Plants

Student Flower Resource: How Bees Make Honey!

The characteristics and habits of bees are interesting topics of study. For instance, it’s a well-known fact that bees produce honey. The following provides information on the details of how bees make honey as well as some other interesting facts about them. Also, there’s a list of websites for people who wish to learn more about the intriguing lives of bees.

There are a few stages in the lifecycle of a bee. A bee begins as an egg and remains in that stage for about three days. On the fourth day, an egg hatches into a larva. After about five days, the larva enters the pupa stage. Twelve days later, a pupa becomes an adult bee. The number of days in each stage of the lifecycle varies for different types of bees.

The cold weather of wintertime doesn’t stop the activity within a beehive. The bees within the beehive form groups and continually move to produce heat and maintain the warmth of the hive. The groups, or clusters, formed by the bees play a significant role in ensuring that the hive is livable throughout the winter months.

Not surprisingly, worker bees and queen bees have different roles within a colony. A worker bee lives up to its name by making wax to form the cells of a beehive. Also, workers collect the nectar and pollen necessary for the hive to flourish. Alternatively, the main purpose of the queen bee is to lay eggs. Eventually, the eggs develop into more bees that contribute to the survival of the colony.

In order to make honey, a bee must first collect pollen and nectar from flowers. Pollen is collected by bees and consumed as food. Bees consume nectar so it can be converted into honey. Bees have a long tongue (a proboscis) that they use to pull the nectar out of the plants and flowers they land on. (A proboscis has a structure similar to a very thin drinking straw.)

The bee stores the nectar inside its body and continues to draw nectar until it is full. The supply of nectar combines with the enzymes and proteins that are inside the bee. This mixing process transforms the nectar into honey. When the bee is finished collecting nectar, it returns to its hive and releases the honey into one of the tiny cells there. The cells of a beehive often have a hexagonal shape. Once the honey is inside a cell, a bee seals it inside with wax that it produces. This process is repeated until most of the cells of a beehive are full of honey.

Generally, when bees are looking for nectar and pollen they are attracted to brightly colored flowers. Once they collect the nectar and it becomes honey, the honey can be evaluated by humans. Color, aroma, and clarity are just a few of the qualities of honey that are considered during evaluation. Honey can be put into an A, B, or C classification system.

Finally, honey is consumed by many individuals due to its nutritional and health benefits. For example, there are anti-bacterial elements in honey that may help a person fight off some stomach ailments. Honey is a traditional remedy for suppressing the coughing that sometimes accompanies the common cold. Also, lots of people choose honey over sugar because a sweet tooth can sometimes be satisfied with a smaller amount of honey.

For more information on bees and honey, please visit:


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Lily Calyx is our in-house flower whisperer, an expert on all things botanical and an enthusiastic orchids collector. She loves discussing the insights of the secret world of flowers, shares her gardening tips and hacks and moons over the latest additions to Serenata Flowers flower range. Ask Lily anything about flowers and we can guarantee she will have the answer.

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