Foraging bees can travel some distances when they are collecting nectar. Good nectar sources close to the hive will usually be preferred, but bees will often cover an area with radius of kilometres. In times of dearth, they have also been known to travel up to over 10 km to gather nectar. These are huge distances for such a tiny worker! When a bee collects nectar and deposits it in its honey stomach, it adds enzymes and proteins that are secreted into its mouth from special glands.
This enzyme addition begins the process of turning the nectar into honey. The floral source of nectar will determine the varietal of honey produced by the bees. Bees do not normally mix up different kinds of nectar when they are foraging. Just how they know to collect one type pf nectar at a time is a fascinating subject and the topic for another article at some point, so watch this space.
The honey stomach takes about 40mg of honey which is about half the weight of the bee. It takes her many flower visits — or even many more — to fill her honey stomach and then loaded up, she will return to the hive to drop off the load, before starting out all over again. Once back at the hive, the field bees pass the nectar to the other worker bees, known as house bees, so now the honey-making process really gets going. These house bees chew the nectar for up to half an hour, even making bubbles between their mandibles extended jaws to evaporate moisture out of the nectar.
Whilst the honey loses some moisture when it is being passed from bee to bee, the process of dehydration intensifies when the bees spread the honey out across wax comb in the hive that the bees build for this purpose. At this point too, house bees increase the airflow in the hive by fanning their wings, that in turn increases the evaporation of water from the honey. This is no mean task and how the bees know when they should stop drying out the honey is a mystery to us all!
The capping process is an important aspect of storage of the honey as it keeps the honey clean, protected from the thousands of bees tracking across the face of the honey comb in a hive each day.
Capping also critically seals the cell, stopping the honey from absorbing back from the hive any moisture that would cause it to ferment.
Now you know how bees make our honey you can go get some…. Exquisite taste and texture, comes with a hint of butterscotch. Here in g jars, also available in g and g jars. For one, they will spread the honey over the honeycomb. This process increases the surface area and allows for more water evaporation. Bees will also fan their wings near the honey to increase airflow and evaporate even more liquid.
The bees really do work for their food! The final step in the honey-making process is storage. The honey is deposited into the cells of the honeycomb, where it will stay until the bees are ready to eat it. To keep the honey fresh, each cell is capped with beeswax. Making beeswax is another fascinating process. Learn more about beeswax and how bees make it: What is Beeswax?
Many of us take honey for granted. We can simply go to the store and pick up some delicious local honey to enjoy. We rarely think about all of the time that went into the production of honey. Next time you add a few drops of honey to your breakfast toast or tea, give a little thanks to the hundreds of busy honey bees that made it all possible!
Call Today! Professional Bee Removal Contact. Did you know…? Not all bees make honey. These often turn into the seeds of the fruit and nuts we eat.
In fact, about one-third of the food we eat is pollinated by bees. Did you know the yellow fuzzy honey bee is just one of over 20, bee species in the world?
There are more than 1, in Australia alone, some of which can make honey. Some native stingless bees only found in Australia , such as Tetragonula carbonaria and Austroplebeia australis , produce honey too.
There are also ten other honey bee species overseas, such as the giant honey bee Apis dorsata in Nepal and Indonesia, which live at the top of high cliffs and large trees. Edition: Available editions United Kingdom. Become an author Sign up as a reader Sign in. Worker bees with capped brood brown , open brood white larva , all sorts of coloured pollen and shiny fresh nectar. Cooper Schouten , Author provided.
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