Chemistry and Team Work – Making Honey

Not only does our honey bee have a special honey stomach just for honey, when the nectar finds its way in there, enzymes break it down into smaller sugars like sucrose.  Then the forager bee passes it to the house bee, regurgitates it, and then the house bee re-drinks the nectar over a 20 minute period!  That breaks the sugar down to even smaller sugars, fructose and glucose. This healthy filled nectar is then dropped into a honeycomb and a little bee fans its wings furiously to evaporate most of the liquid until there is only between 14 & 18% water left in the honey.

Translate »