Food Storage - How Do Bees Make Honey?

Honeybees assist with food storage tasks and use pollen as a protein food source in the hive.

Forager honeybees carry pollen in pollen sacks on the forager's legs and store it in honeycomb cells for food as a protein source for the hive. A collector gathering this protein is ten times more efficient in pollination of crops than one who transfers pollen inadvertently while siphoning nectar.

Workers distribute a portion to feed bee larva - the white, grub-like stage of young developing bees, called brood. Beekeepers refer to hives with young brood as building.

Honeybees deliberately collect and store pollen to supply the hive with the protein they need to accomplish the task of raising young.

Bees store capped cells of raw, finished, honey in the hive

Each bit of raw honey is preserved until needed and sealed into a cell of honeycomb with a plug of wax secreted from the worker's abdomen.

During plentiful periods of foraging, bees manufacture more honey than they need to survive. This excess is what beekeepers collect to sell.

A large portion of the honey must be left in the hive for bees to eat during rainy, cold weather when they cannot forage for food or when food is scarce.