For whom do bees make honey? How and why do bees make honey? What do bees do with pollen?
Honey has a number of positive properties. It improves metabolism, has bactericidal properties, and has tonic and anti-inflammatory effects. Honey helps normalize sleep.
Other types of bee food
Bees collect not only flower nectar, but also flower pollen. The latter is protein food for bees. The bees place dense clumps of pollen in separate cells of the honeycomb, compact them well, and pour honey on top. This is called beebread, it is the basis of protein nutrition for bees. That is, these insects feed on liquid food (and untransformed nectar) and solid food.If there is not enough flower nectar in a dry summer, bees begin to make honey from the sweet secretions of other insects - psyllids, mealybugs or aphids. Bees collect the secretions of these insects from. Another source of raw materials for honey is honeydew and sugary substances from plants. Fir, spruce, linden, oak, maple, willow, hazel, and other trees provide bees with raw materials for honeydew honey.
Real high quality honey very rarely causes allergic reaction even for the most “complicated” allergy sufferers. Most often, impurities and additives contained in not have a negative effect. quality honey.
This type of honey is no less valuable than flower honey, but is not suitable for bees as a winter diet because it contains too many mineral salts.
When people raise bees, they take a significant portion of the honey for themselves. If the bees are not compensated for the honey they take, the insects may die of starvation. Therefore, beekeepers in winter feed bees with thick sugar syrup, which can partially replace honey.
Bees are unique honey-producing insects. But many people do not know the process of extracting the product. The article discusses all the aspects of honey production, why bees do it, and how nectar turns into honey. This will be especially interesting for novice beekeepers who want to start breeding insects.
Why do bees make honey?
Honey is food for all members. Insects feed on it not only in winter, but also in summer. When the cold season arrives, the inhabitants of the hive uncork the cells and are saturated with a high-calorie honey product, which provides them with the necessary energy.
Then the insects begin to actively flap their wings, which helps maintain an optimal climate in the home. Wasting the energy received at the required temperature requires the bees to recover quickly - insects need food. In addition to honey, working women need what is called “bee bread” - it replaces protein.
A bee colony may contain more than a couple of thousand individuals that need 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 - the rest is taken away.
Beekeepers, thinking only about profit, immediately collect all supplies, and feed the bees sugar. But this product cannot become a complete food for insects, since it lacks the necessary vitamins, minerals and enzymes. Because of this, bees, feeding on syrup, become weak, their endurance and performance are significantly reduced. When warm days arrive, it is difficult for insects to fully begin collecting honey.
The vitamins contained in honey not only help maintain the vital functions 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?
Walkthrough chemical reaction promotes the transformation of nectar into viscous honey. After the bees return with a stomach full of nectar, the worker insects suck it from the mouth of the field worker with their proboscis. Some of the bees are left to feed the larvae and young individuals, but the insects chew most of it for some time. This is the chemical fermentation of nectar.
Nectar is exposed to a variety of enzymes that are part of the saliva of bees, turning into healthy sweets. When processing occurs, 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. Finished products contains only 5% sucrose. In addition, bee saliva has a bactericidal effect, so supplies can be stored for a long time.
To ensure the evaporation of moisture, the workers transfer the sweet liquid into the honeycombs, filling them 2/3, then begin to actively work on the porches to increase the temperature in the home. Receivers place the processed product in special hexagonal cells and seal it with wax lids, which avoids the penetration of air and moisture, as this can lead to fermentation. Further ripening of honey occurs in the honeycombs.
After the moisture is separated, the nectar syrup becomes thick and acquires the consistency of honey.
Insects also place bee bread in honeycombs. Distinctive characteristics storages are their shades - honeycombs are predominantly dark yellow, almost brown, and beebread – a light yellow hue. Production lasts from 7 to 14 days. The quality of the product directly depends on the moisture content: the less water in honey, the better it is.
In extreme heat, a sweet liquid secreted by aphids, called honeydew, is added to the nectar. This was the reason why such low-grade honey was given the name honeydew. Also, sweet plant juice called honeydew can be added to the honey product. Food from honeydew and honeydew is dangerous for bees because it has a negative effect on metabolic processes.
