honey

The juicy liquid that is found in the flowers is called ‘nectar’, and these bees collect this nectar and store it in honey combs they construct to feed their larvae, which we call ‘honey’. People and some other animals rob the bees of this honey and eat it! The bees that make this honey are called ‘honey bees’.

The honey bees’ honey is very sweet; and, health-wise, it is far better than the artificial sugars made in factories by people.

Only 7 species (kinds) out of 20,000 known species of bees collect nectar and pollen from the flowers.

two apiarists at their apiary with wooden man-made ‘bee hives’ on the ground

The process of bee-keeping by humans is called “apiculture” and the place where these bees are kept is called an “apiary”, which is a very profitable medium-scale business, and a person who keeps bees for honey, wax, and makes the bees pollinate crops is called an “apiarist” or a ‘beekeeper’.

The man-made nests are called ‘beehives’.  In the wild, the honey bees make their ‘nests’ in the hollows of trees or rocks, on the branches of trees, on the ceilings of caves, and these days, under the projections of man-made buildings or structures.

a honey comb

These bees build ‘honey combs’ out of wax-like fluid secreted from some glands under their abdomen, and keep their larvae and the nectar in the hexagonal cells in their honey combs.  The honey bees store this nectar for their larvae to feed on, and for them to survive the winter or rainy seasons.

[Note:

1. Honey bees do not produce honey from their bodies; they make honey. They produce only the wax to build their nests.

2. There are other insects, such as wasps, bumblebees, etc. that also make honey, but that honey is not preferred by us.]