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What Are Honeycombs Made Of?
Honeycombs are made of beeswax, which is a substance produced by worker honeybees.
So what is beeswax, you ask?
Beeswax is a complex mixture of more than 300 compounds, including fatty acids, esters, alcohols, and other substances. Beeswax is essential to honeybee colonies. It’s used to store honey, pollen, and raise baby bees.(1)
And here’s the cool part:
Honeybees secrete beeswax from their abdomens.
This means that beeswax is not simply something that bees collect from nature to bring back to their hives. Instead, their body produces it.
Think of it this way:
Honeybees produce beeswax in the same way that humans produce earwax. It’s a bodily secretion.
And despite popular belief, honeycombs aren’t made of bee poop, pee, or vomit. The wax doesn’t come out of a honeybee’s mouth or rectum. Instead, it’s secreted from special wax glands on a honeybee’s abdomen.
But here’s the thing:
The job of producing beeswax is solely given to female worker honeybees. Neither the queen honeybee nor the male honeybees make beeswax.
That said, only worker bees that are between the ages of 12 and 18 days old produce beeswax. After they get older, their wax-secreting glands begin to atrophy, and that’s when they start taking on other roles such as foraging for pollen and nectar.
Most of the hive’s beeswax is made between April and August, which are the peak months for bees.
And here’s a fact that might surprise you:
The use of beeswax by humans dates back at least 9,000 years.(2)
These days, beeswax is commonly used in skincare products, candles, and furniture polish.
What Do Honeycombs Taste Like?
You can buy honey still inside the honeycomb.
As such, the honeycomb will taste sweet because it’s covered in honey. It has a chewy, sticky texture that makes the honey taste last longer.
And here’s the thing:
You can chew the honeycomb, swallow it, or spit it out. Once the honey flavor dissolves out of the honeycomb, the beeswax left behind is flavorless. It’s almost like gum after it’s been chewed.
The good news?
Honeycomb is perfectly safe to eat and digest.
What’s more, honeycomb tastes delicious paired with buttered toast or straight on its own. You can also pair it with other foods such as cheese and crackers.
Eating honey directly out of the honeycomb was how it was eaten for centuries. Honey consumption dates back to ancient Egyptian and Mayan civilizations.
Do All Bees Make Honeycombs?
No, not all species of bees make honeycomb. In fact, most species of bees don’t make honey or honeycomb.
Keep in mind:
There are over 20,000 different types of bees.
Common bee species include honeybees, sweat bees, carpenter bees, and bumblebees. Each of these species have unique nesting and living habits.
For example, over 90% of bee species are solitary creatures that live alone. They don’t live in colonies like bumblebees or honeybees.
As such, solitary bees don’t produce honey like social bees. This is because making honey is a big job that requires the help of many bees working together. Since solitary bees live alone, they don’t have the extra hands to produce honey.
But on the other hand?
Social bees live in large colonies with hundreds or even thousands of other bees.
For example, honeybee hives can have up to 60,000 honeybees in them. What’s more, a healthy honeybee colony can make up to 100 pounds of honey per year.
But this is only because they have plenty of bees working towards making honey and honeycomb.
FAQs on “What Are Honeycombs Made Of?”
- Are honeycombs made of beeswax?
- Are honeycombs made of honey?
- Is there bee poop in honeycomb?
- Is there bee pee in honeycomb?
- Why is honeycomb yellow?
- How long does it take for bees to make honeycomb?
- Is it safe to eat honeycomb?
- Is honeycomb bee vomit?
- Do bumblebees make honeycomb?
- Do carpenter bees make honeycomb?
- Do mason bees make honeycomb?
- How much honeycomb can I eat?
- Can you be allergic to honeycomb?
- Can you have a food sensitivity to honeycomb?
- Why do bees make honeycomb?
Are honeycombs made of beeswax?
People often ask, “What are honeycombs made out of?”
The answer is that honeycombs are made of beeswax. Beeswax is a substance that’s secreted out of the abdomen of honeybees. Female worker honeybees have eight wax-secreting glands.
Beeswax comprises over 300 compounds, including fatty acids, esters, alcohols, and hydrocarbons. It’s typically light yellow in color but can range from white to dark brown.
Bees use beeswax to build the hexagonal cells of the honeycomb. Each cell is used to store honey, pollen, or eggs.
Beeswax is edible and has a subtle honey flavor. It’s often used in cosmetics, skincare products, candles, and furniture polish.
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Are honeycombs made of honey?
Honeycombs are made of a waxy substance called beeswax. That said, honeybees do have to eat honey to produce beeswax.
Worker honeybees secrete beeswax from special glands located on their abdomen. The glands make small flakes of wax called “wax scales.”
The honeybees combine together such wax scales to form hexagons. Next, bees use their mandibles (jaws) to chew and shape up each piece of wax. The wax starts as small balls and then is formed into hexagonal shapes by the bees.
Honeybees use hexagonal shapes over circular, square, or triangular shapes because they’re more efficient and don’t leave gaps between them – like circular shapes would.
Additionally, hexagon shapes are a perfect size – not too big or small.
Honeybees must eat large amounts of food to stimulate their wax glands. Honey is metabolized in fat cells to make wax.
