Honey doesn't have anything added to it. Let's look at how honeybees make honey and how it gets to the bear-shaped bottle in your cabinets.
Step 1: Foraging honeybees go to the flowers, where they suck nectar through their proboscis (straw-like tongue) into their honey stomach (we just have one stomach- honeybees have two). The nectar is very watery.
Step 2: In their honey stomach, special ingredients called enzymes are added. This officially makes it into HONEY!
Step 3: When they bring it back to the hive, the worker bees put the honey into a hexagon cell made out of wax.Step 4: With their wings, the worker bees inside the hive fan the honey, removing most of the water so it turns out sticky and thick.
Step 5: When the honey is ready, they cap it over with wax for storage until the winter.
That's the end of the honeybees' job. Beekeepers take extra honey that the bees don't need for the winter. This process is called extracting.
Step 1: Beekeepers cut off the wax cappings. These are saved for use in candles, chapstick, and crayons!Step 2: The frame of honey is then put into an extractor. This basically looks like a large metal can with baskets hanging in it.
Step 3: The honey spins to the outside of the extractor and drips to the bottom. There is a honey gate at the bottom of the extractor that a beekeeper opens and the honey flows out.
Step 4: The honey is filtered and bottled.So there you have it! Honey is straight from the honeybees to your shelf.
"Bee in the Know": There are over 300 different varieties of honey in the United States (these come from the different flowers that the bees visit)
Lisa, this is a great blog you have. I really enjoyed reading all of it.
ReplyDeleteHello Queen Bee! Thanks again for visiting our school! We have a few more questions for you.
ReplyDelete1. How does the smoker work?
2. Why did you want to be the Queen Bee?
3. What does a sting feel like?
4. Have you been stung?
5. If the Queen Bee dies, does another girl bee become the new queen?
6. Is there a king bee?
7. How do the bees decide where to make their hives?
Thank you for your time!
Love, Mrs. Goetz's first graders :)
Mrs. Goetz's class:
ReplyDeleteThanks for being great listeners! I had so much fun talking to your classes.
Here are some answers:
1. when I pump the bellows (the light brown part in the back), it causes are to go through the can part. Inside the can, beekeepers build a fire with wood chips. This makes smoke come out the front end. Because honeybees need honey for energy to build a new home, they get busy eating lots of honey and don't worry about the beekeeper. So it calms them down!
2. I am a beekeeper and love talking to people about honeybees! So whatever you love to do, learn lots about it- whether it's art, musics, sports, science, or honeybees!
3 and 4. It hurts to get stung!!! Honeybees are gentle, but sometimes beekeepers do get stung- I have been stung because sometimes I drop things or bump the hive (and this makes them a little nervous and scared, and sometimes they sting). It sort of burns a little, then the area around the sting might swell. Swelling just around the area doesn't mean you're allergic; it's completely normal. If you get stung on the hand and your neck starts to tighten, go to the hospital immediately- you are allergic!
5. When the queen bee dies, they have to raise a new girl queen bee. The worker bees feed one of the old queen's eggs ROYAL JELLY (royal-for a queen, jelly-it's kind of sticky) while she's developing from an egg to a larvae to a pupa. That makes her a queen bee! But there is only one queen bee per hive!
6. No king bee! Sorry. There are drones (the male bees) but there isn't a single king bee.
7. They decide where to make their hive based on what they need. Bees look for hollow logs or trees. There aren't very many hollow trees now in towns the city, so beekeepers come and collect swarms (a group of honeybees trying to find a new home) and put them in warm, dry, safe beehives!
Thanks for your great questions! If you have any more, let me know! Also, you'll find more info about honeybees around the site.
Much love, Lisa