CATDOLL : CATDOLL: How do bees make honey?

How do bees make honey?

Worker bees collect nectar, which is sucked into the honey sac by the worker bees. At this time, the saliva containing invertase is mixed in. The conversion process of sucrose begins from then on. According to measurements, when the bees enter the nest, the sugar content of the nectar in the honey sac is about 45%, which is less than 1% different from the sugar content of the natural nectar before collection. After the bees return to the nest, they spit out honey and give it to the house bees for brewing. The honey brewing process of bees mainly involves adding invertase of sucrose and some water from evaporated nectar to the nectar. The sugar content of the honey brewed initially is about 60%. When the honey maturation process is partially completed, the bees will store the honey that they have brewed initially but not mature in the nest cells, allowing the immature honey to further mature in the nest cells. After the honey matures, the worker bees will seal the honey storage nest cells with beeswax for later use. The time required for the honey maturation process varies depending on the nectar concentration, colony strength and climate, and generally takes about 5-7 days.

There are two main changes in nectar when it is made into honey: first, the sucrose in the nectar is converted into glucose and fructose; second, the concentration is significantly increased, and the water content is reduced to less than 20%. After the nectar is sucked into the honey sac by the collecting bees, it is mixed with saliva containing invertase, and the process of converting sucrose begins. The work of making honey is undertaken by the house bees. After the worker bees who collect nectar return to the nest, they distribute the nectar to one or more house bees. After receiving the nectar, the house bees climb to a less crowded place on the honeycomb, head up, maintain a certain posture, then open their upper jaws, and make honey by opening and closing the curved part at the end of the beak.

1. The bees in a bee colony have a strict division of labor. A small number of worker bees specialize in finding nectar sources. After finding the nectar source, they will lead a large number of bees to collect it. The honey bee has two stomachs in its body. After sucking the nectar, it will store it in its stomach, and then spit it into an empty honeycomb when it returns to the hive.

2. After the bees collect pollen and nectar during the day, they will start the real work of making honey at night. They will suck out the nectar stored in the workshop, mix it in their stomach, and then spit it out. They will repeat this cycle over and over again. They will perform the swallowing and spitting process more than a hundred times before making honey. They will also seal the honey with beeswax.

Why do bees make honey?

1. Bees making honey is the greatest manifestation of their adaptation to the external environment, because they need to prepare food for themselves to survive the winter. Winter is the time when nectar sources are the scarcest, and bees have no honey to collect at all. They can only rely on their own stored food to survive the winter.

2. Bees make honey as a necessity for their reproduction and survival, because after collecting nectar, worker bees not only need to provide it to the queen bee, but also to the larvae in the bee colony. Only when there is sufficient honey can the bee colony develop and survive normally.

1. Formation and composition of nectar

It is produced by the nutrients absorbed by plants from the soil and photosynthesis. In addition to meeting their own growth and development, the excess is stored in the plant body. When flowering, some nutrients are transported to the flower, part of which is converted into sugar juice and stored in the nectar cells, and the other part is used to form fruits and seeds. Nectar cells are rich in nutrients, which are secreted to the outside of the body through the nectar epidermis under suitable conditions to form nectar.

The main components of nectar are sucrose and water, as well as glucose, fructose, vitamins, amino acids, proteins, etc.

2. Bees collect nectar

When bees (adult bees working outside) collect honey, they use a long, soft, multi-sectioned proboscis covered with fine hairs and with a lip at the front to absorb the honey into the honey sac in their bodies. The honey sac is like a retractable balloon, a temporary warehouse for storing honey. Normally, the volume of the honey sac is only 13~16mm3, but it can expand 5~6 times after being filled with honey. After the bees fill the honey sac, they fly back to their hive and spit the honey to the working bees, who then process and brew it.

3. Honey Brewing Process

The process by which bees turn nectar into honey mainly involves two changes.