Also, bees need warm temperatures to mold and shape beeswax. This is why they’re the most active during the spring and summer months. If the outside temperatures are too cold, the wax hardens, and molding the honeycomb is challenging.
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Is there bee poop in honeycomb?
No, there isn’t bee poop in honeycomb. This is a common misconception.
Bees poop as often as they need to, but they don’t do it inside their hive. Bees are clean creatures that like to keep their hives tidy. As such, bees fly outside of their hives to relieve themselves of waste.
For example, bees poop while they’re out buzzing around or foraging on flowers. They don’t poop in their honeycomb because that would contaminate their precious honey. Honey is their food storage for the winter months when flowers are scarce.
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Is there bee pee in honeycomb?
No. You might be surprised to learn that bees don’t pee like humans do.
Bees excrete uric acid and ammonia from their Malpighian tubules (bee version of kidneys). It doesn’t look like pee. Instead, it looks dry and can vary in color from yellow to white.
Bees also void water, which is different from peeing. If a bee takes in excess water, it’ll remove it from its body which can look like peeing. However, it’s not urine, so it’s not peeing. It’s simply water that they excrete from their bodies.
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Why is honeycomb yellow?
Honeycomb is yellow because bees eat yellow pollen.
Pollen is a powdery substance produced by the male reproductive organs of flowering plants. It’s rich in protein and essential nutrients.
Bees collect pollen on their legs and body while they’re out foraging. They then transfer it to their hive, where they use it for food.
Small bits of pollen get mixed in with beeswax, which gives the honeycomb its yellow color.
Honeycomb is made of beeswax, which is a substance that’s secreted by bees. Beeswax comprises over 300 different compounds, including fatty acids, esters, alcohols, and hydrocarbons.
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How long does it take for bees to make honeycomb?
It varies. A new package of bees will start working towards building honeycomb immediately.
It typically takes bees between 1 to 8 weeks to build a decent honeycomb and fill them with honey. This also depends on the size of the beehive because some hives are bigger and stronger than others.
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Is it safe to eat honeycomb?
Yes, honeycomb is perfectly edible to eat. It’s usually covered in honey so it has a honey flavor. For example, buckwheat honeycomb will have a slightly earthy taste to it. That’s because buckwheat honey itself has an earthy taste to it.
Many people enjoy honeycomb because it has a chewy texture. It’s also a great way to eat honey since you’re getting the comb (made of beeswax). You can put a slice of honeycomb on a piece of buttered toast or enjoy it straight on its own.
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Is honeycomb bee vomit?
No, honeycomb is not bee vomit.
Bees make honey and honeycomb by consuming nectar from flowers. Nectar is a sugary substance that plants produce.
Bees suck up the nectar and store it in their crop (a sac-like organ inside their bodies).
The nectar is then mixed with enzymes from the bee’s saliva, which breaks it down into simple sugars.
The bees then regurgitate the nectar into honeycomb cells. The bees fan their wings to help evaporate some of the water from the nectar, which turns it into honey.
Honeycomb is not bee vomit because the nectar is not digested, nor does it go inside their stomach. It gets regurgitated from their honey crop into the honeycomb.
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Do bumblebees make honeycomb?
No, bumblebees don’t make honeycomb like honeybees do. However, bumblebees make waxy nectar pots instead. Nectar pots are small, round balls of wax that bumblebees make to store honey. They do not have a hexagonal shape like honeycomb.
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Do carpenter bees make honeycomb?
No, carpenter bees don’t make honeycomb. However, they will use existing wood cavities to build their nests. Carpenter bees are solitary bees, which means they don’t live in colonies like honeybees and bumblebees.
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Do mason bees make honeycomb?
No, mason bees don’t make honeycomb either. Like carpenter bees, they will use existing cavities to build their nests. Mason bees are also solitary bees.
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How much honeycomb can I eat?
Most people can eat honeycomb as they please because honeycomb is generally considered safe to eat.
However, children under 12 months old should not eat honeycomb because their immune system is still developing, and they can’t fight off certain types of bacteria that may be present in honey. This bacteria can lead to infant botulism, a serious and potentially fatal disease.
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Can you be allergic to honeycomb?
You can be allergic to honey which is found in honeycomb. That said, people who are allergic to honey are most likely allergic to the small amounts of pollen found in honey, not the honey itself.
Additionally, just because you’re allergic to bee stings doesn’t mean you’ll be allergic to honey. People who are allergic to bee stings are actually allergic to the venom – not the honey.
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Can you have a food sensitivity to honeycomb?
People can have food sensitivities to honey itself, but we haven’t read any reports of people having food sensitivity to honeycomb.
A food sensitivity is different from an allergy. Food sensitivities don’t involve the immune system, but an allergy does.
People with food sensitivities may experience digestive issues like bloating, gas, and diarrhea after eating honey. Even a small amount of the offending food can trigger such digestive issues.
On the other hand, food allergies can cause life-threatening issues, such as trouble breathing or hives, whereas food sensitivities may just cause temporary pain.
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Why do bees make honeycomb?
Bees make honeycomb because it’s an efficient way to store honey. The hexagonal shape of each cell also makes the comb very strong, so it can support the weight of the honey without collapsing.
Honeycomb is also used as a place for bees to rear their young. The cells of the comb are the perfect size for a bee larva.
Additionally, bees often find a private comb cell to sleep in when they need rest.
