Honey making
Making honey is the most important job of foraging bees. They fly diligently
and tirelessly every day from morning till dusk in all directions and at various
heights and at a distance of 3 to 5 kilometers from the hive prospecting for
plants and trees producing nectar which they collect from the heart of flowers.
Nectar is the basic raw product from which honey is made. It is a mixture of
water and sugar that flowers produce from their nectaries. Nectar contains 20 to
60% sugars generally cane sugar. The water content varies between 40 to 80%.
Besides sugar, nectar contains minerals, organic acids, vitamins, pigments and
aromatic substances.
Bees generally collect nectar in the warm months of the year, from spring
through to autumn.
nectar. When a flower is found, the bee sucks the nectar out of the flower with
her proboscis (tongue) and stores it in a special sack in her body called the
honey stomach to be transferred to the honey-making bees in the hive. The
honey stomach holds about 4 mg of nectar that is about half the weight of the
bee. If the nectary is empty the bee flies to another flower. A bee may need to
visit between 50 to 150 flowers in order to fill her honey stomach depending on
the flower species. For instance, a load can be obtained from a few rich-nectar
producing flowers such as eucalyptus or citrus whereas a load can be obtained
by visiting hundreds of small flowers of clover. It takes about 30 minutes to
several hours to collect a load, depending on how plentiful and how far away the
nectar source is. A forager may take hours to collect a load in poor foraging
conditions.
When the honey stomach is full the bee flies back to the hive. On her way back
the bee adds invertase, an enzyme from her body to the collected nectar. This
begins the process of changing the nectar into honey. The enzyme breaks the
complex plant sugar in the nectar down into simpler and more digestible sugars
for the bees, mainly glucose (grape sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar).
A typical colony can produce 30 to 50 kg of surplus honey per year. The bees in
the same colony visit about 4 million flowers to make one kilogram of honey.
The honeys they produce vary in color, flavor and viscosity; this difference
depends upon the floral source from which the nectar was derived. The nectar
from some plants produces a light, mild flavored honey. Nectar from other
plants produces a dark, strong flavored honey.
Honeybees will go on collecting and storing more nectar as long as there is
nectar available in the pasture and there are empty cells in the hive to store it in,
however much abundance of honey the hive contains. A returning forager with
load of nectar makes her way to the combs and begins to inform the others about
the source and direction of nectar to recruit more foragers to the area of nectar.
She does so by performing special movements on the surface of the comb
known as “dance” and does that for seconds or a minute. While she is dancing
some bees gather closely around her and learn from the dance and touch her
with their antennae. The dancing forager makes stops to give nectar to those
bees following and watching the dance to learn its scent and taste. The dancer
then runs to another place on the combs and repeats the dance before another
group of bees. After the dance has ended, she makes another trip to the source of
nectar, and those bees who have followed the dance leave the hive to search for
the nectar. When the recruited bees return to the colony with load they in their
turn recruit more bees.
Foragers perform different dances to convey different information. When the
source of nectar is near the hive i.e., less than 100 meters away the forager will
perform a round dance, and if is far away the bee will perform the waggle dance.
The round dance
During the round dance the bee runs around in a little circle first one way, then
turns round and runs in the opposite direction of the circle. The round dance
tells the bees that the food is near the hive and of its taste and smell, but gives no
information about the direction of the food source.
and tirelessly every day from morning till dusk in all directions and at various
heights and at a distance of 3 to 5 kilometers from the hive prospecting for
plants and trees producing nectar which they collect from the heart of flowers.
Nectar is the basic raw product from which honey is made. It is a mixture of
water and sugar that flowers produce from their nectaries. Nectar contains 20 to
60% sugars generally cane sugar. The water content varies between 40 to 80%.
Besides sugar, nectar contains minerals, organic acids, vitamins, pigments and
aromatic substances.
Bees generally collect nectar in the warm months of the year, from spring
through to autumn.
