Plum Tree Cottage Bakery

08/24/2026

Fresh Local Honey for Sale
1/2 pints $12.

07/26/2026

Honey Bees are so interesting.

07/26/2026

How Does a Drop of Nectar Become Honey?

A single drop of nectar goes through several amazing biological steps before it becomes the honey we eat.

🌸 1. Nectar Collection

A forager honey bee visits flowers and sucks nectar using its long tongue (proboscis).

The nectar is stored in a special organ called the honey stomach (crop), not the bee's digestive stomach.

A single bee can carry about 40–70 mg of nectar in one trip.

🧪 2. Enzyme Processing

While inside the honey stomach, the bee mixes the nectar with enzymes.

Invertase breaks sucrose into glucose and fructose, making the nectar easier to preserve.

Glucose oxidase produces small amounts of hydrogen peroxide, helping protect honey from harmful microbes.

🐝 3. Bee-to-Bee Transfer

Back at the hive, the forager passes the nectar to a house bee through mouth-to-mouth transfer (trophallaxis).

This process may happen several times, allowing more enzymes to be added and further processing the nectar.

🍯 4. Storage in Honeycomb Cells

The processed nectar is placed into a wax honeycomb cell.

At this stage, it still contains a high amount of water.

💨 5. Water Evaporation

Fresh nectar contains about 60–80% water.

Worker bees fan their wings rapidly to create airflow inside the hive.

This evaporates excess moisture, gradually thickening the nectar.

📉 6. Honey Ripening

When the water content drops to about 17–18%, the nectar has officially become ripe honey.

The low moisture level prevents the growth of bacteria and yeast, allowing honey to remain naturally preserved.

🟡 7. Sealing the Honey

Once the honey is fully ripened, worker bees seal the honeycomb cell with a thin layer of beeswax.

The honey is now safely stored and can remain edible for years.

📌 Amazing Fact

To produce 1 kilogram (2.2 lb) of honey, honey bees collectively:

Visit approximately 4–5 million flowers.

Fly about 80,000–100,000 km (50,000–62,000 miles).

Work together as thousands of bees to complete the process.

🍯 Summary

Flower → Nectar Collection → Enzyme Mixing → Bee-to-Bee Transfer → Honeycomb Storage → Water Evaporation → Honey Ripening → Wax Sealing → Pure Honey

07/26/2026

How Do the Sun's UV Rays Help Honey Bees Navigate?

Honey bees can see ultraviolet (UV) light, a part of the sunlight spectrum that is invisible to humans. This unique ability helps them find flowers, navigate accurately, and return safely to their hive.

1. Bees Can See UV Light

Unlike humans, honey bees have specialized photoreceptors in their compound eyes that detect ultraviolet light. Their vision includes:

Ultraviolet (UV)

Blue

Green

This allows them to perceive details that humans cannot see.

2. Flowers Have Hidden UV Patterns

Many flowers display UV nectar guides—special patterns visible only under ultraviolet light.

These patterns:

Lead bees directly to nectar and pollen.

Reduce the time spent searching for food.

Improve foraging efficiency.

3. The Sun Acts as a Natural Compass

Honey bees use the Sun's position and the pattern of polarized UV light in the sky to determine direction.

Even on cloudy days, they can detect polarized light, allowing them to estimate the Sun's location and navigate accurately.

4. Waggle Dance Navigation

When a forager bee returns to the hive, it performs the waggle dance.

The angle of the dance is based on the Sun's position, helping other worker bees fly in the correct direction to the food source.

5. Better Pollination

UV vision helps bees:

Find flowers faster.

Save energy during foraging.

Pollinate more plants.

Increase the overall efficiency of the colony.

Amazing Fact

🐝 If honey bees could not see ultraviolet light, they would spend more time searching for flowers, use more energy, and pollination would become much less efficient.

07/26/2026

Honey Stomach (Crop) – The Bee's Nectar Storage Tank

A honey stomach, also called the crop or honey sac, is a special organ inside a honey bee that temporarily stores nectar collected from flowers. It is not the same as the bee's digestive stomach.

🌼 What Does the Honey Stomach Do?

When a worker bee visits flowers, it sucks up nectar with its long tongue (proboscis) and stores it in the honey stomach. This allows the bee to carry nectar back to the hive without digesting it.

🍯 How It Works

The bee collects nectar from flowers.

The nectar is stored in the honey stomach.

While inside the honey stomach, enzymes such as invertase begin breaking down complex sugars (sucrose) into simpler sugars (glucose and fructose).

Back at the hive, the bee regurgitates the nectar to house bees.

House bees continue processing the nectar and evaporate excess water until it becomes honey.

📏 How Much Nectar Can It Hold?

A worker bee's honey stomach can hold about 40–70 mg of nectar, nearly equal to its own body weight when full.

A full load allows the bee to make an efficient trip between flowers and the hive.

🧬 Honey Stomach vs. Digestive Stomach

Honey Stomach (Crop): Stores and transports nectar.

Digestive Stomach (Midgut): Digests food to provide energy for the bee.

A special valve controls whether nectar stays in the honey stomach or moves into the digestive system if the bee needs energy during flight.

🌍 Why Is It Important?

Efficiently transports nectar to the hive.

Starts the honey-making process.

Helps the colony produce and store food.

Supports pollination by enabling bees to visit many flowers in one trip.

07/14/2026

Thank King Arthur Denver, great time at your pop-up stores Sunday showcase of
Denver Cottage Bakers.

06/30/2026

06/30/2026

Bees, have you ever tried to follow a honey bee?

06/27/2026

Bottling honey, I have raw honey available.