Tuesday, May 18, 2010

How do bees make honey? Do they masticate pollen with saliva or do they excavate it from the rear end?!?

They suck up nectar (not pollen) with their tongues. The pollen gets on their fuzzy bodies, and they sweep that into pollen baskets on their rear legs. The nectar that they take in gets stored in a "honey sac." They fly back to the hive, where another bee receives the nectar, and then those bees chew it up and spit it into a honey comb. Other bees fan this "green honey" till it's dry enough and, when the honey comb is full, they cap it off with a wax cap for storage. (I'm a beekeeper). For a bit more scientific explanation, see below:

How do bees make honey? Do they masticate pollen with saliva or do they excavate it from the rear end?!?
I heard it is from saliva YUM!


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