Of course honeybees eat honey! They make it from nectar,
the sugary substance flowers make to invite the bees to visit. The honeybees gather
this nectar to make into honey. You can learn about how honeybees make honey in
our past post called “How Do Honeybees Make Honey?” The honey they eat is the source of carbohydrates and gives them energy. Did
you know that honey is a good energy source for humans too!
| The pollen baskets are packed full! |
Honeybees also eat pollen (a powdery substance
flowers make) for their protein. They mix the pollen with nectar and pack it onto
their back legs into their pollen baskets. They then carry the pollen home to feed
to the brood (baby bees). This pollen keeps the honeybees healthy so
they can fight off infection in the hive and help the baby bees grow big and
strong.
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| The milky substance inside the cells is royal jelly. |
Royal jelly is a milky, protein rich substance that the
honeybees feed special eggs to make them become a queen bee. If the egg wasn’t
fed royal jelly then it would become a worker bee, but when an egg is fed the
special food it supercharges their development so that they are able to lay
eggs and become a queen bee. Royal jelly is made from glands in the bees’ head.
Some people like to eat royal jelly because it has so many healthy proteins in
it. While it doesn’t turn you into a queen bee it can be a great way to keep
yourself healthy.
Lastly, honeybees drink water. All living animals need water
and honeybees are no different. They look for slow moving sources of water because
honeybees can drown. Pollinating and collecting nectar is a hard job and the
worker bees need somewhere safe to land to take a drink of water. We wrote back
in February about how you can build your own bee water bath!
