Live bees in a display case on beekeepers' stalls at agricultural shows attract attention and some comments provide welcome entertainment.
Little kids are most charming: “How do you get them in there?” they ask.
The poor kids must envisage the beekeeper going from flower to flower picking off bees one by one. But teenagers often respond with more provocative questions or remarks such as, “What would you do if I let them out?”
The beekeeper may well reply: “Never mind what I would do, what would you do?”
And a comment which seems to delight teenagers and others, “Ahhh honey, that's just bee vomit!”
Sure, bees suck up nectar from flowers and carry it internally back to their hives and there regurgitate it to other bees to continue the process of turning sugar water (nectar) into honey. But is this vomiting?
The nectar collected by the bee goes into a crop, a sac connected with its alimentary tract but separated from it by a proventricular valve.
When full with its load of 25 to 30 milligrams of nectar, the crop occupies much of the bee's abdominal cavity. Back at the hive the bee contracts its abdominal muscles to expel the nectar. Its own nutrition is assured by the ability to relax the muscular valve beyond the crop and allow nutritious nectar, honey and pollen to proceed into its gut, but once beyond the valve, it does not come back. So honey is not bee vomit!
Bees have the same nutritional requirements as humans. They need carbohydrate for energy, protein for body building, some fat, minerals, vitamins and water. Honey does not come from pollen, which provides their non-carbohydrate needs.
Honey is their carbohydrate and comes from the nectar, which is sugar, mainly sucrose, in about 80pc water. To turn it into honey the bees dry it out, reducing the water content to about 18pc which makes it hypertonic and prevents fermentation. By virtue of the enzymes in their stomachs they also change the sugar from sucrose to glucose and fructose, which gives honey its sweetness.
Honey also contains lots of other nutritional goodies and antibacterial qualities.