You can see how bees collect honey in an interesting video. Here we talk in detail about how insects collect honey, how they do it, and what happens next:
Stages of honey extraction
Honey collection is the main occupation of bees, so all their work is necessarily aimed at ensuring this process. To do this, all responsibilities are clearly distributed among all members of the bee family.
How does this happen:
- The queen 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 home and maintain the optimal temperature in it.
- Bees extract nectar from the flowers of honey plants. The workers begin work in the spring, when the plants begin to bloom. The scouts are the first to fly out “to hunt” - their well-developed sense of smell allows them to quickly find flowering plants, take nectar from them and return home.
- In the home, the bees tell their family members where the plant is from which they can collect nectar. Bees communicate using unique dance movements. Next, the scouts and forager bees go to the found location.
- The workers collect honey with their proboscis, which easily penetrates into the flower. Insects can easily recognize the taste of liquid using receptors - they are located on their paws.
- A bee lands on a plant, sucks up nectar with its proboscis, and with its hind limbs, on which special brushes are located, it begins to collect pollen, which it then makes into a ball. This lump is placed in a special basket located on the insect's lower leg. One such ball can be obtained after collecting nectar from many plants.
Bees are insects that have two stomachs. In one of them, food is digested, and the second serves as a storage facility for nectar accumulation - it holds about 70 mg of nectar. But if a worker needs to fly long distances, she spends about 25-30% of her reserves to restore the spent energy. During the day, a worker bee can fly up to 8 km, but long flights can be dangerous for it. Optimal distance for honey collection it is considered 2-3 km.
In this case, the insect can process about 12 hectares of field. To fill the nectar collector, a bee needs to fly around about one and a half thousand plants, and to collect 1 kilogram of nectar, it needs to make from 50 to 150 thousand flights.
During honey collection, insects are completely covered in pollen. Then, after flying around, the bees carry pollen and pollinate flowers, ensuring the reproduction of plants and contributing to the production of 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: part is left to feed the larvae, the rest is sent for processing.
Production of honey by a bee
When nectar appears in the insect's mouth, the bee fills it with its own secretion from the salivary gland. The secret is rich in many different enzymes that convert nectar into a healthy and tasty honey product.
Features of breeding and 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, and 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 wet air) contributes to the collection of large quantities of honey.
The breed of bees especially affects the volume of honey collection. But when choosing a breed, you need to take into account the region and climatic features of the area. For some regions it is better to choose the Carpathian bee, for others - the Central Russian one. The size and quality of the hive also affects the amount of product obtained. It is optimal to choose multi-hull houses. In this case, you need to pay attention to the fact that not all cells are filled with stocks; there should always be free cells available.
It is important that the beekeeper has experience in breeding bees and also properly cares for insects. An experienced beekeeper is able to keep only strong colonies and high-quality, fertile ones. So he provides optimal conditions for their life, reproduction and wintering, constantly monitors the hive body and its frames, installs additional honeycombs, prevents swarming of bees and, if necessary, transports the apiary to another area, to where honey herbs, shrubs or trees.
Typically, one pumping from the hive allows you to get 13-18 kilograms of a unique product. In very hot or rainy summers, the figures drop significantly - up to 10 kilos. Favorable conditions contribute to the collection of up to 200 kg of healthy sweets from one bee colony.
Honey is flower nectar processed in the bee's crop. This aromatic, amber-colored product is the best gift nature and humanity have been using the results of the work of honey-bearing insects for centuries. It is not surprising that neither people, nor animals, nor insects are partial to honey. Bees flutter from flower to flower all summer, collecting nectar and making honey. In addition, by producing such a useful sweetness, bees ensure the reproduction of seed plants, pollinating flowering herbs and shrubs.
For us, bee honey is a powerful means of preventing and treating many diseases; for bees, honey is a vital staple food, especially in winter period time. In fact, bees make honey for themselves, which can be learned by delving into the nature of insects. Let's talk in more detail about the nutrition of bees.
The existence of a bee family is a chain of interdependent and interconnected processes. Each individual has its own special purpose. Worker bees bring nectar and pollen and build honeycombs, scout bees fly around the territory finding honey plants, and the queen incubates her offspring.
