Honey bees are amazing creatures. Understanding what they eat is very important for successful beekeeping and preserving them on earth. In this article, we will look at what bees eat.
Nectar
Nectar is an important source of nutrition for bees. It is a sweet liquid produced by flowering plants to attract pollinators (bees, butterflies, and some birds). Nectar consists mainly of water and sugars (glucose, fructose, and sucrose). It may also contain small amounts of amino acids, proteins, lipids, vitamins, and minerals.
Bees collect nectar in their honey sacs, where it is broken down into simple sugars, fructose and glucose, by the enzyme invertase.
On the way home, the bee expends 20 to 40% of the nectar it has collected. This is necessary for it to replenish its own energy resources.
It then passes this nectar on to other bees in the hive, where it is made into honey.
Pollen
Nectar is a source of carbohydrates. But bees need proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals. All of these are found in pollen. While on the flower, pollen sticks to the hairs on their bodies, even reaching their eyes. The insect moistens the collected pollen with saliva and, upon returning home, deposits it in a specific honeycomb cell and tamps it down with its head.
Bee bread
Protein is essential for bees to raise young bees. Therefore, it is important for them to preserve it and have a supply. To do this, bees produce bee bread. They mix pollen with saliva, add honey and lactic acid bacteria from their honey stomachs. Under the action of bacteria, honey ferments and turns into bee bread, which is an easily digestible protein product. In this form, it can be stored in cells for a very long time and consumed as needed.
Water
Water is an essential nutrient for bees. It is necessary for feeding larvae, diluting honey, and regulating physiological processes in general. Bees obtain water from nectar and honey, which contain about 20% water. They collect it from natural sources, such as dew, and bring it to the hive. They even have a separate type of bee called a water carrier. The oldest bees perform this role.
Royal jelly
Queen bees consume royal jelly during the first three days of their lives at the egg stage. After that, they stop feeding on it. As a result, worker bees are formed. If they continued to feed on royal jelly, queen bees would be born.
Royal jelly contains many vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and other biologically active substances and is produced by the pharyngeal glands of worker bees.
Honey
We know that bees make honey. But they also consume it. For them, it is an energy food consisting of simple sugars, which means it is easily digestible. This is especially important in winter, when there is no nectar available in nature and honey reserves come into play. For bees, capped honey is an untouchable reserve. First, they eat honey that has not been capped, and only then do they eat capped honey.
Conclusion
Bee feed should include all of the above components. They are all essential. This understanding is important for beekeeping and the preservation of bees on earth. After all, by reducing their habitat and impoverishing their food base through the transition to monoculture farming, we are leading to a decline in the bee population and, as a result, in natural pollinators.
