Bee Products: Production and Processing

Abstract

Bees gather substances from the vegetation, add substances to them, process them and allow them to ripen. These then serve as raw materials for other bee products. With the help of specialized organs and glands, the raw materials are transformed into new, very different products. For example bee sucks nectar out of a flower that is converted into honey and stored at the top of frame, while collecting nectar pollen from the stamens sticks to the chest hairs of the bee and cross-pollination occurs that leads to better fructification and larger seeds and fruits. The bee combs pollen off and rolls it into pollen pellets with its hind legs. Pollen loads are pushed into the honeycomb cells where they are processed further and ripened into bee bread. This occurs on the inside of the comb nest. Wax glands of bee result in beeswax which is required for comb making. The young bees use secretions from their head glands to process bee bread into bee milk and royal jelly, which form, together with the eggs and pupae, the so-called brood that is located in the combs on the inside and top of the bee bread, in the middle of the colony. The bees also collect waxes, gums and resins from trees and plants, which they mix into propolis by adding beeswax and saliva. Worker bees clean the cells for the brood with propolis, make honey from nectar, bee bread from pollen, and then in turn bee milk and royal jelly from the bee bread. The house bees sweat wax and make honeycomb out of it. Afterwards, the house bees become guard bees that guard the hive with their stingers by injecting bee venom into the skin of an intruder. The worker bees and the queen make bee venom in their venom gland, which is then stored in the venom sac located next to the stinger. The guard bees finally become forager bees, which collect nectar and pollen.