How does bees make honey

Categories: All about bees, Bee hive keeping, Bee products, Honey facts |



We all know honey and its healing qualities from childhood. Many mothers add honey to a cup of milk and give a child to sleep better, milk and honey is also very good for colds. Some do massage with honey in the so-called “tophus”. Honey has a lot of useful skills and everybody knows about it, but if anyone  wondered what it is, how do bees make honey, or, for example, why do the bees are making honey.

Bees honey making - how does bees make honey (1)

Bees live in groups. Several groups form a bee colony. There are three types of bees in the colony: the queen bee, drone and worker bee. Most colonies have a queen bee, hundreds of drones and thousands of worker bees.

Only a queen bee can give offspring  and therefore it is the most important person. Drone lives only 24 days. Its task is a queen bee insemination, after which it dies. Worker bee does not give offspring, but it is – the most important worker in the family. Despite the fact that the worker bee is the smallest one, it makes all the work inside and outside the hive.

Bees honey making - how does bees make honey (2)

The queen bee is notable for its size. It’s much more and longer than working bee or drone. Her wings are shorter,  body is wider,  legs are longer, and the color is brighter. There are no pollen baskets on its hind legs, and its sting slightly bent.

However, you do not often see a queen bee. It leaves the hive for two reasons: the migration of a colony or  fertilization. Once the queen bee lays eggs, it mates with about ten drones, collect their semen and stores it in its stomach. This sperm it  “feed” eggs that are in the hive.

After the hatching of  larvae the worker bees begin to feed them. Its responsibilities also include feeding the queen bee and the drones.Then, the worker bee builds cells. It consists of many hundreds of hexagonal cells, which are repositories of honey. They also grow young bees. After three weeks, the larva of the working bee has sting and it is ready to start work.

Bees honey making - how does bees make honey (3)

Honey production starts from the moment the worker bee leaves the hive to collect nectar or pollen. A bee collects nectar in a bag located on her body, and brings it to the hive. In the hive the nectar is transferred from one bee to another, it is chewed and spit out a few times.

They make a thick syrup, which contains a lot of protein and little moisture. Worker bee pours syrup into a cell and then blows it with it’s wings. This makes the syrup thicker. And it turns out the honey. Once the honey is ready, to prevent its fermentation, the bee closes the cell with a thin layer of wax. This honey, if necessary, is used by bees as food.

Bees honey making - how does bees make honey (4)

You can see now that the hive – a honey-factory. If you create a working environment for bees, you facilitate their work and get more honey.

And after a few interesting facts about bees:

  • To generate 1 kg. Honey bees must visit about 10 million. honey color.
  • One bee flies 65 km per hour, so the rapidity can match express train. Even with the load, the bee flies 30 km per hour.
  • It is estimated that to collect 1 kg of honey bee needs to bring 120-150 thousand burdens of nectar.
  • If the flowers from which the bees take nectar, located 1.5 km from the hive, the bee-worker carries each burden 3 km, so it goes about 360 thousand km. This distance in 8,5-11 times longer than the circumference of the globe at the equator.
  • Bees have two stomachs – one for their own food, the other for storing nectar. To fill the stomach with nectar, the bee should fly one thousand – 1500 flowers. Nectar stomach capacity is about 70 milligrams. But this is almost equal to the weight of bee.
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