Honey bees consume honey, a concentrated energy source that fuels their activities and supports colony survival. While honey is a primary food, bees also rely on other substances for complete nutrition.
Honey’s Crucial Role for Bees
Honey serves as the main carbohydrate source for honey bees, providing the necessary energy for their demanding activities. This includes powering flight muscles for foraging, generating warmth to regulate hive temperature, and sustaining the colony. Without sufficient carbohydrates, bees cannot sustain themselves and will perish rapidly.
Beyond daily energy needs, honey is particularly important for colony survival during periods of scarcity, like winter or drought. During winter, worker bees and the queen cluster, metabolizing stored honey to generate heat and maintain hive temperature around 85°F (29°C). Honey also contains beneficial compounds that enhance longevity, improve tolerance to harsh conditions, and fight infections.
How Bees Consume and Store Honey
Honey production begins with worker bees collecting nectar from flowers, storing it in a specialized “honey stomach” or crop. As they fly back to the hive, enzymes mix with the nectar, starting its transformation. Upon returning, the foraging bee transfers the nectar to house bees through mouth-to-mouth regurgitation.
These house bees continue to process the nectar by repeatedly processing it, further breaking down complex sugars and reducing its water content from 70% to 20%. Bees also fan the nectar with their wings to accelerate evaporation, thickening it into honey. Once transformed, the honey is stored in hexagonal cells within the honeycomb, capped with wax for preservation. Bees consume this stored honey using their proboscis, a straw-like tongue capable of lapping and sucking.
What Else Do Bees Eat?
While honey provides carbohydrates, bees require a balanced diet that includes other nutrients. Pollen is a significant component of a bee’s diet, serving as their primary source of protein, fats, vitamins, and minerals. It is especially important for the development of young bees and for the overall health and growth of the colony.
Worker bees mix collected pollen with nectar or honey and glandular secretions to create “bee bread,” which is stored in the comb and fed to larvae and young adults. Water is also an essential part of a bee’s diet, used for hydration, digestion, and regulating hive temperature through evaporation during hot weather. Although propolis is often found in hives, it is a resinous material used for hive maintenance and defense, not as a food source.