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Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several species of bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. [1] [2] Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies.Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primarily floral nectar) or the secretions of other insects, like the honeydew of aphids.
This is an accepted version of this page This is the latest accepted revision, reviewed on 25 January 2025. Colonial flying insect of genus Apis For other uses, see Honey bee (disambiguation). Honey bee Temporal range: Oligocene–Recent Pre๊ ๊ O S D C P T J K Pg N Western honey bee on the bars of a horizontal top-bar hive Scientific classification Domain: Eukaryota Kingdom: Animalia ...
Honey bees consume about 8.4 lb (3.8 kg) of honey to secrete 1 lb (450 g) of wax, [1] and so beekeepers may return the wax to the hive after harvesting the honey to improve honey outputs. The structure of the comb may be left basically intact when honey is extracted from it by uncapping and spinning in a centrifugal honey extractor.
The western honey bee or European honey bee (Apis mellifera) is the most common of the 7–12 species of honey bees worldwide. [3] [4] The genus name Apis is Latin for 'bee', and mellifera is the Latin for 'honey-bearing' or 'honey-carrying', referring to the species' production of honey.
A commercial beekeeper at work Western honey bee on a honeycomb. Humans have kept honey bee colonies, commonly in hives, for millennia. [106] Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 15,000 years ago; efforts to domesticate them are shown in Egyptian art around 4,500 years ago. [107] Simple hives and smoke were used. [108] [109]
The bees normally show no sign of disturbance, and any bees in the flow frame at the time are not harmed. Clean honey can be produced and filtration is not normally required. [2] The system is then reset and the bees clean up any remaining honey, remove the capping, and refill the cells, beginning the process again.
Natural bee colony in the hollow of a tree. Honey bees use caves, rock cavities, and hollow trees as natural nesting sites. In warmer climates, they may build exposed hanging nests; members of other subgenera have exposed aerial combs. Multiple parallel honeycombs form the hive with a relatively uniform bee space. It usually has a single entrance.
Honey bees in the genus Apis are the most commonly kept species but other honey producing bees such as Melipona stingless bees are also kept. Beekeepers (or apiarists) keep bees to collect honey and other products of the hive: beeswax , propolis , bee pollen , and royal jelly .