Honey bees are remarkable creatures. Their ability to communicate, adapt, and work together in a colony is unparalleled in nature. But these fascinating insects can’t do any of this without the proper nutrition. Like humans, bees need a balanced diet to thrive. And what they eat is intricately linked to their health and productivity as pollinators.
What do bees eat?
Honey bees get their nutrients from two main sources: nectar and pollen. Nectar, a liquid secreted by flowering plants, is composed mainly of water and simple sugars like glucose and fructose. It provides the carbohydrates that fuel bees’ daily energy needs. Powdery pollen grains contain the male genetic material of flowers needed for plant reproduction. For bees, pollen provides the proteins, lipids, vitamins, minerals, and other micronutrients essential for growth and development. Over 150 compounds have been identified in pollen including fatty acids, sterols, phenolics, and amino acids. The exact nutritional profile varies by plant species, some pollens are considered more nutritious for bees than others. Highly nutritious pollen come from plants like sunflowers, roses, and goldenrod. Less nutritious pollen such as that from maple or elm trees must be mixed by the bees with other sources. Bees are selective, seeking out the most protein-rich pollen to bring back to the hive.
Foraging for nectar and pollen changes with the seasons. In spring and summer, worker bees ramp up foraging to store away food for the colony to survive the winter when fewer flowers bloom. A healthy hive needs 30 to 90 pounds of honey to make it through colder months, especially when it snows.
How do bees eat?
At the flower patch, bees suck nectar from blossoms through their proboscis (like long tongue) into their honey stomach, a special second stomach just for nectar storage. Back at the hive, they regurgitate the nectar and pass it mouth-to-mouth to other bees. These bees consume some for quick energy and use the enzymes from their salivary glands break down the complex sugars. Excess nectar is then deposited into honeycomb cells and fanned with bees’ wings to dehydrate it into thick, sweet honey.
Worker bees have specialized structures on their legs and abdomen called pollen baskets to collect and transport pollen back to the hive. Once inside, they pass it off to other worker bees who carefully store it in cells. The pollen is mixed with honey and enzymes from the bee’s head glands until it ferments into protein-rich “bee bread.”
What foods do honey bees make?
The three main foods bees produce from nectar and pollen are honey, bee bread, and royal jelly. Honey is stored in wax comb and eaten by worker bees for energy. Bee bread, made from fermented pollen, provides protein and nutrients for developing larvae and young worker bees. Royal jelly is a special substance worker bees secrete from glands in their heads to feed queen bees and larvae destined to become queens. It contains vitamins, amino acids, lipids, and other compounds essential for growth and development.
Implications of poor nutrition
Poor nutrition can have devastating impacts on honey bee health. Bees require a consistent and diverse intake of pollen and nectar all season long to thrive. However, several modern agricultural practices have constrained their natural foraging patterns and diet.
The prevalence of monocropping, or only growing one type of crop over a large area, reduces the botanical diversity bees need. Vast fields of a single plant variety, like carrot seed or blueberries, create a “feast or famine” situation for bees. They have an overload of one pollen source for a short time rather than a steady supply of diverse nourishment. Research shows bees fed a floral diet of just one type had higher pathogen levels and impaired immunity than those fed a varied diet.
In addition to monocrops, the loss of natural habitat like prairies and woodlands eliminates the wild flowering plants that provide important sustenance between main nectar flows. Natural areas harbor a diversity of pollen that boosts nutrition. Without habitat corridors and restored nature areas, bees are deprived of their full spectrum of required nutrients. Poor nutrition leaves them vulnerable to agricultural pesticides as well.
The nutrition bees they derive from diverse nectar and pollen sources is essential to their survival. Learning how bees source and process these foods into honey, bee bread, and royal jelly offers insights that can help us protect their populations, leading to healthier hives and more productive pollination. Next time you see bees buzzing among blossoms, take a moment to appreciate the complex science and teamwork behind their meal making.
Supporting pollinator habitat and biodiversity is crucial for bee health and our own. Our food webs depend on it!
