Honey isn’t just a human superfood – it’s also a superfood for insects. It fuels the entire life of the hive. The honey that bees produce powers their often-breakneck pace of work as they buzz along, caring for their young and harvesting pollen.
Contrary to popular belief, it isn’t just sugar by any means – although it does contain plenty of that. To truly understand the power of honey, we’ve got to dive deeper into its various nutritional compounds. Here, we’ll explore the ins and outs of honey, its functions in the colony, and what properties qualify it as a true insect “superfood.”
How Do Bees Produce Honey?
Bees are foraging insects, meaning they venture out into the wild in search of the raw materials they need to survive. Worker bees (the primary type of bee in a colony) collect nectar from flowers, which they store in special stomach pouches until they return to the colony.
There, the bees pass the nectar to one another, each taking a turn to chew on it. After the moisture content is reduced from 70% to 20%, you have honey, which is then stored in the colony for future use.
You might call it nature’s culinary art.
The Chemical and Nutritional Composition of Honey
Let’s take a look into the honeycomb to uncover all the nutritional aspects of honey.
Macronutrient Composition
In terms of the macronutrient content, honey is almost all carbs in the form of sugar. It contains a tiny amount of protein (0.1 to 0.5 percent of total content) and no fat.
In one ounce, you’ll find 84.8 calories from carbs and 0.3 calories from protein.
Sugars (The Bees’ Main Fuel Source)
The sugars in honey, as detailed in the chart in the following section, are virtually split between fructose (38.19%) and glucose (31.28%).
It is the natural gasoline that powers the beehive engine. Bees collect nectar from plants while foraging and transport it back to the hive to be synthesized into honey:
“The principal natural carbohydrate source of honey bees is nectar, which is collected from flowers, transported to the hive and converted to honey for storage. This conversion involves… adding glandular secretions that contain microorganisms and enzymes, including amylases, glucose oxidases and invertases. These increase acidity and convert the sucrose in nectar into glucose and fructose..”
In the colony, it serves the following purposes:
- Worker bees consume it to power their often-lengthy flights out of the colony
- Thermoregulation of the colony (keeping things toasty inside)
- Feeding developing young inside the brood nest
Adult worker bees, in particular, depend on it to get through the day because they have fewer lipid (fat) stores in their midsection coupled with higher metabolisms. Without adequate amounts of fuel, they can’t function properly.
*A note on high fructose corn syrup: Beginning in the 1970s/1980s, some beekeepers began adding high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) to the hive to supplement low honey levels. While this practice may produce some benefits in absence of nourishing honey, it can also pose an existential threat to the colony – many experts believe it contributes to Colony Collapse Disorder. For this reason, we recommend only using HFCS as a last resort substitute.
Other Compounds
Looking at a more in-depth profile, here’s how it breaks down percentage-wise:
Amino Acids
Honey contains small amounts of several amino acids (proteins), such as:
- Proline (the most abundant)
- Phenylalanine
- Lysine
- Tyrosine
- Glutamic acid
- Arginine
- Histidine
The amino acid content, while minimal, performs the critical work of powering the bees’ muscular development and contributing to a healthy weight. In one study of the effects of amino acid supplementation on honey bee health, researchers found:
“Caged bees fed EAA developed significantly greater head weights than controls, weights that were similar to nurse bees. Caged bees fed EAA developed significantly greater thorax weights than controls, weights that were similar to foragers. Higher head and thorax weights may respectively reflect increased glandular development in nurse bees and higher flight muscle mass in forager bees.”
Raw Honey Antioxidants
The term “antioxidants” refers to any compound that prevents or slows the oxidation of biologically relevant molecules. They have important health implications for humans as well as for bees.
Raw honey contains an array of antioxidants, including:
- Tocopherols
- Flavonoids
- Glutathione
- Phenolic acids
- Ascorbic acid (vitamin C)
Honey owes its antioxidant content to the flowers it is a byproduct of. Darker-colored honey has larger antioxidant contents than lighter-hued types.
Do Baby Bees Eat Honey?
Bees reproduce by growing larvae in brood cells in the hive.
Most of the growing bees in the brood cells consume honey throughout the majority of their development, but there is one glaring exception: the queen.
Larvae that have been selected to become future queens are fed a special concoction called royal jelly – a cloudy white secretion produced by young female workers.
Royal jelly slightly differs from honey in its nutritional content:
- 2/3 water
- 1/8 proteins (higher than honey)
- 11% sugar
- Vitamin C
- Assorted trace minerals and enzymes
Fascinatingly, new research has demonstrated that the royal jelly actually manages the genetic expression of the future queen, which results in her domineering larger size, her larger organ size, and her sexual development/fertility as the only member of the colony capable of reproducing.
So, what that means is whether young developing larvae are fed either royal jelly or primarily honey has an enormous impact on their development and, ultimately, their role in the colony (worker, drone, or queen).
In addition to honey, nutritious royal jelly is another highly-valued beehive-derived commodity that accounts for tens of millions of dollars in economic exchange annually.
Contact Dadant & Sons, Your Local Honey and Beekeeping Experts
Dadant & Sons is your local expert family on all things beekeeping, with combined decades of intergenerational experience caring for bees. Don’t hesitate to contact us with any and all questions regarding the craft of beekeeping – that’s what we’re here for.