# Honey from Hornets? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 4, 2000, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817 "2000-04-04T23:33:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![DougC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7feea3/32.png) [@DougC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DougC)\ **Post date:** [April 4, 2000, 11:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/1 "2000-04-04T23:33:00Z")
- - - Just saw Martha Stewart talkin’ beekeeping on TV. I used to find hornet nests when I was a kid, but I never saw anything that looked like honey in them. I would guess that honeybees are kept for producing honey, because they make the most of it, but do other similar insects such as Hornets or Yellowjackets make honey at all? (And no, those fatt-butt ants don’t count) - MC ---
**Author:** ![Ursa\_Major](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/a88e57/32.png) [@Ursa\_Major](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ursa_Major)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 12:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/2 "2000-04-05T00:13:00Z")
(I don’t know anything about bees or hornets, but that isn’t going to stop me from guessing.) Isn’t honey excreted as a byproduct of the bees’ consumption of pollen? Hornets, on the other hand have an entirely different (carnivorous) diet. In other words: Bee (pollen) shit = honey. Hornet (bugs and stuff) shit = well, shit. ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/3 "2000-04-05T01:47:00Z")
Honey ain’t bee shit. It’s bee barf. * * * This is getting hard. Somebody relieve me. (A Wallian exclamation) ---
**Author:** ![Rysdad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7cd45c/32.png) [@Rysdad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rysdad)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/4 "2000-04-05T01:50:00Z")
And— Bees drink nectar. They store it in their bodies and bring it back to the hive where they store it in honeycombs. Other bees “fan” the hive, sorta, and help to evaporate the water from the honey, thereby concentrating it. What wasps and hornets do, besides piss me off when they build their nests under the eaves of my house, I don’t know. * * * This is getting hard. Somebody relieve me. (A Wallian exclamation) ---
**Author:** ![tomndebb](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/b9e5f3/32.png) [@tomndebb](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tomndebb)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 2:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/5 "2000-04-05T02:10:00Z")
While there are hornets that eat meat, I believe that most are omnivorous, not carnivorous. Hornets and wasps do feed at flowers and are decent pollinators. (When a hornet goes after your soft drink, it is looking for sweet nectar, not juicy humanburger.) * * * Tom~ ---
**Author:** ![ignatiusjreilly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/2acd7d/32.png) [@ignatiusjreilly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ignatiusjreilly)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/6 "2000-04-05T15:02:00Z")
Bees drink nectar and then take it back to the hive to make honey. Nectar is a liquid sugar, pollen is like dust. As the bee dives into the flower to get the nectar, it gets dusted with pollen which is then dropped off at the next flower when the bee stops for more nectar. I think that the only purpose of nectar is to attract animals (bees, hummingbirds, butterflies) that will assist in spreading the pollen around, but I could be wrong. Anyway, bees swallow the nectar, process it, and then regurgitate honey for the developing bee larvae to eat. So they’re herbivores. Wasps on the other hand, are scavengers and dine on dead things like rotten meat and (dead) other bugs. They too regurgitate to the developing hatchlings in their own nest, but I don’t think it’s anything as complex as honey and I don’t think that they can store it or keep it in the same way that bees keep honey. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/7 "2000-04-05T15:34:00Z")
Just out of idle, and lazy, curiosity: what species is older? Is honey more recently on the evolutionary scale than whatever it is the hornets or wasps do? - Rick ---
**Author:** ![Arnold\_Winkelried](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Arnold\_Winkelried](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Arnold_Winkelried)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/8 "2000-04-05T18:28:00Z")
You can get honey from bumblebees, but it’s not very efficient. [Do you get honey from a bumblebee nest, and if so how much?](http://www.mearns.org.uk/mrssmith/bees/faq.htm#honey) ---
**Author:** ![mipsman](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e99b99/32.png) [@mipsman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mipsman)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 7:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/9 "2000-04-05T19:16:00Z")
Is honey more properly characterized as bee spit or bee barf? ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/10 "2000-04-05T21:59:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Is honey more properly characterized as bee spit or bee barf? Neither, actually. Bees have a stomach that they use for consuming and processing food and they have a second ‘stomach’ which is really just a nectar storage tank. The honey stomach does start infusing the nectar with enzymes to start the conversion to honey, but other than that, it’s just a convenient way to transport a lot of nectar. ---
**Author:** ![Danielinthewolvesden](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ce7236/32.png) [@Danielinthewolvesden](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Danielinthewolvesden)\ **Post date:** [April 5, 2000, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/11 "2000-04-05T22:06:00Z")
Hornets & Yellowjackets just look like bees, they are more closely related to the wasps. So, no honey. ---
**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/12 "2000-04-06T02:49:00Z")
What is the difference between hornets and wasps? Semantics? ---
**Author:** ![Jophiel](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jophiel/32/66_2.png) [@Jophiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jophiel)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 3:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/13 "2000-04-06T03:44:00Z")
Wasps have an extended area (“waist”) between their thorax and abdomen. Hornets and their allies lack the waist and look more beelike (generally minus the hair though). * * * “I guess one person can make a difference, although most of the time they probably shouldn’t.” ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 5:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/14 "2000-04-06T05:11:00Z")
This seems like the perfect place to introduce my new sig. * * * Leslie Irish Evans [Taste the Honey](http://www.mp3.com/honeyspots) ---
**Author:** ![JoeyBlades](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/a87d85/32.png) [@JoeyBlades](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JoeyBlades)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/15 "2000-04-06T12:51:00Z")
^^^^^ Shameless promotion… tsk, tsk… ^^^^^ ---
**Author:** ![Girl\_Next\_Door](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/977dab/32.png) [@Girl\_Next\_Door](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Girl_Next_Door)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2000, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/honey-from-hornets/9817/16 "2000-04-06T14:45:00Z")
> [@](#): > > Originally posted by JoeyBlades: > **^^^^^ Shameless promotion… tsk, tsk… ^^^^^** You’re right. That wasn’t cool. I pulled it. * * * Leslie Irish Evans [Leslie Irish Evans’ Home Page](http://leslie.scrappy.net)