1. Chemical changes of sugar: Bees spit out enzymes in their saliva and mix them with nectar, which produces a hydrolysis reaction, turning disaccharides in nectar into monosaccharides, that is, hydrolyzing sucrose in nectar into glucose and fructose. (In fact, it has already started from the time of collection)

2. Physical changes: Through evaporation, the water content is reduced from an average of 60% to 65% to 7% to 25%. After returning to the nest, the worker bees spit out the honey juice to the house bees for further processing. During the processing, the house bees will secrete invertase and mix it into the nectar. At the same time, some bees in the box will increase fanning and evaporate water to promote the rapid concentration of the honey juice. Finally, half of the honey juice is stored in the nest. Through continuous secretion of invertase and fanning, a high-concentration honey liquid is formed, which can inhibit the growth of various microorganisms; and through the secretion of invertase by the glands, sucrose is fully converted into glucose and fructose, reducing the sucrose content. When the honey is mature and filled with the nest, the bees will seal the honey cell with wax, thus completing the whole process from nectar to mature honey. It usually takes 5 to 7 days for bees to brew the thin honey juice into mature honey.

Conclusion: Bees make honey to store food for themselves during the flowerless period. Bees have no freedom and devote themselves entirely to the colony. During the nectar flow period, it may take only about a month for bees to leave the hive to die. The actual time they spend in the field collecting honey may be about 10 days. They see the outside world for no more than half a month and may die from exhaustion. The labor cost that bees pay to collect and make honey is staggering.

How do bees make honey?

In beekeeping, how to manage the bee colony to ensure production?

From the bee's perspective

From the perspective of bees, bees have needs. Here, the bee tribe believes that the bees here have two needs, one is that there are more bees, and the other is that there is sufficient nectar source and a good climate.

First: there are many bees.

If we want more bees, we need to have more bees in the box. For a bee colony, the only bee that lays eggs is the queen bee, so to achieve more bees, the ultimate goal is obviously for the queen bee to lay more eggs. More bees does not mean high honey production, there are also auxiliary conditions. The eggs laid by the queen bee must be fed by high-quality worker bees, and the worker bees must have strong honey collection ability. Therefore, the queen bee must not only be able to produce high yields, but also to produce good honey.

Second: There is sufficient nectar source.

We have bees, but no nectar source, and it rains every day. It is certain that the bees' honey collection will be greatly affected. So while meeting the needs of a large number of bees, we must also meet one condition, that is, sufficient nectar source and good weather conditions.

From the biological characteristics of bees

Based on the biological characteristics of bees, the Bee Tribe believes that several issues need to be considered. One is the structure of the bees in the colony, and the other is the impact of the colony's honey storage on honey collection.

First: The structure of the bee colony

For a bee colony, if there is sufficient external nectar source, but the bee colony is full of young bees, these young bees have limited flying ability and poor honey collection ability, and are naturally not as good as those middle-aged and young bees. However, a bee colony not only needs to collect honey, but also needs to build nests, feed larvae, collect water, and investigate, so it is necessary to have this bee colony. We can plan to cultivate worker bees so that the worker bees are just suitable for collecting honey during the high honey flow period, so that the honey production will naturally increase, and at the same time, the coordinated development inside and outside the hive is also achieved.

Second: the impact of honey storage in bee colonies on honey collection by bees.

As for the honey bees storing honey, the more the bees store, the lazier the bees are to collect honey. Therefore, we cannot let a large amount of honey exist in the bees' bodies, but we cannot take honey from water. Therefore, honey should be collected in time after it matures to ensure that the worker bees can collect honey continuously. Do not disturb the bees when opening the box.

Third: Open the boxes less often to disturb the bees. If beekeepers want to manage bees well, they should do less to disturb the bees' quiet development. Frequent opening of the boxes to disturb the bee colony will hinder the queen bee from laying eggs, causing the bee colony to become restless. In the long run, the bee colony will abandon the nest and fly away, causing economic losses to the beekeeper. If you want to manage the bee colony well, you must be prepared to open the boxes when you have nothing to do. Only in this way can you create a good living space for the bee colony to reproduce and develop.

First of all, you must ensure that there is enough food, and then you must pay attention to the breeding time, drink water and salt in time, make sure to supply enough water in summer, and be sure to provide shade and cool down.

In the process of breeding, we must pay attention to the management method. First of all, we must pay attention to health preservation, the breeding process, disinfection, and feed. Only in this way can the output be guaranteed.

If you want to effectively manage the wind group to ensure production, you must avoid having too much honey in the closed group. You must collect the honey in time and effectively ensure the smooth progress of honey collection.