Food collected by bees. When and how is May honey collected and obtained? Mini-investigation Which trees do bees collect honey from?

Sometimes beekeepers come across such an interesting phenomenon as green honey, which is given by bees. And not everyone, even the most experienced specialists, understand that such a phenomenon has nothing to do with propolis. What is the reason that the product becomes such an unusual color?

Reasons why honey turns green

In fact, the presence of propolis can also give the product such an original color, but there is also a second type of green product - this is honeydew. In other words, if there are no plants with nectar near the hive with bees, then the bees find a way out. They begin to collect not pollen, but sweetish secretions of plants. Most often this is a fall of trees that grow near evidence with bees. And it is this pad that is the answer to the question of why honey turns green.

By the way, green has a bitter aftertaste. However, in all other nuances, its taste qualities are absolutely no different from the “brothers” of other flowers collected from plant pollen.

Structure

Even an inexperienced beekeeper will immediately determine that honeydew honey is thicker than ordinary honey and even than mixed with propolis. And indeed it is. The fact is that the concentration of dexatrin-like substances is almost three times higher than this figure for a conventional product. And two and a half - for honey with propolis. By the way, the degree of viscosity very much depends on which trees grow near the hive with bees, and whose pollen the bees collected.

The usefulness of the product of the vital activity of green bees

Honeydew honey, despite its unusual color, is much more useful than the waste product of yellow bees. The fact is that such a product, especially in combination with propolis, contains much more elements:

  • gland;
  • cobalt;
  • manganese.

Also in favor of the green product is the fact that it does not crystallize. But, honey with propolis of green flowers turns sour much faster than a yellow product. And it's harder to store.

How to determine if a real green product is being offered to you

In order to understand whether you bought real yellow honey or just a colored product, you need to conduct a so-called lime test.

To do this, you need to take quicklime (one part) and “extinguish” it in distilled water (2 parts). Let the mixture stand for at least 4-5 hours and drain the lime water. After that, mix the product to be tested, distilled water and lime water in a ratio of 1:1:10 and heat the mixture to a boil.

If you've been mixing really natural fawn honey, the mixture will flake. Well, if you just have liquid left, then you have acquired the usual waste product of bees, simply painted green.

However, very often we are faced with such a phenomenon when a product that seems to be yellow is called green. In fact, this is just ordinary honey, to which propolis has been added, and why it is called green, having nothing to do with it, is not entirely clear.

Useful properties of honey with propolis

With the addition of propolis, honey becomes more useful. Moreover, its positive qualities are amplified several times. The substance with propolis seems to work in tandem, reinforcing each other. Such a mixture has a number of very necessary features. Namely:

  • antifungal;
  • antibacterial;
  • anesthetics;
  • wound healing;
  • immunostimulating, etc.

How to make your own medicine at home

In almost any pharmacy you can buy honey with propolis (honey with propolis has useful properties). However, if you have these two ingredients at home, then it is better to make it yourself. It's not at all difficult to do this. It is necessary to mix 95 grams of the product and 5 grams of propolis, heating them in a water bath until the two substances mix well. After mixing, heat the resulting paste to a temperature of 50 degrees and leave to cool - infuse.

Those who make medicine from the waste product of bees and propolis for the first time should remember that you can only put honey in propolis, and in no case vice versa.

Thus, you will receive an absolutely useful medicine and you will be sure of its composition.

  • How is wasp honey different from bee honey?
  • What are the beneficial properties of black maple honey?
  • Honey with gum useful properties and contraindications
  • Linden honey medicinal properties and contraindications for children
  • Honey with cedar gum useful properties
  • What are the useful properties of Abkhazian honey?

Coltsfoot - this is the name of this nondescript yellow flower, similar to a dandelion. Its amazing leaves - smooth and cold on top and velvety warm on the underside - give it the right to such a name. Coltsfoot flowers bloom in early spring on thawed patches, when there is still snow all around. There are no leaves on the stems at this time, they will appear later. Bees do not always find nectar in flowers, but they collect pollen, which is very necessary in spring for feeding larvae, in large quantities.

