We’ve all experienced the delicious taste of sweet, thick, amber colored honey, but have you ever wondered what honey actually is? Is it really “bee vomit” as some people like to call it? How do bees make honey? Let us explain!

Honey is produced from the nectar of plants and sometimes from honeydew which is a sweet, rich secretion of plant-sucking insects that’s left behind on plants. Honey is made exclusively by the female worker bees of the bee colony. There are hundreds of unique varieties of honey produced in the United States. Many are limited harvests, produced seasonally and are local to their region. The plant, it’s nectar and the season that its collected in have significant impact the honey’s texture, color, aroma, and flavor.

The honey-making process begins when the worker bee leaves her hive in pursuit of nectar. Nectar is the bees main source of carbohydrates which they use for energy to fly and make beeswax. When the bee locates a flower, she uses her proboscis (a long, tube-like tongue) to slurp the nectar into her honey stomach. The honey stomach isn’t a true stomach as no digestion occurs here, rather it’s a sac used to temporarily hold the nectar that’s collected during foraging trips.

*A worker bee foraging for nectar from a salvia plant*

The bee will continue to visit flowers and collect nectar until her honey stomach is full at which point she begins her journey back to the hive. A worker bee is capable of carrying nearly three-quarters of her body weight in nectar! During the bees flight home, the nectar that’s in her honey stomach is mixed with an enzyme called invertase. Invertase begins the transformation of nectar (sucrose) to honey (glucose and fructose).

When the worker bee gets home to the hive, she gives her nectar load to her sisters. These worker bees begin the dehydration process. On average nectar is 80% water and the bees must evaporate it to 17-18% water for it to be considered honey. To dehydrate the nectar they manipulate it with their mouthparts to expose it to the hive’s dry air. The bees place drops of nectar into individual beeswax cells and fan their wings to produce a continuous breeze to evaporate the water out of the nectar. Once the individual cells have “ripened”, or been dehydrated to 17-18% water, the bees consolidate the drops into one cell. When a cell is completely full of ripened honey they will place a thin layer of beeswax over the top to keep it fresh.

Given the space, suitable weather conditions and resources, honey bees will continue to produce and store honey as long as nectar is available. Bees work all year to collect honey to ensure they will have enough food to survive the winter months. On average, a honey bee colony will need 100 pounds of honey to last them until the Spring. To put things into perspective, a single worker bee will make just 1/12 teaspoon (equivalent to 5 drops) of honey in her short 6 week life! Think about that the next time you enjoy a spoonful of honey.

*Fresh honeycomb from one of our hives in 2017*

What Is Honey and How Do Bees Make It?

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