Bees collect nectar from flowers and make honey from that.
The honey is what they eat, along with pollen which is fed to brood, the baby bees.
Bees need to store enough honey to be able to feed themselves during the honey collecting season as well as over the winter months when the colony can’t go out and collect food.
Often, bees can produce more honey then they will be able to consume by themselves.
Wise beekeepers know how much honey the colony will need to survive and make sure they leave enough honey for the bees, since honey is their main food source.
They only remove the excess honey from a hive, and do it without disturbing the brood combs.
Also the most beekeepers harvest in the middle of the summer so that the bees will have enough time to build their honey stores back up.
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There are 2 reasons why it is good thing to collect honey from the hive:
1-When the hive is fill up, the bees can decide that their actual place is too small and then they will leave the hive in search of a bigger new home.
2-The second option is when bees won’t leave the hive but will begin storing honey in the comb that they usually use for raising the baby bees in.
Then the colony won’t be able to raise new baby bees and will become very weak and can collapse as the existing bees grow old and die.
So what do bees eat if we take their honey? The bees will continue to use any left over honey to raise more brood and add to their stores.
Because bees have the capacity to produce much more honey than they are able to use in an average year.
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