How do bees make honey? What are its components?« Back to Questions List

Honey that we consume is the result of hard work of hundreds of bees.  They make honey and store it as food for later use.  They produce honey from nectar which is a sugary juice present in flowers.  

A beenest or beehive has three classes of bees: drones, workers and queens.  Male bees are known as drones and they do no work other than drinking honey. Their role is limited to reproduction. Queen bee is the only fertile reproductive bee in a hive. Worker bees are infertile females which carry out all activities in a beehive. Their activities include cell making, cell cleaning, collection of nectar, production of honey, capping honey combs, taking care of younger bees and queen bee, guarding and foraging. 

The process of honey making begins when a worker bee visits a flower and sips nectar. They suck nectar out by using their tongues. The bee stores the nectar in a special sac and flies back to the hive. There it regurgitates (expulsion of material from the esophagus) the nectar and passes the thin, runny fluid to a house bee, which mixes it with glandular secretions in its mouth and evaporates some of the water.

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The bee then deposits the nectar in an open cell in the comb. Other house bees fan the open cells continuously with their wings, evaporating water and completing the transformation of the nectar into honey. The process takes about three days. Cells filled with finished honey are sealed with an airtight cap of wax until the bees need the food. The colony’s survival in winter depends on an ample supply of this vital food. It is interesting to note that to make one teaspoon of honey, at least eight bees have to work entire life. 

Honey has a high healing power and because of this property it is used in the treatment of burn victims. It ensures better sterility of the wounds and faster healing.  

Major component of honey (82%) is carbohydrates which consist of monosaccharides fructose (38%), glucose (31%), disaccharides (9%) maltose, sucrose etc. Around 4% of honey is oligosaccharides.  Honey contains a number of enzymes and eighteen amino acids.  Honey contains vitamin B ( riboflavin) and vitamin C ( ascorbic acid) and many minerals including  calcium, potassium, iron, zinc, magnesium  and phosphorous.  It also contains a group of antioxidants.        What is honey made of?

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Posted by attemptnwin
Asked on June 28, 2014 8:40 am