The odorous yellow willow catkins are especially attractive to bees. Willow is an excellent honey plant, giving, in addition to nectar, also pollen. More than one and a half hundred species of willows are known. Along rivers and streams, along ravines, swamps and forests - these unpretentious trees grow everywhere.

Different willows bloom non-simultaneously in spring - some a little earlier, others a little later, and therefore, where there are many types of willows, bees have a long spring nectar. One of the most honey-bearing willows - willow - bredina - blooms near Moscow in the second half of April. At this time, it is already warm during the day, and where there are many of these trees, and families are strong, the bees sometimes collect so much nectar that the honeycombs are filled with extremely fragrant and tasty willow honey. It happens that on a warm sunny day, strong families bring 2-3, and sometimes more kilograms of nectar to the hive, and it happens that willow honey is even pumped out.

A sprawling powerful willow is also a willow. And she is an excellent honey plant, but the willow blooms two weeks later than the delusional willow.

Willow is fast growing and easy to propagate. She can plant wastelands, slopes of ravines, plant along hedges.

In mid-May, gooseberries bloom first in the gardens. Its inconspicuous small flowers produce quite a lot of nectar, and if the weather is warm, the bees work on them without ceasing.

The first spring honey plants are willow and coltsfoot.

After two or three days, blackcurrants bloom. This is also a honey plant, and bees willingly visit its flowers.

Almost simultaneously with currants, cherries and plums begin to bloom. From one hectare of a cherry orchard, bees can collect about 30 kilograms of honey. Plum flowers produce about three times less nectar. The beautiful apple tree, white-pink in spring, is an important honey plant in our gardens, primarily because large areas are occupied by it. The apple tree does not produce much nectar, but from each hectare of the garden, bees can collect about 20 kilograms of honey, which has a delicate aroma. And, finally, the most honey-bearing berry plant is raspberry. Raspberries can be found not only in the garden. There is a lot of it in the forests, where it grows wild. But here and there, raspberry flowers well secrete nectar, which bees turn into high quality honey. Raspberries bloom for a long time - from two weeks to a month - and where there are a lot of raspberries, the bees of each family can collect 2-3, or even 4-5 kilograms of honey per day. This is really a great honey plant. Who does not know the yellowish-orange dandelion blossoms, which later turn into fluffy heads that crumble with the slightest breath of breeze? Its baskets produce little nectar, but bees visit them because of the pollen they are rich in.

In forests and ravines, in gardens and parks, along the banks of many rivers, the well-known tree, the bird cherry, is often found. Its fragrant white flowers also secrete nectar. Sometimes more, sometimes less. In addition to nectar, bees also collect pollen from bird cherry.

In the first Golovin of May, another woody plant blooms - maple. Botanists number more than a hundred species of maple. Some of them are shrubs, others are trees reaching 20-25 meters in height. Bees can collect a lot of honey from a maple - its flowers secrete nectar abundantly. It has been established that each hectare of maple forest can produce from 200 to 1000 kilograms of honey. Unfortunately, by the beginning of maple flowering, bee colonies do not have time to grow. At this time, there are often even fewer bees in colonies than at the very beginning of spring, because most of the old, overwintered bees have already died, and the young ones are just beginning to fill the hive. Therefore, maple nectar is not always collected.

More often than others, there are sharp-leaved, Tatar, field and white maples, which are also called sycamore.

Raspberry is a good honey plant. Bees willingly visit its flowers and collect a lot of nectar.

In villages and villages, in summer cottages and cities along the fences you can often find a small-leaved shrub. Yellow, medium-sized flowers soon give way to hard narrow pods, each of which, of course, made a shrill-sounding whistle. This is a yellow acacia, a very good honey plant. Especially a lot of nectar from yellow acacia is collected by bees in Altai. There, this shrub occupies large areas that are inconvenient for farming and produces up to 350 kilograms of nectar per hectare.

