Why don't bees make honey. Why do bees make honey and how does it happen. Daily work of a bee colony

20.11.2021

The most useful product that nature gives us is honey - a sweet syrupy liquid produced by bees. It is rich in vitamins, minerals, amino acids important for human health. Honey strengthens the immune system, and also helps to cope with various ailments. It consists of pollen, nectar and bee salivary fluid. Everyone at least once wondered how bees make honey. This is a very interesting process. In order to collect one kilogram of nectar needed to make honey, bees make from 45 to 150 thousand flights, depending on the amount of nectar produced by plants, shrubs, trees and flowers. In one season, a bee family is able to create up to two hundred kilograms of honey.

Why do bees make honey?

Why do bees need honey? It serves as a power source. The endurance and productivity of the bee family depends on honey. Even when a sufficient amount of honey and pollen has been accumulated in the hive for a successful wintering, instinct drives the bees to continue searching for nectar. Each family strives to accumulate the maximum amount of food reserves. With an abundance of food, the bees are calm and hibernate well. But in the case when an insufficient amount of honey was collected, there is not enough food. In this regard, the entire bee family begins to weaken, get sick and may die.

How bees find nectar

In the family, responsibilities are clearly distributed among everyone. Let's talk about them so that you understand how bees make honey. First, the "scouts" get information about the presence of flowering plants around the hive, about their coordinates. Every morning a separate category of bees fly out to explore the area adjacent to the apiary. These insects have poor eyesight, so they use a well-developed sense of smell to find nectar. In the event of a successful departure, the bee returns to the hive and, with the help of a special circular dance, conveys to its relatives that nectar has been found nearby.

How is nectar collected?

According to the specified coordinates, worker bees fly to the designated place, find flowers and collect nectar from them with the help of special goiters. By landing on a flower, the forager determines if there is a fragrant substance on the plant. To do this, she uses special taste buds located on the paws. Bees have two stomachs: one is needed to collect nectar, the second is for food. After filling the “storage chamber”, the worker returns to the hive to transfer the nectar for processing and return to the flowering meadow. In a day, such a bee is able to fly eight kilometers, but long-distance flights are dangerous for it. In this regard, the most productive distance is considered to be up to two kilometers. In this case, the bee manages to process up to 12 hectares of flowering fields. With a properly organized apiary, the useful flight radius of a bee is 2-3 kilometers.

During the collection of sweet liquid, the worker bee manages to deliver 45 mg of nectar in one flight. The greater the distance between the hive and the source of nectar, the less product the insect will bring. This is due to the fact that the bee spends part of the sweet liquid along the way to restore physical strength. For these purposes, she uses 25-30% of the transferred nectar.

Manufacturing process

Not everyone knows how bees make honey. After the worker passes the nectar to non-flying bees, the so-called honey ripening process begins. Those insects that are busy working in the hive carry unripe honey in their ventricles to the combs, enriching it with enzymes and reducing its moisture content. The bee then attaches droplets of sweet liquid to the walls of the comb.

During the period of honey collection, the entire family of insects is actively engaged in ventilation of the nest and temperature control. To do this, non-flying bees actively flap their wings with such force that a hum and buzz from the hive is heard from the side.

How do bees produce honey?

The process of making this sweet treat is not as simple as it might seem at first glance. Before the bees produce honey, the final rehydration of the product takes place, as well as the process of biochemical transformation. Sucrose, saturated with a sweet liquid, is broken down into glucose and fructose. Ultimately, the product should contain a balance of these two monosaccharides.

How do bees make honey? From the outside, it looks like this: insects begin to process the received nectar by transferring from one cell to another, actively ventilating the entire nest. Due to the wide distribution of the substance, the evaporation of excess moisture is accelerated. At the moment of transfer of nectar from cell to cell, its enrichment with bee enzymes continues. Strict sanitation is constantly observed in the hive. All foreign objects that are there are immediately expelled outside. The resulting honey itself can be exposed to moisture and ferment quickly as a result. In order for the product to be stored for a long time, the bees carry it to the very top of the nest, where it is tightly placed in the honeycombs. At the same time, each cell is hermetically sealed with wax caps so that neither water nor air can penetrate.

