How do bees make honey?
Honey is made from the nectar and sweet deposits that bees collect from plants and trees.
Worker bees (females) suck nectar from flowers with their long tongues, which are called proboscises, and also collect pollen, a type of powder from flowers, on their fuzzy abdomen or hind legs.
In one collection trip, a bee visits 50 to 100 flowers! They fly at a speed of 15 miles per hour. To make honey, worker bees make around 1,600 round trips to produce one ounce of honey! An average worker bee makes only about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime, so lots of worker bees work hard together to make large quantities!
The nectar ends up in their special stomach, called a honey stomach. When their honey stomach is full, they fly back to the hive. A healthy hive contains around 50,000 bees! The nectar and pollen is passed among the mouths of other worker bees where it’s mixed together to create a protein-rich “bee bread.” This is less runny and can be stored into honeycomb cells. These hexagonal cells are like tiny honey pots made of wax! The honey is stored in the honeycomb as a food source for the colony (and us – yum!).
Honey bees are super important pollinators for flowers, fruits, and vegetables. Bees transfer pollen between the male and female parts of plants, allowing them to grow seeds and fruit. Bees help other plants grow while they do their work! Honey bees pollinate crops, such as apples, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, peaches, pumpkins, sunflowers, and much, much more! Without honey bees, these crops wouldn’t grow to feed us!
I LOVE BEES!
