wax that they have secreted from glands at the rear of their abdomen. The capping of honeycomb cells helps to keep the honey fresh.

Do Bees Starve if We Take Their Honey?

Because we know that bees make honey primarily as a food source for themselves, the question of whether they would starve when humans take their honey is a legitimate one to ask.

Yes, a colony of honeybees could starve to death if too much honey is taken from their hive before the winter. Unfortunately, it is a mistake that novice beekeepers often make, especially when the new hive has not had time to build up enough stores.

Experienced beekeepers know that a new hive will need time to establish its honey stores and so will very rarely take honey from the hive in the first year. It may even be necessary to supply sugar syrup as an additional food source for the bees over the winter.

Can Bees Have Too Much Honey?

Taking too much honey from beehives can leave the colony starving, but what happens if you harvest too little honey – or none at all?

If excess honey is not harvested, a colony will soon outgrow its hive. Honeybees spend their lives working for the good of the colony, and this means producing honey in abundance. They will make more than they need for food so that they can store it for use when they are unable to collect nectar. However, they do tend to over-produce, so unless the excess honey is harvested the bees will eventually run out of room to store it.

If the bees run out of room in the hive, they will have no choice but to swarm.

How Often Should Honey be Harvested?

Those new to beekeeping often make the mistake of taking too much honey and leaving the colony with insufficient food stores for the winter. With that in mind, it is worthwhile knowing how often honey should be harvested from a hive.

There is no set rule as to how many times you can harvest, and experience will give you the most definitive answer. How much honey that you take will really depend on how much your bees are producing, which will in turn depend on a number of factors such as time of year, weather conditions, and the number of flowering plants near to the hive.

Most beekeepers will harvest honey either once or twice per year, with very little (or none at all) taken in the first year. It is important to only take cured, capped honey from the hive, and as a rule only harvest when the frame is more than three-quarters full.

How Do Bees Make Honey – Conclusion

Only honeybees make honey and they do so to feed the colony. However, bees tend to over-produce to ensure they have enough food to survive the winter, a time at which they cannot forage for nectar.

Bees follow a step-by-step process when making honey. Worker bees will leave the hive to collect nectar. When they return to the hive, they pass the nectar that has been stored in their honey stomachs to waiting bees, who then chew it and pass it along to other bees until it has turned to honey.

The honey must then be dehydrated before it is stored in honeycomb cells and capped with beeswax for freshness.

Because bees use honey as a food source for themselves, it is important that beekeepers do not take too much as they could leave the colony starving during the winter. Taking too little could mean the colony outgrows the hive and swarms.

Last update on 2024-04-17 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API