Honey bees are nature’s magicians, not just bugs. They are little miracle workers with wonderful talent. Talk about hard workers that make most of us look lazy! These small flying insects turn flower nectar into sweet, yummy honey through a mix of science and magic.
Honey Bees: Facts and Myths
Clearing up common misunderstandings and sharing info about honeybees:
| Myths | Facts |
| Bees don’t need their own honey to live. | Bees utilize their own honey to live through winter. They depend on it for energy. |
| Crystallized honey is spoiled. | Crystallization is natural and doesn’t spoil honey; it can be liquefied again by warming it. |
| Honey that isn’t light brown has gone bad. | Honey’s color varies based on the flowers bees visit and doesn’t indicate spoilage. |
| Children should not eat honey. | Don’t give honey to babies younger than one year old because it might cause botulism, but kids over that age can eat it. |
| Honey contains lots of bacteria. | Honey has the ability to fight bacteria, and you can eat it without worry if you store it right. |
| Only bees make honey. | While bees are the primary producers, some wasps also produce honey in smaller amounts. |
| Filtered honey is less authentic. | Filtered honey is just as healthy and safe as unfiltered honey; it comes down to what you like better. |
| Honey on metal is destructive. | Bees do not corrode metal. Honey can, therefore, be safely stored in metal containers. |
Why do bees make honey?
Bees produce honey for the preparation of cold winter months when foraging becomes impossible. Due to having stores of honey, workers in such colonies overwinter, in contrast to most colonies of bumblebees, in which queens alone survive, having overwintered in a state of torpor in a position below ground level.
What is honey made of?
Honey is produced by honey bees from flower nectar, a thick, sweet, and viscous liquid, with sugars like fructose and glucose being predominantly responsible for its sweetness. There is a little water present, approximately 13-25%, and then a little added in by bees in terms of enzymes, amino acids, proteins, vitamins, and a small amount of minor minerals such as iron and potassium. All of these contribute to both its nutritional value and its rich flavor.
From Initial Process to the Final Production of Honey: Step by Step
When the weather warms and flowering starts, honey bees leave the hives in search of flowers. How bees make honey is in the following manner:
- Once they locate a flower, they will use their long tongue in a manner similar to a straw to draw out a sugary juice, a nectar, from a plant.
- The nectar is stored in a secondary stomach, alternatively known as a “honey stomach.”
- After they have accumulated enough in their secondary stomach, bees will return to their hive and start regurgitating the nectar via mouth to other bees.
- These bees will masticate for about 30 minutes with the nectar.
- Then they pass it to yet another bee!
- As the bees transmit it one to another, it is processed into honey.
- Once the nectar is transformed into honey, then the bees will store it in wax cells, small wax-made cups, actually, in a honeycomb.
- The bees then fan with their wings over the honey in an attempt to thicken it and make it syruplike, not juice sweet.
- Once the honey matures, bees will seal off the cell with a wax cover in anticipation of storing it for future use.
- At this point, experienced beekeepers can remove a portion of processed honey from the hive, taking care not to injure or destroy the colony.
Sweet honey facts
- The process lasts for approximately 45 days, during which a specific role is developed in each individual bee.
- It takes one such colony (of approximately 30,000 bees) to cover a fruit tree with bees for effective pollination. Efficient pollination is enhanced when bees in larger numbers arrive when flowers have reached full flowering stage.
- In spring, a hive can contain from 10,000 to 15,000 bees.
- In summer, a hive may contain from 50,000 to 80,000 bees. A lowly honey bee may fly with a velocity of 24 km/h (15 mph) and beat its wing 200 times in a second.
- A normal bee colony will have one QUEEN and can produce 2,000 eggs a day when in full production
- there may be 60,000 and even WORKER bees (unfertilized female bees ) that will do all the work. There will be a hundred or two DRONES (Male bees).
- A worker bee stores in her lifetime 0.8 grams (0.0288 oz) of honey.
- It requires 556 bees to produce a pound of honey.
- Bees fly a dozen times around the earth in an attempt to produce a pound of honey.
- The average lifespan of a working bee is about six weeks long.
- Nectar as harvested by the bee, contains about 70% water (honey contains about 17% water).
- Bees remove excessive moisture in nectar through fanning with quick wing motion over the open cells in the hive, circulating new air inwards into the hive and outwards with moist air.
- Honey ranges in color from water white to dark brown/black in color. Most Canadian honey is white in color, with a mild but sweet taste.
- The value of fruits, crops, vegetables, and legumes that have been pollinated by bees is approximately 20 times that of honey produced.
- One hard-working honey bee will produce one 12th of a teaspoon in its entire life
What do bees use honey for?
Bees work assiduously to make honey and utilize it in numerous ways:
-Energy Source: Honey is a source of fuel for bees for their daily activity, most specifically for flying.
– Feeding Larvae: Worker bees provide offspring with honey in order to make them strong.
– Winter Store: In winter, when flowers become fewer in number, bees survive on stored honey.
– Queen’s Diet: She almost exclusively lives off of royal jelly, but workers survive off of honey.
Want to learn and contribute towards bees’ salvation?
Saving bees is important, and you can contribute to it by knowing more about bees’ contribution to our environment. Bees contribute to pollination, and through it, plants reproduce and produce our food. You can contribute to bees’ welfare by planting flowers friendly to bees, not using pesticides, and supporting your local bee farmers.
Conclusion
Honeybees are unsung heroes of our planet. Not only are they producing honey – they’re putting our entire ecosystem in full motion. With every drop of honey onto your toast, you’re witnessing the fruit of a grand group effort that takes a thousand flowers and a thousand bees’ worth of work.
Next time a fly-by buzzes, high-five it in your head. Little bees are working for our planet in a way most of us can hardly even imagine. They’re not harvesting honey – they’re harvesting life.
FAQs
How to extract honey from bees?
Harvesting honey is an exciting activity:
Smoke out the Hive: Smoky smoke is used to calm down bees.
Remove Frames: They carefully remove the frames filled with honey.
Uncap the Cells: A special tool removes wax caps over cells.
Extract the Honey: The frames go into a honey extractor, which spins out the honey.
Filter and Bottle: Next, the honey is filtered out for impurities and then packaged in a bottle.
Do bees ever eat bees’ honey?
Yes, bees actually eat their own honey. They use it for nutrition and for raising offspring. It’s a part of their diets, specifically when nectar isn’t an option.
Which bees produce honey?
Honeybees classified under the genus Apis produce large quantities of honey. The most common species is Apis mellifera, but varieties of stingless bees may also produce honey in lower quantities.
What Pollinates the Bee?
Bees are natural pollinators, and here’s how they do it:
Bees visit flowers in an attempt to obtain nectar. As bees move between flowers, pollen clings to them and carries them to new flowers. In doing so, it helps flowers reproduce, and fruits, vegetables, and seeds can then form.
Just how many bees are in there in one single hive?
During the entire time of year, 25,000 to 100,000.
How many flowers or plants does it take one honeybee to land on in order to make one pound or, in other terms, 454 grams of honey?
Two million
How many bees fly a distance in a hive in an attempt to deliver 454g (a pound) of honey?
Over 55,000 miles (that’s the calculation
How much do bees make in a lifetime?
0.8g (1/10 teaspoons)
How quick is a honeybee in flight?
About 24 km/h or 15 mph
What is the title of a wine that is made with fermented honey?
Mead
How long have bees collected honey from flowering plants?
About 10 to 20 million
How do honeybees make contact with each other?
By dancing, honeybees convey a message about where nectar and pollen can be located through a dance that tells them about direction and distance.