How do bees make honey?
A Typical hive will house around 60,000 bees which is made up of around 95% female worker bees (forager and hive bees), 5% male drones and 1 Queen. Foraging bees gather nectar by visiting approximately 50 to 100 flowers during each flight. Using their proboscis, or bee tongue, they extract a small amount of nectar from each flower.
The nectar travels through their esophagus and into the honey sac (honey stomach). In the honey sac, it mixes with substances known as Bee Enzymes, which are secreted by the honeybee’s glands to aid in ripening the nectar. This process begins converting the nectar’s sucrose (sugar) into glucose (a source of energy) and fructose (a natural sweetener). Learn more about natural sugars and crystallization here.
Raw nectar contains a high-water content of about 70-80%. Once inside the bee’s stomach, the moisture levels start to decrease, as this reduction is necessary to transform nectar into honey. When the bee’s stomach is full, it returns to the hive and transfers the nectar through mouth-to-mouth exchange with the hive bees. They will continue to pass the nectar amongst themselves until its moisture content is significantly reduced.
They then regurgitate the mixture into the honeycomb cells. Using their wings, they fan the honey to further lower the moisture content to around 17-20%. Only when they are satisfied with the moisture levels do they cap each honeycomb cell with beeswax.
When the cells are capped with beeswax, it signals to the beekeeper that they are filled with honey and ready for extraction. Rest assured they always leave more than enough honey for the bees to sustain themselves.
Learn more about bees and honey
