How do bees train themselves to become "engineering students"? | Science Museum

As the temperature continues to rise,

The atmosphere of spring is getting stronger and stronger.

Who is the first “herald of spring”?

The various flowers must not be outdone!

"Flower viewing" has become a popular activity in spring.

Essential activities.

When everyone is walking in the park,

You can always see a group of bees absorbing something from the flowers.

Yes, they are collecting nectar.

(Copyrighted image from the gallery, no permission to reprint)

You must be familiar with nectar.

But how does nectar become honey step by step?

Let’s take a look with Fatko.

Before solving this problem, let's first understand how bees make honey.

Honey bees, belonging to the family Apidae in the order Hymenoptera of the class Insecta, are social insects with a strict class division. They are divided into three types: queen bees, worker bees and drones. Generally speaking, a bee colony has only one queen bee, tens of thousands of worker bees, and thousands of drones. They have a clear division of labor and distinct levels. Even worker bees have different tasks.

Now that we have a general understanding of bees, let’s take a look at today’s highlight – how nectar becomes honey step by step.

Honey collection in progress

When bees collect nectar, they use their straw-like mouthparts to suck the nectar at the base of the stamens into the nectar sacs that store nectar. The main component of nectar is sucrose. A bee collects about 40 mg of nectar at a time, which is equivalent to a drop of water. However, for this drop of water, bees need to collect nectar from more than a thousand flowers. During the nectar-collecting season, a worker bee has to fly dozens of kilometers every day. This ultra-high-intensity labor makes the life span of the worker bees extremely short, only about one month.

After finding the nectar source, bees will start dancing, such as the "eight-shaped dance" or "circle dance". They use this method to communicate and convey the direction and distance of the nectar source to their companions, so that the worker bees will go to the nectar source in groups.

Honey making battle

After worker bees collect nectar, they transform it and concentrate it into honey, which is called making honey. When worker bees collect nectar, they mix it with a liquid containing invertase. After about 30 minutes, the sucrose in the nectar will be broken down and converted into glucose and fructose. This step is a chemical change.

After the foraging bees return to the hive, they will spit the fermented honey into the "storage room" and start the dehydration process. Since dehydration is involved, it is generally a physical change. The dehydration efficiency is proportional to the temperature and the surrounding wind speed. In order to effectively dehydrate, the inside of the hive will maintain a high temperature of about 35°C, and the worker bees will even flap their wings to speed up the evaporation of water in the nectar. After dehydration, the water content will drop from 60%-80% to less than 20%.

If there is not enough nectar source nearby, bees will also collect some "nectar" (sugar-containing juice secreted from the surface of some plants) and "honeydew" (insect feces) to process into honey.

Honey Making

The honey obtained contains about 22%-41% glucose, 27%-44% fructose, 5% sucrose and 5% maltose. Glucose and fructose can be directly absorbed by the human body without further digestion.

After that, the dehydrated and concentrated honey can be sealed with beeswax for long-term storage. Beeswax is the secretion of the wax glands of worker bees. The beehives we usually see are made of beeswax.

Some of you may be wondering, is it possible to skip the honey-making stage and consume nectar directly?

Fat Ke would like to remind everyone that it is best not to do this! Not only is the nectar thinner and less viscous, but some nectars also contain alkaloids, which are toxic substances. If you consume them, you may go directly to the hospital.

Honey Defense

Honey is loved by humans and many other animals. In order to protect their hives, almost all types of bees have a stinger at the end of their abdomens. This stinger is actually an underdeveloped ovipositor with barbs on it, and is connected to the poison glands in the body. When the hive is invaded, the worker bees will gather and attack, stabbing the enemy with their stingers. However, because the stinger has barbs, it cannot be pulled out after stabbing, and the barbs are still connected to the internal organs, so the worker bees will leave their lives there forever after the battle.

After reading this, do you have a clear understanding of the production of honey? In life, what else do you want to know about honey? Welcome to leave a message in the comment area! If there are many likes, Pangke can publish another issue!

Creative team: China Science and Technology Museum New Media Team

Review expert: Sun Yafei, Ph.D. in Chemistry, Tsinghua University