What factors affect the quality of honey?

In general, the process of honey production takes from seven to fourteen days. The time for collecting nectar depends on the humidity of the air and the number of honey plants near the apiary. The quality of honey is directly related to its moisture content. The less liquid, the better honey is obtained. In this regard, the duration of its selection affects the quality of the final product.

And yet, why do bees make honey? This source of irreplaceable trace elements and nutrients serves as food for them. During the collection of nectar and the production of honey, part is used to maintain strength. These insects prepare the main part of honey for the winter. At the same time, the bee colony consumes only half of the volume produced per year.

Bees of all generations of the family are involved in the process of collecting honey. Each insect is busy with its work. After the honeycombs are filled and sealed, the honey begins to ripen. In this state, it can be stored for a very long time. At the same time, the ambient temperature, the region of collection, as well as the treated plants together can contribute to the crystallization of honey. The final physical state of this delicacy does not affect its healing properties.

Bees are unique insects that produce honey. But many do not know the process of extracting the product. The article discusses all the moments of honey production, why bees do it, and how nectar turns into honey. This is especially interesting for beginner beekeepers who want to start breeding insects.

Why do bees make honey?

Honey is food for all members. Insects feed on them not only in winter, but also in summer. When the cold season comes, the inhabitants of the hive uncork the cells and are saturated with high-calorie honey product, which provides them with the necessary energy.

Then the insects begin to actively flap their wings, which helps to maintain an optimal climate in the home. The waste of the received energy for the required temperature requires the bees to recover as soon as possible - insects need food. In addition to honey, workers need what is called "bee bread" - it replaces protein.

A bee family can have more than a couple of thousand individuals in need of large supplies for the winter. Due to the fact that insects are thrifty and prudent, most of the bee reserves are a valuable food product for people. Experienced beekeepers, who care about the well-being of their bee colonies, leave the required amount of honey in the hive for the winter so that the workers can live until spring and not die - they take the rest.

Beekeepers, thinking only about profit, immediately collect all the supplies, and feed the bees with sugar. But this product cannot become a complete food for insects, since it lacks the necessary vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Because of this, the bees, eating syrup, become weak, their endurance and performance are significantly reduced. When warm days come, it is difficult for insects to fully start collecting honey.

Vitamins contained in honey not only help to maintain the vital activity of the body, but also ensure the proper functioning of the secretory glands that produce wax, the material used to build honeycombs.

How do bees make honey and turn it into nectar?

The passage of a chemical reaction contributes to the transformation of nectar into viscous honey. After the bees return with a stomach full of nectar, the worker insects suck it out of the field worker's mouth with their proboscises. Some of the bees are left to feed the larvae and young individuals, but most of the insects chew for some time. This is the chemical fermentation of nectar.

Nectar is exposed to various enzymes that are part of the saliva of bees, turning into a useful sweetness. When processing takes place, excess liquid evaporates, and sucrose, under the influence of a special enzyme (invertase), is broken down into fructose and glucose - they are easily absorbed by the body. The finished product contains only 5% sucrose. In addition, bee saliva has a bactericidal effect, so that stocks can be stored for a long time.

To ensure the evaporation of moisture, the workers transfer the sweet liquid into the honeycombs, filling them by 2/3, then they begin to actively work on the porches to raise the temperature in the home. The recycled product is placed in special hexagonal cells and hermetically sealed with wax lids, which avoids the penetration of air and moisture, because this can lead to fermentation. In the honeycombs, further maturation of honey occurs.

After the separation of moisture, the syrup from the nectar becomes thick, acquires the consistency of honey.

Bee pollen insects are also placed in honeycombs. The distinctive characteristics of the vaults are their shades - honeycombs are dominated by dark yellow, almost brown, and bee-bread - by a light yellow tint. Production lasts from 7 to 14 days. The quality of products directly depends on the moisture content: the less water in honey, the better it is.