If we are already talking about the yellow acacia, then one cannot but say about its relative - the white acacia. Both acacias belong to the same legume family. Botanists also call white acacia pseudo-acacia, or false acacia. This tree, often more than twenty meters high, grows in the southern regions of the middle lane, as well as in Ukraine, the Crimea, the Caucasus and Central Asia. White acacia blooms very luxuriantly. There are so many snow-white flowers that often the leaves are not visible behind them. Pseudoacacia is an excellent honey plant, and its amazingly transparent honey is deservedly considered one of the best.

Bees collect nectar from plants. However, not all plants are suitable for quality honey. Therefore, beekeepers have long compiled a list of useful honey plants that help increase yields and provide food for bees. Also, to increase the amount of honey and improve its quality, beekeepers make calendars of flowering plants.

Honey plants for bees - what are they, what are their features

Honey plants are those that, in the process of growth and flowering, form pollen and nectar, which bees feed on, and process it into honey. Bee families fly up to 3 km from the apiary in search of attractive aromas of bright flowers of plants for food.

Honey plants can be cultivated, which are specially sown (artificially) by beekeepers or agronomists, and wild, which grow and disperse in a natural way. In nature, there are many types of honey plants that differ in appearance, structure, fertility, and so on.

The peculiarities of these plants are that they emit a special aroma and bloom with bright colors, which are very attractive to bee colonies. Honey plants are absolutely safe, they are excellent nectar plants for feeding bees.

Perennial honey plants for bees, the best honey plants sown specifically for bees

There are honey plants from which you can collect a large amount of high-quality honey. For a good profit and a rich harvest, beekeepers must sow the fields with the right plants. Honey plants sown specifically for bees:

  1. Sweet clover white and yellow - perennial, reaches 150 cm in height, is characterized by a persistent rich aroma and bright flowers. It grows in places where many plants do not survive, for example, on roadsides or in ravines. Up to 600 kg of crop can be harvested from 1 hectare of the field.
  2. Sainfoin - grows throughout the middle lane, belongs to the legume family. Distribution area - meadows, forest edges and clearings. Sowing, sandy and Transcaucasian sainfoin are sown on the territory of Russia. The plant is used for hay and grass meal for livestock. It is characterized by pink and purple flowers, which especially attract bees. From 1 hectare of sainfoin fields, bee colonies collect up to 400 kg of honey.
  3. Mordovnik is a valuable honey plant and a highly fertile plant - from 1 hectare the honey collection is 1200 kilograms of honey. The plant is not afraid of drought, frost, with a strong rhizome. Grows almost everywhere, reaches 200 cm in length in the steppes, forest edges and slopes.
  4. Bruise is a healing plant with a wonderful delicate aroma, blue flowering in the form of small bells. The smell of a bruise attracts bees from a great distance. Unpretentious, all he needs for growth is the sun. From 1 hectare of a bruise field, 850 kg of product can be collected.
  5. Heather - plant height up to 70 cm, its evergreen color is considered a feature, it blooms with purple bells. The middle lane is great for heather, absolutely not whimsical. The only condition for survival is that there should be no alkaline substances in the soil. Up to 200 kg of honey is harvested from 1 ha of land.
  6. Linden is a honey plant that has no equal. 100 kg of the most valuable honey is harvested from 1 hectare, which contains a huge amount of healing components. From 1 adult tree, bees can collect 3-5 buckets of honey. However, with strong wind, drought and rain, the nectar is washed away and blown away. Natural disasters lead to a sharp decrease in yield.

Perennial honey plants for bees are especially valued among beekeepers. Sown perennials help to maintain the desired bribes. Which plant to sow for the harvest is everyone's business. It is profitable to sow perennials, you can make a calendar of honey plants and harvest a good harvest and keep your business at a high level.

What are the seeds of honey plants, price. Mixture of honey plants

Seeds of honey plants are used for sowing honey plants, which help to keep bribes, as well as increase the main honey collection of bribes. Honey plants are divided into bushes, garden flowers and trees, wild flowers, weeds.

