Sep 4, 2007 11:24 pm US/Pacific
Good Question: Where Does Honey Come From?
by Pallas Hupé
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) ―
So we all know honey tastes great, but have you ever wondered how bees make pollen into yummy honey?
World-renowned bee expert Susan Cobey is patient enough to break it down to the basics. She explained that when bees collect nectar from flowers they take it back to the hive.
"There's a series of dances they do to tell the distance and location of where the food sources are," said Cobey.
She says bees have sophisticated tastes.
"It's like going wine tasting. You have this palate of all these different flowers out there and they'll choose one that has a higher concentration of sugars," said Cobey.
The bees use their proboscis, which is like a long tongue, to suck the nectar out and store it in their reservoir, which is also called the honey stomach.
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In the proboscis nectar mixes with the bees' enzymes. Then the forager bees give the sweet stuff to the house bee at the hive, whose job it is to deposit the nectar in the honeycomb. That's where the nectar is dried and concentrated to become honey .
Bees are so sophisticated they know when the honey is ready, which is when it is less than 17 percent water.
"They'll put a wax cap on it and that's storage for the winter," said Cobey.
Cobey calls the famous queen bee an egg factory.
"She lays 2,000 a day during peak season," said Cobey.
And talk about pampered!
"She has a circle of bees around her. Attendants, touching her antenna, taking care of her needs. If she needs to be fed," said Cobey.
She's even fed a special royal jelly made in the honeycomb. The jelly also feeds her daughter who will one day succeed her.
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