That sweet thick substance found in bees hive is called the honey. It is what bee keepers raise bees to produce and sell. But where does this honey come from? How do bees get to make so much honey? Well read along and find out.
Adult honeybees in peak season don't live long. They usually have a short life of about 30 days give and take a day or two, The bee quick departure from life is not because the honey bee grows old quickly, but rather because the honey bee wears its wings out on their rush to create enough supplies to survive the next dormant period.
Each hardworking little lady only produces about a 1/12 teaspoon of this delicious sweetener in her lifetime. This is why you need a lot of bees in a bee colony to produce enough honey to last. Adult worker honey bees are designed by nature not to be fertile. You don't want pregnant bees being unable to do their precious work which is to produce honey. These bees basically have two stomachs. One of course to eat and digest and the other basically to gather and store nectar (A sweet watery substances from various blossoms) from plants and then bring back that sweet nectar to the hive and placed in a hexagon cell. Bees typically gather nectar from ,flowering plants including but not limited to; milkweed, dandelions, clover, goldenrod and a variety of fruit trees. Only worker bees forage for food, consuming as much nectar from each flower as they can. You should also know that bees which gather honey are all female.
Fermenting The Nectar
Once our honey bees return home for the night after a long day gathering nectar, she empties her purse out and her sister Bee quickly gets to work filling the cells with nectar. This sweet stuff isn't considered honey quite yet. The housekeeping girls lay on top of it and use their wings to promote evaporation. Once the moisture level has reached 18% or less it will get a beeswax cap and it can now proudly be called Honey. The only food that doesn't spoil!
This honey wasn't made for us humans to take as we please, as taking away the bees honey will probably destroy the colony because of starvation. Bees make honey as storage food. Bees in captivity, or bee farms are reared to produce the honey we consume.
Each hardworking little lady only produces about a 1/12 teaspoon of this delicious sweetener in her lifetime. This is why you need a lot of bees in a bee colony to produce enough honey to last. Adult worker honey bees are designed by nature not to be fertile. You don't want pregnant bees being unable to do their precious work which is to produce honey. These bees basically have two stomachs. One of course to eat and digest and the other basically to gather and store nectar (A sweet watery substances from various blossoms) from plants and then bring back that sweet nectar to the hive and placed in a hexagon cell. Bees typically gather nectar from ,flowering plants including but not limited to; milkweed, dandelions, clover, goldenrod and a variety of fruit trees. Only worker bees forage for food, consuming as much nectar from each flower as they can. You should also know that bees which gather honey are all female.
Fermenting The Nectar
Once our honey bees return home for the night after a long day gathering nectar, she empties her purse out and her sister Bee quickly gets to work filling the cells with nectar. This sweet stuff isn't considered honey quite yet. The housekeeping girls lay on top of it and use their wings to promote evaporation. Once the moisture level has reached 18% or less it will get a beeswax cap and it can now proudly be called Honey. The only food that doesn't spoil!
This honey wasn't made for us humans to take as we please, as taking away the bees honey will probably destroy the colony because of starvation. Bees make honey as storage food. Bees in captivity, or bee farms are reared to produce the honey we consume.
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