There are seeds of honey plants in pure form and mixed. Pure - plants of one type of crop, for example, phacelia or red clover. Mixed - several crops in one package of seeds. The mixed seed type of crops provides an uninterrupted flower-nectar conveyor, which gives a good harvest and sufficient food for the bees.

You can buy seeds in Moscow for 1 kilogram, approximately at the following prices:

  1. Phacelia - 120 rubles.
  2. Bruise - 200 rubles.
  3. Yellow clover - 90 rubles.
  4. Clover -170 rubles.
  5. Mustard - 35 rubles.
  6. Milk thistle - 180 rubles.
  7. Mordovnik - 650 rubles.

Shrub (bush) honey plant

Bushes are unpretentious, undemanding to a large area. Shrubs are used to increase the bribe; in addition to nectar, they also give small edible fruits. Among shrubs, the following types of honey plants are found:

  • common hazel;
  • holly willow;
  • currant;
  • gooseberry;
  • raspberries;
  • turn;
  • sea ​​​​buckthorn;
  • blueberry;
  • wolfberry;
  • honeysuckle Tatar;
  • viburnum ordinary;
  • acacia yellow;
  • blackberry;
  • common heather;
  • hyssop officinalis;
  • pant leg ordinary;
  • dogwood;
  • agave honey plant - South American honey plant;
  • barberry.

Shrubs bloom from early spring until September, with bright flowers and a pleasant aroma that beckons bees. Bushes are used as hedges, they do not interfere with the growth of other honey plants.

Flowers honey plants for bees

Herbs and flowers are excellent honey plants. Many herbs carry healing substances, which means that honey acquires healing properties. Among the popular flowers of Altai honey plants are:

  • autumn kulbaba;
  • coltsfoot;
  • Syrian quilt;
  • dandelion officinalis;
  • common blackhead;
  • mint;
  • white mustard;
  • pine cone;
  • meadow cornflower;
  • motherwort;
  • ammi tooth;
  • lilac;
  • sunflower;
  • bird cherry;
  • spurge;
  • chestnut;
  • black maple;
  • Linden;
  • hawthorn;
  • white clover;
  • medicinal lungwort;
  • copse ordinary.

The best honey herbs are:

  • yellow and white clover;
  • clover;
  • hyssop;
  • thistle;
  • snakehead;
  • catnip;
  • lofant;
  • goat's rue oriental;
  • bruise ordinary;
  • ball-headed muzzle;
  • phacelia;
  • flax honey plant;
  • honey bush;
  • Melissa;
  • cucumber grass;
  • angelica;
  • goldenrod;
  • amarat;
  • sainfoin;
  • safflower.

Flowers are of interest to beekeepers only during their flowering period, and they bloom for a short time. Therefore, beekeepers need to equip a continuous conveyor of flowering grasses one after another. For this, flowering calendars are compiled.

Garden flowers honey plants. Spicy honey plants

Among garden flowers there are such honey plants:

  • lavender;
  • sunflower;
  • echinacea purpurea;
  • rose;
  • snowdrop;
  • geranium;
  • moranda;
  • daylily hybrid;
  • onion skorod and chisel;
  • stonecrop;
  • goldenrod (goldenrod);
  • crocus;
  • buddleya;
  • the vine is purple;
  • catnip;
  • sage;
  • heliotrope;
  • kosmeya doubly pinnate;
  • gaillardia.

At the same time, chemicals and pesticides should not be used in the garden. There must be water for the bees. You need to be careful about bringing in bee colonies if people nearby are allergic to them.

honey plant weeds

Interestingly, some weeds can be beneficial to beekeepers. Most popular:

  • field bodyak;
  • thistle;
  • Tatar;
  • milk thistle;
  • red clover;
  • dandelion;
  • sleepy.