Both foragers and nurse bees are involved in the process of honey making. The
process begins when a forager leaves the hive looking for flowers to collectnectar. When a flower is found, the bee sucks the nectar out of the flower with
her proboscis (tongue) and stores it in a special sack in her body called the
honey stomach to be transferred to the honey-making bees in the hive. The
honey stomach holds about 4 mg of nectar that is about half the weight of the
bee. If the nectary is empty the bee flies to another flower. A bee may need to
visit between 50 to 150 flowers in order to fill her honey stomach depending on
the flower species. For instance, a load can be obtained from a few rich-nectar
producing flowers such as eucalyptus or citrus whereas a load can be obtained
by visiting hundreds of small flowers of clover. It takes about 30 minutes to
several hours to collect a load, depending on how plentiful and how far away the
nectar source is. A forager may take hours to collect a load in poor foraging
conditions.
When the honey stomach is full the bee flies back to the hive. On her way back
the bee adds invertase, an enzyme from her body to the collected nectar. This
begins the process of changing the nectar into honey. The enzyme breaks the
complex plant sugar in the nectar down into simpler and more digestible sugars
for the bees, mainly glucose (grape sugar) and fructose (fruit sugar).
A close-up view of the proboscis, the organ with which a worker bee sucks up nectar and water.
An illustration of internal anatomy of a bee showing the honey sac.
In the hive the nectar is delivered to the house bees who store it in the
honeycomb cells. In the cells water has to be evaporated off the nectar. House
bees on the comb fan their wings to evaporate and thicken the nectar converting
it into honey. Ripened honey has moisture of 17 to 20%. Further enzymes added
to prevent it from fermentation and attack by bacteria while it is stored in the
hive. Once this process is finished the house bees will then cover the top of each
filled up cell with a thin beeswax cap to make it airtight, sealing it for future use.
When this is done, they move to the next empty comb starting all over again.
honeycomb cells. In the cells water has to be evaporated off the nectar. House
bees on the comb fan their wings to evaporate and thicken the nectar converting
it into honey. Ripened honey has moisture of 17 to 20%. Further enzymes added
to prevent it from fermentation and attack by bacteria while it is stored in the
hive. Once this process is finished the house bees will then cover the top of each
filled up cell with a thin beeswax cap to make it airtight, sealing it for future use.
When this is done, they move to the next empty comb starting all over again.
A typical colony can produce 30 to 50 kg of surplus honey per year. The bees in
the same colony visit about 4 million flowers to make one kilogram of honey.
The honeys they produce vary in color, flavor and viscosity; this difference
depends upon the floral source from which the nectar was derived. The nectar
from some plants produces a light, mild flavored honey. Nectar from other
plants produces a dark, strong flavored honey.
Honeybees will go on collecting and storing more nectar as long as there is
nectar available in the pasture and there are empty cells in the hive to store it in,
however much abundance of honey the hive contains. A returning forager with
load of nectar makes her way to the combs and begins to inform the others about
the source and direction of nectar to recruit more foragers to the area of nectar.
She does so by performing special movements on the surface of the comb
known as “dance” and does that for seconds or a minute. While she is dancing
some bees gather closely around her and learn from the dance and touch her
with their antennae. The dancing forager makes stops to give nectar to those
bees following and watching the dance to learn its scent and taste. The dancer
then runs to another place on the combs and repeats the dance before another
group of bees. After the dance has ended, she makes another trip to the source of
nectar, and those bees who have followed the dance leave the hive to search for
the nectar. When the recruited bees return to the colony with load they in their
turn recruit more bees.
Foragers perform different dances to convey different information. When the
source of nectar is near the hive i.e., less than 100 meters away the forager will
perform a round dance, and if is far away the bee will perform the waggle dance.
The round dance
During the round dance the bee runs around in a little circle first one way, then
turns round and runs in the opposite direction of the circle. The round dance
tells the bees that the food is near the hive and of its taste and smell, but gives no
information about the direction of the food source.
ReplyDeleteNice Blog! Are you looking for pest control services in Zirakpur? We provide pest control services at a reasonable price. Out team help you to get rid of the pest in your house and commercial properties. Get 100% customer satisfaction on our pest control services.