How do bees make Honey?
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Queen bee
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The only fertile female, she’s the one who keeps the entire colony happy.
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Worker bees
There can be anything from 30,000 to 60,000 worker bees. They make up 99% of the colony, and are all small, infertile females. It’s their job to collect nectar, pollen, propolis, and water to make honey.
Drone bees
They are stingless male bees who’s only purpose is for breeding. If they’re not needed, they get thrown out of the hive.
Larvae
Bees start life as larva, which can last for eight days.
STEP 1: Heading out
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The two types of bees that go out to forage for nectar are the scout bee and the forager bee. They find blue and purple flowers the most attractive.
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Scout bees
Bees will go to great lengths to collect nectar. In the Middle East, their honey is known to be the most delicate, meaning bees will travel the distance equivalent to the moon in order to gather the best nectar.
Forager bees
Bees work together as a large family in order to gather nectar and create honey, the center of this operation is in the hive. Hives are usually secluded in dark places close to good nectar sources. The hive consists of different types of bees, and every bee has a job
Forager bees don’t just fly to any flower they see, there is a science within flower selection. Bees do not have vision as humans do but see in a series of ultra violet light rays. This complex system does mean that the bees are unable to see the colour red, therefore they are able to detect red flowers through the disturbances that they create within the ultra violet light.
STEP 2: Selection
Bees will on average visit 5 million flowers to produce a single pint of heney and could even visit more than 600 flowers before returning to the hive on a single journey which would last roughly 10 minutes. Depending on the flower visited the nectar type will be different meaning that both the colour and taste of the honey will vary depending on the typeof nectar collected.
Bees however do have a favourite colour flower, because of the UV vision they find blue and purple flowers most attractive.
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In order to retrieve the nectar from the plant the bee has to move down into the structure of the flower to retrieve the nectar. The nectar is extracted by the bee through its tongue and then is strored in its’ honey stomach.
Depending on the type of flower the nectar collected will vary. on average nectar consists of 80% water and 20% of varying sugars. However it can also differentiate depending on the flower species, the soil moisture, air humidity, temperature and the rate of necatr flow within the flower.
STEP 3: Extraction
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The pollen which is collected by the bees is a bi-product. It is collected unintentionally as the bee pushes past the anthers and collects the pollen and then allows the plant to be pollinated when the bee fles to another plant as bees will only visit the same type of plant on each journey.
Petals
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Anther Salavia Gland
Filament Stigma Style
Ovaries
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Sting Wax Glands
Bees can also collect honey drew, a substance excreted by aphids, leafhoppers and scale insect. This can be used as another ingredient in the honey making process.
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The average hive takes 154 hours to create but they are most commonly man made for ease within honey harvesting. the average temperature of the hive is 30-35 degrees in order to produce honey. So if the hive was to be too cold the bees would huddle together to raise the temperature. Z
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The hive it self is produced from wax created by the bees which is chewed by worker bees until it is soft and moldable in order to create the structures. Z
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STEP 4: The Hive
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Z The bees will take the nectar from the Z forager and scout bees, and will proceed to Z swallow it and then throw it back up, passing it onto another bee. This process is continued and passed from bee to bee in the colony before the nectar is turned into honey. This is to help the nectar evaporate.
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Bees use dance as a form of communication. When a bee returns to the hive, she will dance in front of the entrance to show the rest of the colony where the flowers with sufficient nectar is.
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When bees have finished passing the honey from one to another, it will be stored in honeycombs
STEP 5: Honeycombs
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The hexagonal shape of the honeycomb is mathmatically beneficial as they store the most nectar and use up space in the best ergonomical way.
Creating honey takes a huge team effort, a single bee creates only 1/12 of a teaspoon in its entire lifespan. Z Z
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Once the honey has been placed in the cells then it must be dehydrated. At first the water content of the solution is too high, it begins to decrease as the bees chew the mixture however the process is sped up by the bees through fanning the mixture with their fings. This is in order to evaporate the water in the mixture.
The bees do not only fan their wings in order to dehydrate the honey, they also do it in order to control feromones wich are released and help to direct forager and worker bees.
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The mixture will become honey when it is gooey and only contains around 18% water. Z
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STEP 6: Drying
The bees will work so hard and fan the honey so much that they can die from exhaustion or their wings will become so frayed that they fall off meaning the bees die.
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On a cold day the bees will also huddle together to produce the heat needed to dehydrate the mixture.
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Capped Cells
As soon as the honey has been made and the quality is sufficient the bees apply a waxcap to the full honey combs.
STEP 7: Storage
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The wax is created in the bees’ wax glands located under their abdomen. they produce this wax, which is used to cap the full cells in order to store the honey for long periods of time. The honey will then keep for years and allow the bees to use it as a food source in the winter time.
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When harvesting honey bee, keepers know that the uncapped cells must not be harvested as they are still in the process of being completed.
Once completed both bees and humans can enjoy the sweet taste of their hard work.
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By Hayley Newell & Rhian Wood
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