Honey plants - list, honey plants table

Table of the most popular honey plants

Name Description flowering period Productivity (kg of honey from 1 ha)
Acacia yellow Shrub, small tree, early honey plant in the Altai Territory The beginning of June Up to 1000
Amaranth Annual plant, up to 2 meters in height July 150
Amorpha shrub Mediocre spring honey plant, but produces a lot of pollen. Not suitable for bee food during wintering April May 50
Hawthorn Shrub with yellow pollen. It blooms with white flowers, is a good honey plant Mid May 200
Heather An excellent autumn honey plant, appreciated by beekeepers. Contains a large amount of useful minerals. Beginning of September 100
Mustard white Increases yield, annual plant July 100
Buckwheat Annual plant, cereal culture. Undemanding to the soil. Grows up to 70 cm. It blooms with white flowers with a pink middle. End of June 90
Sweet clover yellow Perennial plant, up to 150 cm high, blooms with bright yellow flowers. Easily tolerates heat May to August 600
Angelica Tall perennial plant, up to 2000 cm in height, easily tolerates cold. Requires regular watering. June 400
snakehead Plant up to 1 m in height, blooms with bright yellow flowers. Undemanding, grows in many soils. July 300
Goldenrod (scrofula) Perennial goldenrod herbaceous plant, reaches a height of 1 m. August 190
Ivan tea honey plant (ivan tea) Perennial herbaceous plant of the willow-herb family, reaches 2 m in height. Blooms with pink and white flowers July 500
Hyssop Shrub, up to 50 cm high. Unpretentious perennial plant, easily tolerates cold and drought. From July to the end of autumn 300
Chestnut A tree of the beech family, up to 35 m high. It blooms with white flowers End of June - July 400
fireweed The main honey plant of the middle zone grows in forests. The showy flowers give off a pleasant sweet scent when blooming. July 450
Goat's rue like a honey plant Perennial plant, up to 0.5 m high. May 200
Coriander Annual essential oil plant, sowing culture up to 120 cm in height. Blooms with former flowers with pink centers End of June 250
Linen A field perennial crop, up to 60 cm high. It blooms with blue flowers. June 15
Linden One of the best trees - honey plants, is very popular. Blooms with yellow flowers. July 1000
Onion chives honey plant (chives) A perennial onion cultivated plant - chives onion honey plant, usually blooms 3 years after sowing. The bulbs are used for the food industry. July 100
Alfalfa as a honey plant Perennial leguminous plant, good honey plant. The blue or sowing alfalfa variety is valued. June July 300
Spurge Herbaceous perennial plant. It reaches a height of 80 cm. It blooms with yellow flowers. June July 270
sow thistle A weed plant, found in gardens and orchards, near roads. Blooms with yellow flowers. June 380
Sunflower An annual cultivated plant used for oil production. It has a thick stem, grows up to 3 meters in height. Mid July Up to 15 kg are harvested from 1 plant
bird cherry It grows as a shrub or small tree (semi-shrub). Produces a lot of pollen. The end of May 200
Chernoklen Shrub, common in the middle lane. Blooms 7-14 days. Mid May 300
Sage Perennial plant, grows in meadows and along roadsides, blooms with white and pink flowers May to September 300

Honey plants of the Leningrad region

The Leningrad region is characterized by the presence of forests, hills, lowlands and swamps. Initially, the region was dotted with pine forests, later, with the help of man, other honey plants appeared on the territory. Around the swamps sprout: alder, aspen and willow. A large number of natural wild honey plants grow in the region: birch, mountain ash, heather, berry bushes and others.

Nowadays, there are many gardens and cottages here. Flowering of melliferous plants begins at the end of April and lasts until mid-September. First, alder and aspen bloom, then willow, then in mid-May the color of berry bushes (blueberries, currants, gooseberries) passes. After that, fruit trees, acacia, mountain ash, fireweed and heather begin to bloom in succession. Raspberries, cereals and garden plants bloom from mid-June.

Honey plants of Donetsk region

The Donetsk region is dotted with natural reservoirs, forests and forest plantations, steppes, and there is also a mountain range. Donetsk is characterized by a dense population, developed industry and agricultural land, nature reserves and other natural areas. Therefore, in this zone there is a huge number of plant honey plants, including wild forms.

