Why Bees Produce A Lot Honey Than Their Needs

[kasm 0]

Here is another question is puzzling me:

 

Why bees produce a lot of honey many many times as their needs?

[baphometslayer 0]

The type of Bees that produce the most abundance of honey are European honey bees, genus Apis Mellifera. They produce the excess honey to store during the winter season when flowers do not tend to bloom. The European honey bees produce such a large excess of honey that they are used around the world by humans to harvest honey.The reason they probably produce so much is because Honey bees are social insects, and the various types of bees have their defined function that they perform for the Hive. The bees basically live to do nothing other than support the Hive.These include the Queen, drones, and workers. We all know what the queen does, but the purpose of the drones is solely for mating with the queen. If the Hive is short on food, the drones are the first be kicked out!The workers are all females which are sexually undeveloped. They are also the smallest type. A colony of bees generally has 50,000-60,000 workers bees. The function of the worker bees is to feed the queen and larvae, guard the entrance of the hive, collect nectar for producing honey, keeping the Hive cool by fanning their wings, and producing the wax comb which is the basic structure of the Hive. The Wax comb is 2/1000 inch thick, but can support 25 times it's own weight.With that many worker bees working around the clock, you're bound to have a load of honey. I hope that I answered your question.

[tracdoor 0]

Just a guess but, would it have something to do with them getting used to humans stealing all their honey, so they make more than they need.

[serverph 0]

it's like asking why the RICHEST men (and women) in the world continue to make more money than they are able to spend in a dozen of lifetimes.

 

but seriously, it could just be the way they are programmed (by God and/or evolution). the notion of storing surplus quantity of food for the lean season is inscribed as part of the survival instincts of a species. and bees are such fragile creatures to effectively survive a dire shortage of readily available source of food supply. surplus is good, and if they have a market economy in their society, prices will be so low that riots will not happen that food can be provided for everyone even for free.

 

besides their societal structure dictates what they need to do. and for worker bees, that is to find food and store it for future use. if they see the storage combs are not yet full, then supply is needed. if storage combs are full, then they create more. then rummage for nectar again for more supply. moreso when human intervention is evident, when beekeepers harvest their honey. of course there is nature too, like bears in the wild who covet their honey as much as humans do.

 

but humans have engineered bees to produce more honey too, so in addition to their natural programming, humans are "at fault" too.

 

greed however is something which i can't attach to their behavior of producing more honey than they need (unlike humans and their money).

[saadatabubakr 0]

Because bes know that humans eat honey...so they make some of it for us also..

[Eureka 0]

Search wikipedia, but the reason is their minds function as a machine, they only do what there supposed to by following a trail or pharamone that leads to pollen which they get and make beeswax which later through many tests, washes and a hardy handshake turns into honey. they keep repeating their 2 step process until dead. its quite stupid if you think about it.

[kagerioshu 0]

I want to make friends with bees. To get honey. Maybe have them deliver it to my door.But lord knows that's impossible. I'm allergic to wasp stings, and those brothers like to hang out with the posse and stir up some real trouble. A bee relationship could never work out with me. :PI love honey, though. I think they make more so I can enjoy it myself. Makes sense. It's a wonderful attribute to this zany process called life!

[kleong 0]

Producing honey is the "default" responsibilities of bees. As such, they will just produce and produce. To them, there is no such things as inventory. But it is a nice thoughts that they are catering to humans need and stealing.

[getube 0]

The bees can not stop collecting honey... i think bees are best example of 'workaholic' personality. that is why there is a catagory called 'workers' in bees.

 

The workers dont know for what they are working for.