more on nectar

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Archive : 2004 : February : 29

more on nectar
By sjoom

Like all things in nature, bees and flowers are full of variation. Humans standardize things, but the rest of nature doesn't work like that (you know the old standby about no two snowflakes being alike). This excerpt clarifies
this in terms of bees and flowers:
"When foraging among the flowers the bees are gathering two things: pollen and nectar. Nectar constitutes the carbohydrates of the bees' diet and pollen provides the protein. To attract insects, plants secrete nectar which is a watery substance containing sugars. Some plants secrete a more concentrated mixture than others and are more attractive

to the bees. The bees suck up the liquid, store it in their honey stomachs and return to the hive with it. It is then passed on to the other bees who will convert it into honey. ...

"Nectar, with its high water content, would ferment if stored in the cells without being 'ripened' by the bees. The younger bees who do this work take the nectar directly from the foragers as they return or from a cell where the nectar has been temporarily placed. Each of these young worker bees fills her honey stomach and finds a quiet place in the hive where the temperature is high. Here she exposes the nectar a small drop at a time on her tongue. Water is evaporated from the droplet which is then taken down into the honey stomach again. This process goes on and on until most of the water is evaporated and the nectar has become honey which is now a thick, viscous liquid. During this process the cane sugar in the nectar is inverted by a secretion from another of the bee's specialised glands. The honey is placed in the cells where the final 'ripening' takes place before the cells are capped over with wax. Having reached this stage, the honey will stay in good condition for a very long time."

This passage is from Peter Beckley's book "Keeping Bees."

I'm not sure anyone will be able to tell you precisely how many flowers need to be visited to produce a certain quantity of honey, because honey making is a process that involves a lot of variation. Since different flowers' nectar has more or less water in it, there's no telling even precisely how much nectar total needs to be collected.

But again, I think a state apiarist might be able to give you an approximate answer.