On the territory there are forests of linden, oak, ash, maple and white acacia. It is here that a large number of nomadic beekeepers. In places of reserves, forbs are widespread, where there are huge fields of flowers. On the banks of the rivers and in the ravines, first-class honey plants sprout - wild pear, ash, viburnum, yellow acacia, viburnum, and various shrubs. The most common honey plant throughout the Donbass is wild rose, which grows almost everywhere. In the Shakhtyorsky district there is a white acacia, which is very much appreciated by beekeepers.

In the Donetsk region, honey plants begin to bloom from the beginning of spring until July inclusive. Typical shrub and medicinal herbs sprouting in the Donbass:

  • blue snowdrops;
  • toad;
  • buttercup;
  • coltsfoot;
  • hazel;
  • medicinal lungwort;
  • valerian;
  • irises;
  • clover;
  • fireweed;
  • sage;
  • buckwheat;
  • bruise and more.

Calendar of flowering honey plants in the middle lane

In order to find out the time of harvest from a certain type of plant, you need to learn how to use the flowering calendar of honey plants in the middle lane. The table below shows the approximate start time of flowering plants and the period of their flowering.

The name of the honey plant Flowering start date Flowering time (days)
Hazel April 22 6
Lungwort April 23 30
Willow April 28 10
Maple May 15 10
Gooseberry May 18 31
Dandelion May 18 30
Black currant May 20 10
bird cherry May 21st 12
Plum 22nd of May 7
Acacia May 25 13
Apple tree May 20 10
Rowan May 30 10
viburnum June 11 12
blue cornflower June 15 45
Clover June 16 22
Buckwheat 5'th of July 30
Linden July 8 14

With the help of such a calendar, it is easy to navigate the timing of harvesting the desired crop in the desired area. Each beekeeper is obliged to draw up a flowering calendar for himself, taking into account the location and the presence of plants near the apiary. A properly drawn up calendar helps the beekeeper to collect a good harvest.

If the apiary is mobile and several moves are planned for one season, then the beekeeper should make as many calendars as there will be movements. Before compiling, it is necessary to carefully study the terrain, whether it is rocky or flat terrain, southern or northern region. Each area differs in the beginning and duration of flowering of honey plants.

A properly compiled calendar and the ability to navigate the terrain allows the beekeeper to plan the work of the apiary, strengthen and increase the number of bee colonies. Also, with its help, beekeeping will always bring pleasure and profit. The main thing is to work fruitfully and “communicate” with the bees. Love and care for them will bring only benefits and delicious honey.

In nature, there are many honey plants that either grow naturally or are artificially grown. Each of them differs in type, shape, structure and amount of nectar and pollen released. Beekeepers carefully study the area near the apiary or a place for nomadism, find future honey plants or sow new ones, and make flowering calendars. With such responsible work, the bees will be full, the harvest will be rich, the bee business will be profitable.

Good honey plants are those plants that produce a lot of pollen and nectar with a high sugar content.
These include common hazel (hazel), various varieties of willows (the richest and most stable honey plants), platinum and Tatar maple, common oak, common mountain ash, apple tree, pear, plum, cherry, black currant, red currant, gooseberry, raspberry, buckthorn , linden, yellow and white acacia, common heather, blueberries, blueberries, thyme, all types of clover, horned bird, snake knotweed, common tar, meadow geranium, white mustard, winter rapeseed, lupine, white and yellow sweet clover, alfalfa, buckwheat sowing, willow-tea, pink wild thistle, blue cornflower, meadow cornflower, dandelion, field sow thistle, etc.

Some beekeepers are wondering: what honey plants can be planted near the apiary?
Planting several beds of honey plants in the apiary or rows along the fence of the apiary is an empty occupation. The honey collection from them will bring no more than a glass of honey.
Therefore, for high-quality honey collection, you need to take care of the removal of the apiary to the fields sown with honey plants.
But for those who nevertheless decided to plant honey plants near their apiary, we can recommend such plants as phacelia, bruise, borage (borage), lemon balm (lemon mint), sweet clover.

