Do bumble bees make honey?

[jakesteele]

Everyone knows about honey bees and their honey sold in stores. Everyone sees the pollen sacs around their legs that are like little saddle bags and assumes that that’s part of the honey process. I have also seen the same sacks around bumble bees legs but never really thought about it. Do bumble bees make honey and where can I get some?

[Fantome]

The answer can be found with a quick and simple Google search.

Bumble bees do not produce enough honey for commercial use, just a few grams at a time to feed their young

http://hercules.users.netlink.co.uk/Bee.html

Do you get honey from a bumblebee nest, and if so how much?
In the UK the biggest nests are built by Bombus terrestris and according to Sladen in his book even the biggest nests never contain more than a few ounces. In one B. lapidarius nest that he reared in a nest box he took over four ounces of honey and the nest still survived. So yes, in theory we can get honey from bumblebees as it is made by the same method as hive bee honey, but the quantity is so small that it would never be commercially viable to do so. Also, I believes, that it is thinner and more watery the honey bee honey, so ferments more easily. One average sized bumblebee making about ten foraging flights a day would bring back enough nectar to make about 3 ml of honey. But to recover the honey you would have to break into the nest, destroy the honey pot during extraction and probably destroy eggs and young in the process. Bumblebees nests are not neat organised affairs like honey bees nests, they are rather untidy and disorganised.

Frequently asked questions about bumblebee nests

[MOIDALIZE]

Do earwigs make chutney? Do spiders make gravy?

[Smeghead]

@MOIDALIZE

Do spiders make gravy?

Yes, but you have to cook down a LOT of them, and it’s not very good.

[Arkcon]

@jakesteele

Everyone knows about honey bees and their honey sold in stores. Everyone sees the pollen sacs around their legs that are like little saddle bags and assumes that that’s part of the honey process. I have also seen the same sacks around bumble bees legs but never really thought about it. Do bumble bees make honey and where can I get some?

One more thing. They store nectar collected from flowers in their stomach (well, a crop actually, called a honey stomach.) Those baskets you see store pollen, which is also eaten.

[Chefguy]

@Smeghead

Yes, but you have to cook down a LOT of them, and it’s not very good.

That would be called “stock”, not gravy. Stick to things smeggy, okay?

[AskNott]

@Chefguy

That would be called “stock”, not gravy. Stick to things smeggy, okay?

I see your point, Chefguy, but I wonder if we need another opinion. Gravy, of course, needs the animal’s fat. I don’t know if arachnids have fat or not. There’s a grey area between stock and broth, though, and the difference is said to be something cooked out of the bones. Does an exoskeleton yield stock? I’m asking for information’s sake, not as a challenge. You’re a chef. I am but a cook.

[Chefguy]

@AskNott

I see your point, Chefguy, but I wonder if we need another opinion. Gravy, of course, needs the animal’s fat. I don’t know if arachnids have fat or not. There’s a grey area between stock and broth, though, and the difference is said to be something cooked out of the bones. Does an exoskeleton yield stock? I’m asking for information’s sake, not as a challenge. You’re a chef. I am but a cook.

I’m a cook too, but I play a chef in my home version of the game. As for the “grey area”, when it comes to spider stock I’d rather not think about it.