Bees are known for collecting nectar to make honey throughout the seasons as long as the weather is conducive. In a single day, worker bees will make several foraging trips to ensure their colonies are well fed. 

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What is Bees Nectar?

Nectar is a sugary liquid secreted by the nectary glands within a flower of a plant. It is an adaptation that attracts honey bees and other insects to the flowers by offering them nutrition. In return, the insects help to fertilize flowers by transferring pollen particles that stick to their hairy bodies from flower to flower. Nectar have different flavors that are felt in the end product. In a single foraging trip, they can visit up to 100 flowers. 

Contents of Nectar

Nectar contains about 80% of water, together with complex sugars. These include glucose, fructose, and sucrose. It also contains traces of proteins, essential oils, salts, and acids. The sugar content in nectar ranges from 3 to 80 %, depending on the plant species, soil, and weather conditions. It cannot be stored for any length of time; the bees transform it into honey which has a moisture content of about 18%.  If left unattended, it will eventually ferment and become a useless food for the bees. Honey is an efficient and usable carbohydrate that can be stored indefinitely without spoiling or fermenting.

How a Bee Collect Nectar

A forager bee collects nectar by sucking it with her mouthpiece (proboscis) and stores it in the honey stomach. When the stomach is full, she runs back to the nectar, empties, and goes back to the field to collect another load. Nectar supplies the bees with all their energy or carbohydrates needs. 

How do bees use the nectar they collect?

Pure nectar provides immediate energy for forager bees in the form of sugars. Back in the hive, it is converted to honey and stored in the honeycombs. When nectar sources are scarce, or the weather is unfavorable, especially in winter, the bees feed on the stored honey. 

Can bees make honey with nectar from one type of flower?

Bees can make nectar from one species of flower. This is so when a single plant species flowers at one time and is extensively planted or widely distributed like in commercial plantations. The bees will collect nectar from the available flowers and make honey with it. This is referred to as monofloral honey. Some types of monofloral honey include orange floral honey, clover honey, manuka honey, etc.

Why do bees reject some nectar sources? 

A bee will reject a nectar source if it has an unpleasant odor or when another bee was in the same flower a short while ago. They can tell this by the smell of pheromones. 

What would happen if the bees stopped collecting nectar?

• They would starve and die
• A beekeeper would not have anything to harvest
• Honeybees are key pollinators; the plant yields would drop.

How a Bee Informs Other Bees of a Nectar Source

When a forager bee discovers a rich nectar source, she does not keep it to herself. On arriving at the nest, the forager will proceed to the dance floor and perform a dance depending on the distance. 

Round Dance:

The round informs nest mates of nectar sources within 10 meters of the hive. In this dance, the bee runs in small circles. 

Waggle Dance

The waggle dance aims to inform the fellow foragers of nectar sources beyond 10 meters. The dance communicates several key information: direction, distance, and desirability. The longer she waggles, the farther the nectar source is. If she prolongs or dances vigorously, the dance shows the richness and the quantity of the source. She also indicates the direction of the source by the angle her waggle dance deviates from an imaginary straight line drawn on the dance floor to the sun at its current position. She shares the odor of the flowers with other bees by allowing them to sample the nectar through their antennae. 

How do bees turn the flower nectar into honey?

A forager bee stores the nectar she collects in a special sac known as the honey stomach. They travel up to 5 miles in search of pollen and nectar. While in the sac, the nectar mixes with enzymes from special glands in the mouth and the honey stomach which start to break the complex sugars. Once the sac is full, the bee returns to the hive to deliver the load. 

Back in the hive, she regurgitates the nectar to house bees which start the honey-making process. The nectar is chewed and passed from bee to bee for about 30 minutes. During the chewing process, the enzymes present in the bee’s saliva changes its PH and other chemical properties. At this stage, the mixture contains too much water( 70-80%). The bees reduce the water content by spreading over the honeycombs and fanning their wings near the honey. It eventually attains a moisture content of 18-20%. At this point, it is ready for storage. The honey is deposited in the honey comb cells and capped with beeswax. At this stage, a beekeeper can also harvest the honey.

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FAQS

Do bees ever stop collecting nectar?

Honey bees will cease to collect nectar when the weather is too cold or wet, when no flowers are blooming, and when a bee dies. 

Do bees collect nectar from the same flower species during a foraging trip?

Yes, this is called floral constancy or flower fidelity. Once they collect nectar from a certain flower, they will most likely visit the same species in a foraging trip. They will ignore other flowers even if they have more nectar or pollen. It helps greatly in pollination. 

Do bees store nectar in the hive?

Bees do not store nectar in the hive. But they convert it to honey and store it in the honeycombs. 

How does a bee store and ferry nectar into the nest?

After sucking the nectar with the proboscis, a bee stores nectar in a special sac known as the honey stomach, which is different from the digestive stomach

How many flowers can a bee visit a day to collect nectar?

A bee visits 50 -100 flowers per trip and can make up to 12 trips in a day.