Researchers such as Prarthana Dharampal of ARS and Shawn Steffan of UCLA find that contrary to popular belief, bees are not vegetarians – rather, they are omnivores.
Nectar and pollen provide their primary food sources. Nectar is one of nature’s richest natural foods, rich in sugar, amino acids, water, carbohydrates and proteins.
Contents
Nectar
Nectar is a sweet fluid collected by bees using their long, tube tongues from flowers. Composed of sugars, water, amino acids and proteins, nectar serves as the primary food source for bees that produce honey as well as being an abundant source of protein for worker bees in colonies.
Bees use their eyesight to locate flowers that produce nectar and pollen, using fluorescent lighting to detect patches that are visible only to bees but invisible to human eyes. Bees find these locations by searching for any spots of ultraviolet light which shine brightly within them – an indecipherable coded signal which bees can read.
Bees demonstrate great site fidelity when collecting water; often returning to the same spot repeatedly until they find enough for their needs.
Honey
Honey is an abundant plant-based food that honey bees collect to feed themselves and their young. Honey contains all of the sugars, enzymes, water, carbohydrates and proteins required by their bodies – goldenrod, milkweed, clover and dandelions provide abundant nectar sources.
When making honey, worker bees collect nectar through their proboscis and store it in their crop, an organ that contains enzymes designed to break down complex sugars in nectar and reduce crystallization risk.
Bees take in liquid from their crop using their long and thin proboscis before passing it on to other workers who store it in hexagon-shaped cells made of beeswax in the hive. To protect it from bacteria contamination, the bees fan it with their wings to evaporate any extra moisture, while using water from outside sources as brood food for their young. Every hive must reach an optimal intake target for both sugar and water for survival.
Pollen
Bees typically forage for their own food, and depend on nectar (sweet carbohydrate flower juice) and pollen (protein) to sustain themselves. But like humans, they may sometimes opt for easier solutions when food becomes scarce – like choosing something quickly available and ready-made as opposed to searching for it through foraging activities.
Pollen is a yellow or greenish powdery substance produced by flowers and seed plants that contains male gametes which play an essential part in propagating new generations of plants, and it’s mixed with nectar by bees for consumption and feeding of larvae1.
Bees need to visit many flowers to collect both sugary nectar and protein-rich pollen in order to pollinate our plants, leaving them exhausted after collecting nectar and pollen from various blooms. When exhausted bees rest inside our homes they often come down for rest – if you come across one then try offering it some water and sugar (the suggested ratio should be two parts water to one part white granulated sugar) solution so it can easily access and drink.
Water
Bees, like other living things, need water. Bees use it to dilute honey stored in their hive and to transport nutrients throughout their bodies while foraging for nectar or pollen sources. Furthermore, water helps cool off their home in times of extreme heat.
Bees depend on flower nectar for sustenance; however, other sources provide essential nutrition as well. Rainwater, pond water, gutter water and even puddle water all contain vital elements required by bees for survival. Although such sources may seem dirty to some people, bees still find food sources here!
Beekeepers supplement bees’ diet when the weather turns dry with sugary water, which they then distribute deeper into their hive by spreading it over wax cells or sharing it among themselves. If you want to give bees access to some water sources of their own, simply fill a shallow container with clean freshwater and place floatable items such as corks or sticks within it to give the bees somewhere comfortable to perch themselves.