Even newborn individuals work, making sure that optimal conditions are created in the nests for the emergence of new offspring and feeding the larvae.
The swarm of bees is numerous and can sometimes number several thousand individuals. This means that it is necessary to take care of large supplies of food, which is what bees do throughout the summer. As soon as the air warms up to 12°C, insects wake up from hibernation and go on “reconnaissance.” Before the first flowers bloom, the winged workers are already working to ensure that the hives are prepared during the honey harvest period. The scouts inform the colony about the first flowers to bloom with the help of a special signal dance.
So the bees fly to the honey collection site and begin to extract sweet material, which in the future will become honey. When landing on a flower, a foraging bee uses its taste organs to determine the presence of nectar. With the help of the proboscis (honey crop), the bee collects a sweet substance. The insect's proboscis is riddled with glands internal secretion and a plexus of blood vessels that help break down sugar obtained from nectar.
The winged workers work until the end of August. In winter, contrary to popular belief, bees do not hibernate, but spend the winter in the hive eating liquid food (honey and nectar) and solid food (breadbread). Bee bread is the basis of protein nutrition for bees; it is often called “bee bread.” Bee bread is lumps of pollen that honey plants compact into honeycomb cells and fill with honey.
How do bees make honey?
Future honey will also require some work, because nectar contains a lot of moisture that needs to be dried (on average 50% water and the same amount of sugar). Thanks to evaporation that occurs under the influence of ventilation and heat in the hive, excess water is removed. Bees add enzymes from their own bodies (invertase), turning nectar into food.In addition, thanks to the enzymes secreted by individuals, honey can not spoil for quite a long time. Under the influence of enzymes, hydrolysis of sucrose is formed in honey, so the finished product contains 75% of natural easily digestible sugars (fructose and sucrose) and only 2-4% of sucrose. Then the finished honey is stored in honeycomb cells for ripening, which lasts about 10 days. After the product has ripened and dried to a humidity of 21%, the bee “seals” the cells with a thin wax cap to prevent fermentation. Winged workers use the finished honey for food as needed. Honey saturates the bee's body with carbohydrates and water. The vitamins that sweet honey is so rich in are necessary for insects to proper operation their internal secretion glands.
In dry summers, when there is not enough nectar, bees begin to make honey from honeydew and glucose substances of certain plants (apple, pear, plum, rose, linden, maple, spruce, pine, aspen, oak, fir, elm, willow). Sometimes honey plants also collect the sweet secretions of certain insects that are found on the surface of plant leaves (psyllids, scale insects, aphids). This kind of honey is called honeydew, it is no less valuable than flower honey, but due to the high content of mineral salts, it is not suitable as food for bees. The life expectancy of a bee that feeds on honeydew in winter is reduced by more than half. This statement is typical for the territories of the countries of the former post-Soviet space, where honeydew honey is often of animal origin, from the secretions of insects living on the leaves and is classified as second grade. In some countries Western Europe Honeydew honey is valued higher than flower honey, as it is collected mainly from honeydew. This honey contains 12 times more potassium and 8 times more ash elements than flower honey.
The amount of wax that will be produced by the wax glands of the bee colony also depends on the amount of nectar extracted. And wax, as you know, is building material, thanks to which the construction of honeycombs takes place. The combs hatch offspring and store food. To produce wax, honey plants need to stay together for about 20 hours, until the temperature in the hive rises to 27°C. At this temperature, tiny lumps of wax are secreted from the small glands on the bees' bellies. The bee scrapes such a lump with its paws and chews it into a soft wax ball, after which it places it at the base of the honeycomb. The second honey worker stretches this ball, and the third one after them completes the process. It's amazing how well insects work in complete darkness.
Throughout the hive, female workers cling to their neighbor from above, upside down, and constantly work on the wax product. Each two sides of the honeycomb base are built by separate teams working independently, but the honeycomb is ultimately shaped like a hexagon. This form is optimal for retaining the maximum amount of the original product. And although the thickness of the honeycomb walls is less than a millimeter, their strength is such that a wax base weighing 1 kg, containing about 100,000 honeycombs, can withstand 22 kg of honey! For reference, to collect 1 gram of honey you need to make 75 flights. One worker can produce only 5 grams of honey in its lifetime. A kilogram of honey product is collected by the combined efforts of 200 bees. No matter how hard scientists around the world tried, they were unable to reproduce bee honey in the laboratory and steal the recipe for how bees make honey.
