A colony of honey bees is like a small factory. These insects are at work everyday to produce a product that may be familiar to you. This sweet, thick product is called honey. What most people dont know is the story behind it all. There is more to the honey making process than what meets the tounge. There are three main steps to the process. The first is gathering the nectar, second is enzymes, and third is evaporation.
Honey bees use nectar to make honey. Nectar comes from many of the flowers you see outside. It is made up of eighty percent water with some complex sugars. Most flower nectars are similar to sugar water and made up of a mixture between sucrose and water. In North America honey bees will collect nectar from com
The process of making honey is not as simple as it may have seemed. There are very important steps involved before there is a finished product. The bees travel long distances to gather the nectar, the enzymes in their stomachs break down the sugars, and evaporation takes out the water. Once the process is completed you are left with something you may find quite tasty.
Enzymes in a bees stomach and mouth are an important to honey bees. The enzymes convert the complex surcoses stored in the stomach into two simple six-carbon sugars, glucose and fructose. A small amount of the glucose is attacked by a second enzyme, glucose oxidase, and converted into gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. The gluconic acid makes honey an acid medium with with a low p.H. that
Example Essays Home