In extreme heat, a sweet liquid secreted by aphids, which is called honeydew, is mixed with nectar. This was the reason for getting the name of such low-grade honey - honeydew. Also, sweet plant juice, called honeydew, can be added to the honey product. Food from honeydew and honeydew is dangerous for bees, as it has a negative effect on metabolic processes.

How bees collect honey can be seen in an interesting video. Here is a detailed description of how insects collect honey, with what they do it, and what happens next:

Stages of honey extraction

Honey collection is the main occupation of bees, therefore all their work is necessarily directed to ensuring this process. To do this, all responsibilities are clearly distributed among all members of the bee family.

How does this happen:

The uterus lays eggs, thereby ensuring the extension of the bee family. Scouts go in search of honey plants, and worker bees build honeycombs, collect pollen and nectar. Even newborn bees are busy with work - they feed, clean the house and maintain the optimum temperature in it.
Bees extract nectar from the flowers of honey plants. The workers start work in the spring, when the flowering plants begin. Scouts are the first to “hunt” - a well-developed sense of smell allows you to quickly find flowering plants, take nectar from them and return home.
In the dwelling, the bees tell their family members where the plant is located, from which nectar can be collected. Bees communicate with peculiar dance movements. Next, the scouts and forager bees go to the found place.
Workers collect honey with a proboscis, which easily penetrates into the flower. The taste qualities of a liquid can be easily recognized by insects with the help of receptors - they are located on the paws.
The bee sits on the plant, sucks up the nectar with its proboscis, and with its hind limbs, on which special brushes are located, it starts collecting pollen, and then makes a ball out of it. This lump is placed in a special basket located on the lower leg of the insect. One such ball can be obtained after collecting nectar from many plants.

Bees are insects with two stomachs. In one of them, food is digested, and the second serves as a storage for the accumulation of nectar - it holds about 70 mg of nectar. But if a worker needs to fly long distances, she spends about 25-30% of the reserves to restore the spent forces. During the day, the worker bee is able to fly up to 8 km, but long-distance flights can be dangerous for her. The optimal distance for honey collection is 2-3 km.

In this case, the insect can process about 12 hectares of the field. To fill the nectar collector, a bee needs to fly about one and a half thousand plants, and to collect 1 kilogram of nectar, it takes from 50 to 150 thousand flights.

While collecting honey, insects are completely enveloped in pollen. Then, after flying around, the bees carry the pollen and pollinate the flowers, allowing plants to reproduce and help produce high yields. After filling the collectors with nectar, the collectors return to the hive, where they transfer the nectar to the receiving bees. Insects are engaged in precise distribution: some are left to feed the larvae, the rest is sent for processing.

Production of honey by bees

When nectar is in the insect's mouth, the bee fills it with its own secretion from the salivary gland. The secret is rich in a wide variety of enzymes that turn nectar into a healthy and tasty honey product.

Features of breeding and the amount of honey

The amount of honey collected can vary greatly depending on the region, the location of the apiary, the weather, the breed of bees and their care, honey plants growing nearby. If the previous winter was very cold and spring came late, the bee colony will collect much less product than usual. Favorable conditions (warm and humid air) contribute to the collection of large amounts of honey.

The breed of bees especially affects the volume of honey collection. But when choosing a breed, it is required to take into account the region and the climatic features of the area. For some areas it is better to choose the Carpathian bee, for others - the Central Russian. The size and quality of the hive also affects the amount of product obtained. It is optimal to choose multi-hull houses. At the same time, it is necessary to pay attention to the fact that not all cells are filled with stocks; there should always be free cells in stock.

It is important that the beekeeper has experience in breeding bees, as well as properly caring for insects. An experienced beekeeper is able to keep only strong colonies and high-quality, prolific ones. So he provides optimal conditions for their life, reproduction and wintering, constantly monitors the body of the hive and its frames, installs additional combs, prevents swarming of bees and, if necessary, transports the apiary to another area, where honey herbs, shrubs or trees.