Nature is a unique technologist, everything in it is coordinated like a clockwork and bees are clear proof of this, they are necessary to maintain the natural balance on our Earth. And how smart these little workers are... The intelligence of these insects has long been rumored. We have already discussed the “dance of bees”, with the help of which scout individuals inform about the presence of honey plants, indicating the direction and distance of the plants. About 60 conventional signs are known that bees give when they “dance”. Scientists also noted that the color of the hives in several apiaries is different, the bees “draw” different shaped patterns in order to accurately find their home. It also turned out that honey insects can count, recognize individual pictures, and in the course of evolution, their intelligence continues to improve and develop. Bees have been proven to be trainable, even though the insect's brain is only the size of a pinhead. The bee family is not only clearly organized, but also very thrifty and prudent. After all, a bee colony stores honey in quantities several times greater than the norm they need. These supplies are necessary in case of a long winter or a visit from uninvited guests. Therefore, we have the opportunity to take advantage of their food a little.
Competent beekeepers understand why bees need honey and correctly calculate the amount that insects need to survive the winter. Unscrupulous beekeepers pump their hives every last drop, and so that the bees do not die of hunger, they feed them sugar syrup. But sugar is unsuitable food for striped workers; it does not contain the enzymes, natural substances and vitamins necessary for development. Therefore, appreciate what nature gives you and do not abuse its kindness. It is easy to disrupt balance and harmony, but we ourselves will reap the benefits of this, because we are also part of the ecosystem.
Video of how bees make honey
Everyone knows about beneficial properties ah product produced by bees. Honey is simply a storehouse of vitamins, amino acids and various microelements. Since ancient times, people have loved watching these hardworking insects, watching how bees collect honey by sitting on the flowers of honey plants.
In nature, before collecting nectar, bees look for a secluded place to create wax cells. People also wanted to feast on honey, so they created houses that were comfortable for insects - beehives.
In the article we will look at how nectar is collected, how viscous honey is obtained from it, which member of the bee family is involved in this important matter, and we will find out how many plants one bee needs to fly around to collect 100 g of honey.
Division of duties in the hive
One hive can house up to 60,000 insects. Everyone already has a certain role from birth. In order for the queen to grow and lay eggs, the bees feed her with royal jelly. When she grows up, she begins to eat prepared honey. Its role is only to lay fertilized eggs. It is larger in size than worker bees. When she grows up, she flies to another hive so that inbreeding does not occur.
There is also a queen drone that lays unfertilized eggs. Drones grow from them. These are males who don't even know how bees collect honey. Their duty is only to fertilize the eggs.
The number of drones is small, only a couple of dozen. The rest of the bees are doing important work. every single one is female. The young, only a few days old, are busy cleaning the hive and feeding the larvae that have recently hatched from the eggs. Bee teenagers, who have reached the age of 10 days, take part in receiving a load of food brought by the rest of the workers, who are called field workers. It is these bees that collect nectar and pollen from flowers.
Separation of worker bees
Among adult females, the distribution is as follows. Several worker bees fly out on reconnaissance, that is, they look for honey plants nearby.
When a wonderful place full of food is found, the scouts return to the hive and report the find to the main squad of field bees. The announcement takes place using a kind of dance. Circling in front of the other females, the scouts call on them to fly after them.
The forager bees do not take long to persuade and they follow the scouts, who indicate the correct direction of flight. Having reached the right place, the bees distribute themselves among the flowers and collect nectar with their long proboscis.
Honey plants
In nature, there are a huge number of plants from which bees collect honey. Let's name some of them:
- blooming trees- quince, apricot, acacia, cherry, oak, willow, horse chestnut, maple, linden, plum, poplar, bird cherry, apple tree, birch;
- shrubs - lilac, rose hips, hawthorn, black currant, raspberry, heather, wild rosemary, barberry, etc.;
- herbaceous plants- marshmallow, basil, watermelon, valerian, cornflower, sweet clover, oregano, St. John's wort, fireweed, clover, alfalfa, coltsfoot, dandelion, lungwort, thyme, etc.
