Bees make honey through a complex process that involves collecting nectar from flowers and transforming it into honey within their bodies. Here's a step-by-step overview of how bees make honey:
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1. Collecting nectar: Worker bees, which are female bees, fly from flower to flower in search of nectar. Nectar is a sugary liquid produced by flowers as a reward to attract pollinators like bees.
2. Nectar ingestion: When a bee finds a flower with nectar, it uses its proboscis, a long, tubular tongue-like structure, to suck up the nectar. The nectar is stored temporarily in the bee's honey stomach, separate from its regular digestive stomach.
3. Enzyme addition: While the bee is collecting nectar, it adds an enzyme called invertase to the nectar. Invertase helps break down the complex sugars in the nectar, such as sucrose, into simpler sugars like glucose and fructose. This process begins the conversion of nectar into honey.
4. Storage in honeycomb: After collecting enough nectar, the bee returns to the hive. Inside the hive, bees produce beeswax and construct honeycomb cells, which are hexagonal structures made of wax. The bee regurgitates the partially processed nectar, now called "honey stomach contents," into one of the honeycomb cells.
5. Evaporation and water removal: To transform the nectar into honey, worker bees fan their wings vigorously, creating air currents within the hive. This airflow helps evaporate excess water from the nectar, reducing its moisture content. Bees continue this process until the water content decreases to around 17-18%, which is necessary for long-term storage without spoilage.
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6. Ripening and capping: As the water content decreases and the sugars concentrate, the nectar ripens into honey. When the honey reaches the desired consistency, worker bees seal the cell with a wax cap to protect it from moisture and contaminants.
7. Storage and consumption: Honey serves as the bees' primary food source, providing them with essential nutrients and energy. The bees store the capped honey in the honeycomb cells within the hive, where it can be consumed during periods when nectar is scarce, such as winter.
This process of collecting nectar, converting it into honey, and storing it in honeycomb cells is repeated by the bees throughout the warmer months to ensure an ample supply of honey for the hive's needs.
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