Usually, one pumping out of the hive allows you to get 13-18 kilograms of a unique product. In a very hot or rainy summer, the indicators are significantly reduced - up to 10 kilos. Favorable conditions contribute to the collection of up to 200 kg of useful sweetness from one bee family.

Many types of insects collect honey, for example: bumblebees, wasps, hornets. But the bees of them are the most famous. Most of the nutrients are found in bee honey.

In winter, honey is the main food for bees. Up to 10,000 bees can live in a hive, so they have no time to waste in the summer.

Throughout the summer, bees fly from flower to flower to collect nectar. Plants such as linden, clover and heather are good sources of nectar.

In addition to collecting pollen from plants, bees help plants reproduce. When a bee sits on a flower, pollen sticks to its feet. Then she flies to another flower, where the pollen from the legs falls inside the flower, and thereby helps it to fertilize the seeds.

Pollen and nectar are collected in honeycombs (hexagonal cells). They form honey after combining. When the cell is full, the bees seal it with wax. The bees can lay their eggs in the honey and it will serve as food for the larvae.

In winter, honey is imprinted by bees and they start eating it. This food is of particular importance to bees and is high in calories. In addition, the bees are responsible for maintaining a special temperature in the hive. To do this, the bees begin to simultaneously quickly flap their wings and thereby disperse the air throughout the hive. Consequently, bee larvae are protected from hypothermia or overheating.

Even in ancient times, people began to use honey. From the very beginning, people collected honey in rock crevices or in tree hollows (from wild bees). After some time, people began to build boards for bees - wooden nests. So this craft began to be called beekeeping.

Over time, people began to breed domestic bees, they made honey, which has a lot more sugar and nutrients. These bees live in special houses - hives, and not in nests. The design of these houses allows you to collect honey without disturbing the bees. The beekeepers harvest some of the honey they have collected each fall. So that in winter the bees do not die of hunger, they are fed little by little with sweet water.

Have you ever wondered how bees make honey? This is a labor intensive process. First, they must collect and in honey bags (located in the esophagus) bring to the hive a huge amount of nectar from flowers or honeydew (a sticky sweet liquid on the leaves of plants of animal origin). Then, in the warmth of the hive, the sweet base evaporates, forming a thick golden mass. This is how honey is made, in a nutshell.

Honey is a thick, sticky liquid created by bees from vegetable juices. Its sweetness is due to plant substances and insect gland secretions.

For thousands of years, people have used it as the only sweetener available. Moreover, ancient civilizations looked at this golden fragrant nectar slowly flowing from the honeycombs as a divine miracle. After all, the essence of a sweet product, widely used not only in the kitchen, but also in medicine and cosmetics, remains a mystery even after many years of scientific research.

In the process of maturation, not only the consistency changes, but also the chemical composition of the feedstock. First of all, complex sugar - sucrose - is broken down into simple sugars (mainly fructose and glucose); at the same time, complex sugars are produced from simple sugars.

Harvested honey contains thousands of other beneficial substances; even today, scientists have not been able to describe and reveal them all. This is a product, the composition of which depends on constantly changing natural conditions, on the way the bees extract honey (ie, from primary raw materials).

Main components:

fructose - 30-38%;
glucose - 26-33%;
sucrose - 1-10%;
higher sugars - 1-10%;
water - 17-20%;
enzymes - 0.1-0.6% (glucose oxidase, phosphatase, invertase, diastase, catalase);
vitamins - 0.1% (pantothenic acid, B1, B2, B3, biotin, C);
minerals - 0.1-1% (potassium, sodium, calcium, magnesium, iron, phosphorus, sulfur, manganese, zinc, copper);
organic acids - 0.1-0.5% (pyruvic, gluconic, malic, citric);
amino acids - 0.1-0.5% (phenylalanine, proline, alanine, valine);
hormonal substances (norepinephrine, acetylcholine, adrenaline, dopamine, royal jelly substances);
dyes (rutin, querutin, acacetin);
flavors (diacetyl, acetaldehyde and more than 50 others).