Who taught bees to collect honey
Many people think about this question. However, there is no clear answer. Of course, bees act instinctively. It is already inherent in nature that you need to prepare food “in reserve”, because bees make honey not for the people who take it, but for their offspring, who must eat something, and also have reserves for all year round They will also be useful for adults, because the plants bloom for a short period.
Let's look at how bees collect honey in more detail below. Following the scouts, field bees find the necessary honey plant by scent and sit comfortably on it.
Sweet and liquid nectar is collected by a long, rolled-up tongue, which is hidden in the proboscis. The bee has a unique structure. Insects have two stomachs. They use one as usual to digest their food. And the other is used as a warehouse for nectar. This container holds about 70 mg of the substance. However, even to collect such an amount, the insect must fly around about 1,500 flowers. Returning back to the hive, the bee carries a weight almost equal to its own.
How honey is made from nectar
How bees make honey is well understood by chemists. After all, it is thanks to the passage of a chemical reaction that nectar turns into viscous honey. After the bee returns with a stomach full of nectar, worker bees pump it out of the field friend’s mouth, sucking it out with their proboscis. Some of it goes to feed the larvae and juveniles, but most of it is chewed by the bees over a period of time.
At this time, chemical fermentation of nectar occurs. The bee's proboscis produces a substance called invertase. This is an enzyme that converts sucrose into fructose and glucose. Then the bees lay out the workpiece in the cells of the honeycomb. There, another reaction occurs from liquid nectar with the help of oxygen - hydrolysis. Honey is considered finished product when the humidity remains no more than 21%. To make moisture evaporate faster, bees blow their wings over the cells of the honeycomb.
Scientists have calculated that to collect 100 g of honey, a bee visits 1 million flowers. Accordingly, it collects 0.0001 g of nectar from one flower.
After the moisture is separated, the nectar syrup thickens and acquires the consistency of honey. After this, the bees seal it in the combs with the help of wax, which is secreted in flakes from their wax glands. He has White color.
Why do bees collect pollen?
Observant bee researchers may notice a small ball on the bee's hind leg while collecting nectar. Let's look at what it is.
Sitting on a flower, a field bee collects not only nectar, but also pollen. The pollen pollen is placed in a special basket, which is located on the hind leg of the insect. Depending on the color of the pollen, the balls can be of completely different shades - from yellow to black. After collecting the material, the bee brings the load to the hive, the ball is carefully removed from its leg and lowered into a container with honey, and then sealed with wax.
Bees fly for pollen several times a day, spending up to two hours of their time. Why do bees need pollen? Do they really lack honey? Let's take a closer look.
What do bees do with pollen?
You already understand how bees make honey, let's now see why they needed pollen. Sitting on a flower, the bees smear themselves in it. Paws, wings, and fleecy body are sprinkled. Before flying, the bee carefully combs its hair with its paws, which contain a lot of fibers. Cleaning off dust particles with “combs”, they store them in two containers on their hind legs. It is in this form that they most often return to their native hive.
Pollen, along with honey, is food for bees, so they store it for the whole year, bringing 20 mg of pollen each time. It is very nutritious and contains a lot minerals, vitamins and proteins. But bees do not eat the pollen itself. This serves as a kind of flour. It is mixed with honey and both larvae and adults feed on this honey bread throughout the year. This mixture is called beebread.
It is very important to have a lot of beebread in the hive, without it the bees become weak and cannot work. Drones eat especially a lot of this food. Throughout the year, a bee colony eats approximately 35 kg of pollen.
How much honey does one bee collect?
Average duration The life of one bee is one month. Under good weather conditions, one individual can collect up to 0.4 grams of nectar. However, bees do not fly into the field every day, so one bee can collect no more than 15 grams in its entire life.
This amount of nectar can yield almost 15 grams of honey. However, each hive contains from 40 to 60 thousand individuals, so each hive produces tens of kilograms of honey per year.