HOW BEES COLLECT HONEY

Honey bees are inherently flower constancy. The size of the feeding area for each bee depends on the abundance of flower nectar and pollen on honey plants. The bee is good at remembering the location of the source of food, just as she is good at remembering the position of her hive. At the first departure from the hive, the bee first circles around its house forward and backward in order to remember the signs of its hive well. Then she flies off 1 - 2 meters to remember the position of her hive relative to other hives and objects. Thus, by successively increasing the distance of orientation flights, the bee learns the way to its house in order to return back after the honey collection. When a bee flies up to a flower, it remembers its color, smell, shape. Collecting nectar in the goiter, she remembers the quality of the feed. Before approaching a flower or a house, the bee holds the antennae stretched forward. With the help of antennae, by smell, the bee recognizes previously visited flowers or its hive.

BEE DANCE

Thanks to the study of the life of bees by the Austrian biologist Karl Frisch (November 20, 1886 - June 12, 1982), the ways in which bees transmit information about food sources became known. Karl Frisch conducted the following experiment: not far from the hive, he placed a saucer with honey, and observed how the bees marked by him who visited the saucer returned to the hive and began to circle, informing other bees about the location of the food.
Frisch identified two types of bee dances: circular and wagging. In a circle dance, the bee first runs in a circle in one direction, and then abruptly turns and runs in the opposite direction, completing the figure eight. With such a dance, the bee informs that the source of food is within a radius of up to 100 m. With a more distant source of food, the bee first moves in a semicircle, then goes in a straight line, while making wagging movements with the whole body, then turns in the opposite direction and, having made a semicircle , again moving in a straight line. It is noted that the length of movement in a straight line depends on the remoteness of the place of honey collection. The more in the dance the bee moves in a straight line - the more remote the place of honey collection.
The bees on the honeycomb begin to follow the dancer; touching it with their antennae and tasting the nectar, they assimilate the taste and smell of flowers. Having received information about the distance and direction to the place of honey collection, as well as from which plants it is necessary to collect nectar, other bees go in search of the specified source of food.
Frisch also found that the more nectar and the higher the concentration of sugar in it in the flowers visited by the bee, the more energetic the bee's dance becomes. In this way, she mobilizes a greater number of bees for the honey collection explored by her.
When the food source is more than 4.5 - 5 km away, the bee does not dance at all, thus it cannot mobilize other bees to this source.
The dance of the bee is slower if you need to fly to the place of honey collection against the wind. Her dance is also different if you need to fly uphill.

A unique natural product created by bees is called honey. How do bees make honey, why is there linden, buckwheat, meadow honey? How does a beekeeper teach her to choose a single plant species from herbs and carry only its pollen? How is a viscous mass with healing properties obtained from micron balls of pollen? Let's try to reveal the secret of getting honey.

Their common home is a hive

The usual family name for bees is conditional. This is some kind of higher organization. The mother bee is not a mother to anyone. Her activity lies in laying eggs, having once mated with many drones in a mating flight. And before that, bees fed her from the larvae. Drones are also fed by bees for their entire short life. The life of a bee depends on the condition of the wings. With intensive summer work, they become unusable in a month, and the bee dies, and the autumn bees hibernate and carry the first bribe in the spring.

The worker bee begins to work from the moment of birth:

  • 3 days are engaged in cleaning in combs, cleaning them after leaving;
  • 4-6 days they feed the larvae with honey and pollen, fly around the hive;
  • 7-11 days the bees appear in the glands of queen milk, they feed the uterus and queen larvae, which develop in several cells of honeycombs;
  • 12-17 days wax glands appear, and the bees turn into honeycomb builders, at the same time they guard the hive, take nectar and maintain the microclimate;
  • from the 18th day until the end of life during the honey harvest, the bee flies out of the hive for raw materials for honey, bee food.

