Secrets of Bees and Honey Production Revealed

During the honey ripening process in the cells, X-ray images showed different patterns of brightness that reflect sugar concentration. The patterns indicate that workers use different behaviours to produce honey. They either paint the walls with loads of concentrated nectar to create rings or deposit them randomly in the cell, forming clumps. Over time, clumps grow in size and ring patterns disappear to converge to the inhomogeneous pattern of ripe honey.

Surprisingly, ripe honey thus turns out to be a matrix of inhomogeneous sugar concentration. A few cells showed a content of homogeneous high sugar concentration and this concentration exceeded the average normally measured for honey.  ”These new findings were unexpected based on previous knowledge and complete our understanding of honey making by bees” explains Peter Neumann from the Institute of Bee Health, who also took part to the study.

The new findings resulted in the most detailed insight into honey ripening available to date. Increased knowledge on the honey production by bees is of high importance to beekeepers, since it might lead to better management of colonies to improve the quality and quantity of honey harvests. In addition, by tracking the destiny of nectar brought back to the hive by the forager bees, such studies could contribute to a better understanding of hive contamination by pathogens and pesticides, two currently important fields of research in honeybee health.