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When do bees produce honey?

Bees produce honey all year round.

Spring is the season when bees produce the most honey. At this time, there are not only abundant nectar sources outside, but also the temperature is suitable for bees to go out of the nest to collect honey. In addition, spring is also the period when major nectar sources are most concentrated. For example, nectar plants such as rapeseed, sweet clover, lychee, and longan generally bloom in spring. Among them, rapeseed honey has the highest output, sometimes even accounting for about half of the annual honey output.

Basically, very little honey is produced in winter, as the bee colonies in most parts of my country have entered the wintering period. However, it is worth noting that bees' honey collection has nothing to do with the season, but only with the external temperature and nectar source conditions.

That is to say, as long as the temperature is suitable and there is honey to collect outside, bees will leave the nest to collect honey. Therefore, in some places in the south in winter, there are still bees collecting honey from wild dams, wild osmanthus, Schefflera arborvitae, etc.

Additional information

Honey should be stored in a cool and dark place. It is best to store it in a refrigerator at a low temperature and away from direct sunlight. The shelf life is usually 18 months.

Since honey is a weakly acidic liquid, it can react chemically with metals. When it comes into contact with metals such as lead, zinc, and iron during storage, chemical reactions will occur. Therefore, non-metallic containers such as ceramics, glass bottles, and non-toxic plastic barrels should be used to store honey. Honey should also be protected from odor contamination, moisture absorption, fermentation, and contamination during storage.

In order to avoid odor transfer and contamination, it must not be stored together with odorous items (such as gasoline, alcohol, garlic, etc.), corrosive items (such as fertilizers, pesticides, lime, alkali, saltpeter, etc.) or unsanitary items (such as waste, livestock products, etc.).

The state stipulates that the shelf life of bottled honey is 18 months, but sealed mature and high-concentration honey can also be kept for many years. However, it is better to eat fresh honey, because fresh honey generally has better color, fragrance and taste.

As long as there are nectar plants, bees will continue to produce honey. The climate in the north and south of my country is different, and honey is produced all year round. Generally speaking, spring is the time when honey production is higher.

Bees produce honey all year round.

Spring is the season when bees produce the most honey. At this time, there are not only abundant nectar sources outside, but also the temperature is suitable for bees to go out of the nest to collect honey. In addition, spring is also the period when major nectar sources are most concentrated. For example, nectar plants such as rapeseed, sweet clover, lychee, and longan generally bloom in spring. Among them, rapeseed honey has the highest output, sometimes even accounting for about half of the annual honey output.

Basically, very little honey is produced in winter, as the bee colonies in most parts of my country have entered the wintering period. However, it is worth noting that bees' honey collection has nothing to do with the season, but only with the external temperature and nectar source conditions.

That is to say, as long as the temperature is suitable and there is honey to collect outside, bees will leave the nest to collect honey. Therefore, in some places in the south in winter, there are still bees collecting honey from wild dams, wild osmanthus, Schefflera arborvitae, etc.

Bees collect honey 24 hours a day. To produce one kilogram of honey, a bee needs 33,333 working hours and suck 3,333 stamens to produce 500 grams of honey.

Worker bees need to fly back and forth 37,000 times to discover and collect nectar and bring it back to the hive. A bee's wings can flap 200 to 400 times per second, and the maximum flying speed of a bee is 40 kilometers per hour.

When it is fully loaded, it flies at a speed of 20 to 24 kilometers per hour. A beehive has an average of 50,000 honeycombs, inhabited by 35,000 busy bees. A bee's hairy body can stick to 50,000 to 750,000 grains of pollen. The lifespan of a worker bee is 38 days in summer and 6 months in winter.

Worker bees start working as soon as they are born, and their division of labor changes as they age. Usually, when they are 1 to 3 days old, they are responsible for keeping the eggs warm and cleaning the egg-laying room; when they are 3 to 6 days old, they switch to feeding large larvae and adjusting pollen and honey;

When they are 6 to 12 days old, they start to secrete royal jelly to feed the small larvae and the queen bee. When they are 12 to 18 days old, they start to secrete wax to make combs and clean the beehive. After 18 days old, their task is to collect nectar, water, pollen, propolis and guard the nest entrance.

Why do bees produce honey? What do they use it for?

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.

3. Many bee species only live for one year and die in winter. But honey bees live longer than one year, so they collect honey in advance and store it for the winter.

4. Bees make honey for survival. Bees are social insects that live in groups. A bee colony is an organism composed of many bees with three different forms and functions. It is a biological unit on which bees depend for survival. The bee colony is also a production unit that commemorates various bee products and performs the function of pollinating plants. There is a fine division of labor, and all their activities are for the survival of the group.

5. Bees make honey mainly to feed the drones and queen bees in the hive, and also to use honey to build nests.

Bees take nectar or secretions with a water content of about 75% from the flowers of plants and store it in their second stomach. Under the action of multiple transformations in the body, it takes about 15 days of repeated brewing before various vitamins, minerals and amino acids are enriched to a certain value.

At the same time, the polysaccharides in the nectar are converted into monosaccharides such as glucose and fructose that can be directly absorbed by the human body. The water content is less than 23% and stored in the nest hole, which is sealed with beeswax. Honey is a supersaturated solution of sugar, which will crystallize at low temperatures. The crystals are glucose, and the non-crystallized part is mainly fructose.

Additional information:

The social division of labor is the most and the tasks are the heaviest. It can be said that except for the tasks of the queen bee and the drone, all other tasks in the bee colony are undertaken by the worker bees. The worker bees have underdeveloped female organs, but many of their structures are specialized to better meet the needs of work, such as the sac in their foregut that is specialized into a honey sac to store nectar.

To make 1 kg of honey, a worker bee needs to collect 10 kg of nectar. The total distance of flying back and forth is 320,000 kilometers, which is equivalent to 8 times around the earth. Worker bees start working as soon as they are born, and the division of labor changes with the growth of their age. Usually, when the worker bees are 1 to 3 days old, they are responsible for keeping the eggs warm and cleaning the egg-laying room;

When they are 3 to 6 days old, they start feeding large larvae and adjusting pollen and honey; when they are 6 to 12 days old, they change to secreting royal jelly and feeding small larvae and queen bees; when they are 12 to 18 days old, they switch to secreting wax to make combs and clean the beehive; after 18 days old, their task is to collect nectar, water, pollen, propolis and defend the nest entrance.

Reference source: Baidu Encyclopedia - Bee

Bees collect pollen and nectar from stamens to make beeswax, and then return to the hive to build a nursery, which serves as a home for the larvae and provides them with food and nutrition.

Honey is the food of bees, not excrement! Honey and humans are the only two species in nature that can produce their own food. Thank you! Bees do not regard honey as excrement. Hey, bees are very clean creatures. Honey is collected by bees.

The honey produced by bees is their food, which they store for consumption in the winter.