Although honey is not a cure for all diseases, its positive properties are known. They are the reason for its inclusion in the diet.

Basic properties:

strong immune support, effective relief of colds, flu;
promoting hematopoiesis, preventing anemia;
support for digestion, emptying, intestinal microflora;
elimination of diarrhea, constipation, flatulence;
promoting the treatment of diseases of the stomach, liver, kidneys, heart, intestines and other organs;
lowering high blood pressure, preventing cardiovascular disease;
calming the nervous system, relieving stress, improving sleep;
alkalization of the body (help with heartburn, increased amount of gastric juice).

Why do bees need honey, why and how do they produce it

Bees collect and store honey for winter survival. The average colony consumes about 15-20 kg of product in the winter. This is 70 kg during the year. The beekeeper pumps out about 20-70 kg, so insects are fed with a sugar solution before wintering.

In nature, there are 2 sources of raw materials that insects turn into a golden product. These are vegetable juices, nectar and honeydew. In both cases, we are talking about plant assimilates formed as a result of a photosynthetic reaction. Solar energy in the assimilation organs of plants causes the synthesis of high-energy molecules (and their further transformation into more complex structures) from water and carbon dioxide. As a by-product, oxygen is released, which is necessary for breathing.

Finding a source of food in nature, the bee takes a sample of it and returns to the hive. There, she conveys information about the location of the source to other insects through dance, while simultaneously offering a "tasting". If this resource is found to be valuable, other insects find it and visit it repeatedly for effective use.

bee at work

So, it is clear what honey is made of. But how is it produced? Extracting nectar from a flower, the bee supplements it with its own enzymes and places it in a honey bag. To fill it, you need to visit up to 1000 flowers (1 kg of honey = 1 million flowers). At the same time, she releases a pheromone signaling to other insects that the flower will be empty for some time.

Back at the hive, she passes on the nectar to the other insects and takes some honey to cover the needed energy for her next flight. Since the supplied plant product contains a large amount of water, it cannot be deposited in the honeycomb cells in the wet state, but gradually builds up and dries at higher temperatures. This process takes several days. Once the honeycomb has been filled and matured, the honey is "preserved" with a wax cap.

Collection of nectar for honey production

How nectar turns into honey

Honey is a winter food for bees, obtained from nectar. Nectar is a sweet, fragrant liquid secreted by flowers and even plant leaves.

Collecting nectar is the main life task of worker bees. However, when bees collect nectar, they store it in the baggy bulge of the digestive tube. Here it is chemically changed and compacted. When returning to the hive, the bee throws out the contents of the bag, passes it to the "junior worker" - the builder. Then she rests, cleans her eyes, tentacles and chest, after which she flies again to the same place. There are 7-16 flights per day.

In the hive, the insects evaporate the water from the nectar, add the secretion of the pharyngeal glands and thicken. Changes occur in the liquid, creating a sweet taste in the final product. This is how honey is made.

The builders then place the nearly finished sweet food into the wax honeycomb. When the cell is full, it is closed with a wax cap. After some time, the beekeeper can pump out the golden product.

Helpful information

As mentioned above, honey is divided into 2 types, depending on what the bees collect: floral, which is mainly produced from the nectar of flowers, and honeydew, the raw material for which is represented mainly by sweet juices produced by insects.

Flower honey, produced from nectar, beekeepers divide into separate types according to plants, whose nectar prevails in the grazing bees, and mixed. This designation is only approximate, since in practice, pure species are not found - the beekeeper pumps out honey only after a certain period of time, and when ripening in combs, the product mixes with impurities of other plants.

Honeydew honey differs from flower honey mainly in darker color and slow crystallization. Due to the higher mineral content and lower acidity, it has a harmonious taste. Pine product has a brown-red color, spruce - brown-green, oak - belongs to the darkest types.