Did you know one healthy hive will make or consume more than 50 kg of honey in a single year? But how is it made, exactly?
Honey bees slurp up a flower’s nectar into one of two stomachs, one called the honey stomach, and a single bee may have to drink from more than 1,000 flowers just to fill this honey stomach.
What follows is … a lot of vomiting. Check out the video below to learn more.
8 Comments
What is the purpose of hive mats
I told my grandson James this, a few months back and he got embarrassed, we where at a Brookshires store and I was a little-loud, I was only making sure HE understood me (ha ha). Now when I can I’m going to show him this article, and show him I was not being loud on purpose 🙂 .
Nice job but there are two errors in this video:
1. “Vomit” is not the correct term to apply to the exchange of nectar from one worker to another. Vomit is appropriate for us, since we only have one stomach which is purely for digestion. Honey bees on the other hand have two stomachs. They do not transfer nectar from their digestive stomach but only from their honey stomach or “honey crop.”
2. Virgin queens do not “fly to another hive” to mate. Instead they fly about 30′ in the air to further areas beyond their hive where drones from other colonies congregate, and she will mate with them. Drones from the same colony as the virgin queen will fly to areas closer to the hive and mate with virgin queens from further away colonies. Different areas for a virgin queen and drones from the same colony to go to mate is an amazing adaptation to help avoid interbreeding.
I think the concept of drone congregation areas (DCAs) are simple enough to include with the information in this video. Also, the fact that the queen mates for only one period at the beginning of her life is fascinating, as is the fact that she stores in a special organ all the sperm she receives from those matings in order to fertilize her eggs that will become female bees or “workers.”
I enjoy all your videos here in South Australia. I have now purchased 4 Hives all I need now are Bees. Need to learn a lot more .
I have battled bees for years at our ranch. They are aggresive and plentiful. They keep coming back year after year all over the place. Why is their honey black? Is it safe to eat? Is it possible I could turn this problem into a honey making operation? So tired of fighting and killing them Our abandoned house on the farm has been overtaken by bees despite all our efforts to get rid of them for safety sake.
Any suggestions you may give me are appreciated.
Great, I love the combination of narrative and the sketches, much clearer and easier to get the point.
Many thanks.
How do I get more videoes from you guys?
I really enjoyed your video very informative looking forward to the next BEE HAPPY
I don’t know how it all works out in other areas, but here, in Hawaii, with no winter and it flowering year-round, it is possible for a hive of honeybees to make as much as 1560 pounds per hive, per year! That’s a lot of nectar collected as well since its 5 pounds of nectar for each pound of honey produced.’