The community of bees is subject to the laws of a single organism. To survive, the family needs a food product. Bees carry pollen from flowering plants, process it into honey, and store it in wax honeycombs. Scientists have studied how bees make honey from pollen and nectar.

In its flight, the bee is guided by time, smell, color of the hive. She flies to the flowers at the time of their opening. If the hive was repainted in the absence of the worker, she searches for it by smell, but uncertainly. Therefore, in the apiary, the beehives are painted in different colors.

Honey production technology

Before you start collecting honey, you need to get containers for storing the product. A wax hexagonal honeycomb is always created in a hive or wild board, a perfect design that allows maximum use of volume. They are built by bees. In this case, the cells are not all the same, they are divided:

  • queen cells, where queens are fed;
  • transitional, larvae grow there;
  • drones - rebuilt by worker bees and queens;
  • bee - a place of storage of honey.

Why do bees need honey? The brood needs to be fed and everyone who works to prolong the life of the family needs to stock up on food for the winter.

So, the scout bee found a flowering meadow and flew to the hive, gathering a team for a honey collection. The worker bee is a pollen and nectar collector. Bees begin to make honey as soon as pollen and nectar fall into a special goiter. There are also enzymes that break down sugar.

Simultaneously with nectar, the bee collects pollen with shaggy legs, pollinating the plant. The pollen ball is hidden in a basket on the leg, bee bread will be prepared from it. In the food warehouse, bee bread is stored separately from honey.

In order to fill the goiter, the bee needs to collect tribute from one and a half thousand flowers. Having loaded 70 mg into the goiter, the bee flies low, overcoming the distance to the hive. If the hive stands in the middle of honey plants, fly no more than 2 km, the contents of the crop are delivered to the hive. If further - part of the product is absorbed by the bee to replenish energy. Therefore, apiaries are mobile, they move to where there are many flowers.

The worker bees look after the queen, feed it and brush it. For some unknown reason, they can suffocate the uterus in their arms, taking her into a tight, shrinking ball. Sometimes the beekeeper finds a sting in the corpse, the uterus was killed by her servants, workers, children.

If you are interested in how bees make honey, watch the video:

The bee transfers honey to the hive and flies away for a new bribe. At the same time, the worker from the hive takes a drop of the brought product several times, draws it into the goiter and releases it, she adds invertase from her goiter, continuing the fermentation of the nectar. The product is then dried to remove excess moisture. It is laid out in a thin layer along the bottom and walls of the cells and the moisture is allowed to evaporate. The buzzing of bees in front of the hive and inside it is the work of wings, ventilation of the hive. Dried up to a moisture content of 21%, honey is folded into the upper honeycomb and sealed with a wax cap. From the moment the bribe enters the hive to the ripening of honey, 10 days pass.

How much honey a bee collects depends on many factors. In bad weather, bees do not fly. If the apiary is far away, the bee can make only one notch and spend a quarter of the bribe expensively on itself. A healthy family collects up to 150 kg of honey over the summer, half of which goes to support the life of the family. How hard it is for working women to get a sweet product, dry figures say. One foraging bee makes 400 sorties in a lifetime, flies about 800 km. For 1 g of honey, you need to make 75 sorties. One in a lifetime can bring 5 g of honey, a spoon. A kilogram of honey is collected by the joint efforts of 200 bees. A family can have up to 50,000 individuals. The final result depends on weather conditions, the availability of honey plants and the health of the family.

The worker bee has a much larger brain than the queen bee and the drone.

Tricks of beekeepers

There are up to 20 varieties of honey on the shelves, even from pine resin, which is not very clear. Resin - resin and a bee, tying a proboscis, will die. How do bees collect honey only from fireweed, when there are forbs around? From ancient times, insects were taught to collect only lime or buckwheat honey, feeding worker bees with this product before flying to work. Well-fed bees pollinate the desired field ten times more efficiently, selectively collect the healing product.

How honey appears in the hives - video

Have questions?

Report a typo

Text to be sent to our editors: