The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery

The Case of the Vanishing Honeybees: A Scientific Mystery — page 5
Back at the hive the worker passes the nectar it collected to another bee That bee uses its strawlike mouthpart to pump the nectar into a cell in the hive's wax comb wall of wax cells The nectar mixes with the bee s digestive juices Then lots of worker bees join in fanning their wings This increases airflow over the nectar mixture in the cells Nectar straight from the flower is as much as 80 percent water Airflow causes some of the water to evaporate move into the air But doing this just once isn't enough Another bee sucks up the liquid and repeats the process Little by little the nectar becomes a sugar rich thick liquid honey Bees eat honey for energy to fly and stay active Any extra is stored in the hive's cells and capped with wax The bees will eat this honey later when plants aren't flowering and producing nectar