Products from the Hive

Honey

The most popular product of honeybees, honey is produced using nectar collected from blooming plants. Traveling from plant to plant, the bees collect nectar and store it in their special honey stomachs where the nectars sugar structure changes. It is then deposited into a wax cell where bees fan it to reduce the water content. Finally, the finished honey is caped in wax, like a lid on a jar. Honey is the bees carbohydrate and an important food inside the hive. When harvesting honey remember that bees need honey to survive.

Pollen

As honeybees move from ower to ower, they carry pollen on their back legs. Inside the hive pollen is the bees main source of protein and other important nutrients, but outside the hive the unintentional transfer of pollen from flower to flower in the act of pollination makes blooming plants and bees perfect partners.

Wax

Bees build their homes out of wax. Inside the hive, honeycomb is build to store honey and pollen. The comb is also where the queen lays eggs and the brood is raised.

Propolis

Propolis is used by the bees to seal up any drafts and stick things together like glue. Bees make propolis by chewing up plant resins and tree saps.

Data

As honeybees do their foraging tour of the environment around the hive they collect information about it too. In many ways bees are an indicator of the health of an ecosystem. It is important to recognise them for this fact. By analysing the honey and pollen of the bees we can understand more about our environments. The longevity of a colony is the best measure of its health and the the state of their environment.