{"id":13586,"date":"2015-08-24T18:34:22","date_gmt":"2015-08-24T17:34:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greensideup.ie\/?p=13586"},"modified":"2015-11-29T15:53:22","modified_gmt":"2015-11-29T15:53:22","slug":"how-honey-bees-make-honey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/greensideup.ie\/how-honey-bees-make-honey\/","title":{"rendered":"How Honey Bees Make Honey"},"content":{"rendered":"
Becoming a novice beekeeper has been a challenge, an unexpected expense, an adrenaline rush and more than anything, a privilege as we’ve been able to see these precious pollinators working in our garden. After the initial pleasure of finding the Honey Bees in our hive back in June 2014<\/a> and the fear that I hadn’t a clue how to look after them (years of looking after themselves didn’t cross my mind) I signed up for South Kildare Beekeepers<\/a> excellent beginners course and followed all the instructions they and my experienced, neighbouring mentor John shared with me.<\/p>\n We recently harvested our first, fourteen precious jars of locally foraged, pure Irish honey and the following article explains how the honey was made. But to begin, a short explanation about the honey bees, whose colony is made up of the Queen (who can lay up to 2,000 eggs a day in the summer), the male Drones (whose primary function is to mate with the queen) and the hardworking female Worker bees.<\/p>\n There are approx 2,000 worker bees in a hive during the winter months but as soon as temperatures begin to warm, the Queen Bee lays eggs at a rapid rate, resulting in the colony that can grow up to 50,000 in one hive by the height of summer.<\/p>\n Just like the story of Barry B. Benson, a new bee in the magical Disney film The Bee Movie, who finds out that each bee has their place in the colony, so it is in real life. Worker bees start life as Nurse bees for nine days looking after the new brood, then spend 12 days as House bees tidying and cleaning before become Guard Bees, who mind the entrance and keep intruders out. They in turn become foragers for about four weeks and usually die out in the field.<\/p>\n While the bees are out and about they do several things, which include scouting for new food sources and foraging, they collect water as well as nectar (sugars), pollen (protein and vitamins) and propolis which is a kind of bee glue, that comes from sticky trees such as lime.<\/p>\n Nectar is the bees fuel. As the forager bee visits the various flowers, she sucks it up and it’s stored in her honey stomach. \u00a0Different crops contain different elements that include fructose, glucose, sucrose, mixed with water and enzymes.<\/p>\n Nectar contains\u00a060 – 80% water and the bees have to remove the water to make honey.<\/p>\n When the Forager\u00a0bees return back to the hive, they pass the nectar they’ve collected to Receiver bees who drop it into storage cells on the frames. Honey has everything that was in the nectar but only 17% water. To remove the water, the Receiver bees roll the nectar up and down their proboscis until the water begins to evaporate. Bees fan their wings which removes moisture too until eventually, enough water is removed, the honey is ripe and the bees cap the honey in the cells with wax.<\/p>\nField work<\/h3>\n
Nectar<\/h3>\n
Nectar to honey<\/h3>\n