Honey is a highly concentrated and preserved food source, created by bees for long-term survival. It is made by gathering sugary plant secretions, usually floral nectar, and processing it through enzymatic changes and water evaporation. Out of approximately 20,000 known bee species, only a small fraction possess the social structure and biological necessity to produce true, harvestable honey. The vast majority live solitary lives or in small, annual colonies that do not require massive, durable food reserves. This distinction is rooted in the differing life cycles and social organization of various bee groups.
The Exclusive Honey Producers
The ability to produce commercial quantities of durable, low-moisture honey is largely exclusive to the genus Apis, commonly known as honey bees. These bees are defined by their highly eusocial structure, forming large, perennial colonies that must survive year-round, including through periods of resource scarcity like winter. The Western Honey Bee, Apis mellifera, is the primary species responsible for the global honey trade, with colonies often swelling to 40,000 to 80,000 individuals in peak season. This immense population requires a substantial, long-lasting energy reserve to fuel the colony, particularly to generate heat and feed the queen during colder months.
Converting high-moisture nectar into preserved honey involves both chemical and physical transformation. Forager bees collect nectar and store it in the honey crop, a specialized organ, where they introduce enzymes, notably invertase. This enzyme begins inversion, breaking down complex sugars (sucrose) into simpler sugars (fructose and glucose). Once deposited into the hexagonal wax cells, the liquid is further dehydrated by worker bees who vigorously fan the cells with their wings.
Fanning rapidly reduces the water content from the nectar’s initial 60-80% down to 17-20%. This low level prevents fermentation and microbial growth. When the liquid reaches this stable concentration, the bees cap the cell with beeswax, sealing the ripened honey for indefinite storage. Other Apis species, such as the Asian honey bee (Apis cerana) and the Giant honey bee (Apis dorsata), also follow this process, producing similar durable honey.
Bees That Store Nectar (But Don’t Make Commercial Honey)
Beyond the Apis genus, a few other social bee groups collect and store nectar, but the resulting substance is chemically and physically distinct from commercial honey. The most notable are the Stingless Bees (tribe Meliponini), which includes over 500 species found predominantly in tropical and subtropical regions. These bees store reserves in small, ovoid pots constructed from wax and plant resins, rather than the large hexagonal combs used by honey bees.
The product created by stingless bees, often called “pot-honey” or “sugarbag honey,” is thinner and more acidic than Apis honey. This difference is due to its higher moisture content and concentration of organic acids, which contributes to its distinct tangy or sour flavor. While pot-honey is a prized food source in indigenous communities, its high water content means it is less stable for mass commercial storage and does not meet the moisture standards established for Apis honey.
Bumblebees (Bombus species) also store nectar, but only in small quantities for short-term consumption. A newly emerged queen creates small wax receptacles, sometimes called “honeypots,” to hold a temporary store of nectar near the brood. Since most bumblebee colonies are annual and die off in the late fall (with only the new queens hibernating), they have no biological need for the vast, perennial food store that honey bees require. The nectar collected by bumblebees does not undergo the extensive dehydration and enzymatic processing necessary to convert it into true honey.
The Vast Majority: Bees That Do Not Make Honey
The majority of bee species (over 90% globally) do not produce honey because their life history and social structure make large-scale food storage unnecessary. These are the solitary bees, including groups such as Mason Bees (Osmia), Leafcutter Bees (Megachile), and Carpenter Bees (Xylocopa). Solitary bee females work alone to construct individual nest cells, often in tunnels, hollow stems, or wood.
For each egg laid, the female provisions a small loaf of food—a mixture of pollen and nectar—designed to sustain a single larva through its development. This food is consumed quickly by the developing bee and is not intended for the long-term, communal use of an entire colony. Solitary bees prioritize collecting pollen, which provides the protein needed for larval growth, over converting nectar into a shelf-stable sugar reserve.
The adult lifespan of most solitary bee species is only a few weeks to months, and they do not form social colonies requiring winter survival. The offspring overwinter as pupae or pre-pupae in sealed cells, a stage that requires minimal caloric expenditure and no active feeding from adults. This reproductive strategy eliminates the biological driver for creating large, preserved food stores, explaining why these effective pollinators are not honey producers.