How Do Bees Make Honey?

A honeybee hive is a wondrous society of order and precision. In the summer months, when nectar and pollen are plentiful, there are between 40,000 and 50,000 buzzing, 6-legged, and 4-winged insects packed inside a few wooden boxes. Understanding how bees make honey reveals one of nature's most fascinating processes.

Each worker bee (all females) in the colony is diligently focused on a task that no one assigned to her. And every few days, she will move on to another job - again without being asked. The queen bee is busy laying up to 2,000 eggs per day to keep the colony populated with new workers. And what do the drones do besides loafing around and eating honey? Well, that's another story. But in the fall, when flowers fold and honey production is done, the drones are unceremoniously kicked out of the hive to die. 

The most common beehive design is called a Langstroth (a "Lang"), named after the American clergyman and apiarist Lorenzo L in 1852. Langstroth. Drawing from prior innovations of European beekeepers, Langstroth added several critical improvements and was granted a patent for a system of moveable wooden frames that fit inside stacking boxes. These boxes had neither tops or bottoms so the bees could move freely between them.

The frames and boxes were carefully sized and spaced causing the bees to build raw honeycomb inside the frames in a straight line, rather than in free-flowing waves like they do in wild beehives.

The hive is organized into different sections:

• Brood chamber: This is where the queen lays her eggs and the worker bees take care of the developing larvae.

•  Honey supers : The upper boxes in the hive where honey is stored.

The lowest box, known as the "brood chamber," serves as the queen's domain. Here, she meticulously lays eggs in cells cleaned by workers. This complex process demonstrates how bees make honey while simultaneously maintaining the colony's population.

The development process follows a precise timeline:

• Day 1-3: Eggs receive royal jelly from nursemaid bees

• Day 3-10: Diet changes to bee bread (honey and pollen mixture)

• Day 10-22: Larvae develop into fully formed bees

• Day 22: New bees emerge ready to work

Within the hive, each bee has a specific job. When asking how long bees take to make honey, it's important to understand this collaborative effort. The queen’s primary role is to lay eggs, up to 2,000 eggs a day, ensuring the colony remains populated. The worker bees, all female, have various tasks that change as they grow older.

• Brood care: Worker bees feed the larvae and clean the hive.

• Honey production: Some bees work as foragers, others as honey producers.

• Protection: Guard bees keep the hive safe from predators.

As bees age, they move through different stages, taking on various responsibilities. A worker bee’s lifespan typically lasts 42-45 days , and after this, they usually die outside the hive.

The journey from flower to honeycomb involves multiple stages, each crucial to creating the perfect honey.

Forager bees embark on their nectar-gathering missions within a two-mile radius of the hive, though they can travel up to 6 miles when necessary. These dedicated workers navigate between hundreds of flowers, using their remarkable memory to remember the most productive locations.

Key aspects of foraging:

• Each foraging session requires visiting about 1,000 flowers

• One hour of work yields approximately 40 mg of nectar

• Bees can make several trips per day

• Special sensors help bees identify nectar-rich flowers

• Weather and daylight influence foraging patterns

Back at the hive, a fascinating chemical process begins. Forager bees transfer their precious cargo to house bees, initiating a complex chain of events:

• Enzymes in the bee's honey stomach start breaking down complex sugars

• Transfer bees continue this process, adding more enzymes

• Multiple exchanges between bees enhance the conversion process

• Proteins and starches are broken down into simple sugars

• Natural preservative compounds are added through enzyme action

The next stage is crucial for honey's longevity. When bees first deposit nectar into honeycomb cells, it contains too much moisture - sometimes up to 80%. Through careful environmental control:

Worker bees position themselves strategically to:

• Create airflow patterns through the hive

• Fan their wings tirelessly to promote evaporation

• Monitor humidity levels instinctively

• Maintain optimal temperature for water removal

The process continues until the honey reaches the critical threshold of 18% moisture or less. This precise moisture level:

• Prevents fermentation

• Ensures proper preservation

• Creates the perfect honey consistency

• Allows for long-term storage

Once the moisture content is perfect, worker bees cap each cell with a thin layer of beeswax. This sealing process:

• Protects the honey from absorbing moisture

• Creates an airtight environment

• Signals that the honey is ready for storage

• Allows for easy identification of mature honey

To extract honey, beekeepers uncap the honey-filled cells by removing the wax caps. The honey-filled frames are then placed in an extractor, a machine that uses centrifugal force to spin the honey out of the cells. The extracted honey flows into a holding tank, ready to be processed.

When enough honey is collected in the tank, it's time to fill drums of honey -- 54 gallons at a time, which is around 640 pounds of honey. At Smiley Honey , we purchase these drums throughout the summer months from various beekeepers, and we then bottle and sell the honey throughout the year.

Our bottling process is minimal. We warm the honey to around 100 to 105 degrees, and then pump it through a strainer and into a holding tank. This strainer is not a filter! It removes most of the beeswax but allows all of the beneficial pollen, enzymes, vitamins, and minerals to stay in the honey.

The holding tank is connected to a bottling machine, which dispenses a pre-set volume of honey into a clean, empty container. Our team at Smiley Honey adds a label and then ships it to you. This raw, unfiltered honey is as close as you can get to grabbing a handful of the sweet, sticky stuff directly from a beehive!

So as you enjoy this amazing product called honey, here are a few final facts to contemplate:

• In her lifetime, one bee will make around 1/10 of a teaspoon of honey.

• It takes the nectar from 1 to 2 million flowers to make a pound of honey.

• On one trip, a forager bee can travel 6 miles; they make several trips per day.

• Honeybees are the only insect that makes food that we eat (not to be confused with eating insects).

• Honeybees are one of the few invertebrates that have a resting state resembling human sleep - and by gosh, they deserve it!

• The average American eats 1 pound of honey per year. Thank goodness our customers are far better than average.