Bumblebees are insects from the bee family, which, like their small brethren, are the most important pollinators. In the process of pollination, they collect nectar, which they convert to honey to feed their small family. The amount of honey collected by bumblebees is insignificant, nevertheless by its properties it is no worse than bee. This product will be discussed in the article.

Do bumblebees have honey?

Many are unlikely to believe that bumblebees are no less workable than bees, and they also make honey. For them, you can organize an apiary, similar to a bee, although the productivity of a bumblebee will be negligible.

Did you know? Bumblebees have better eyesight than bees, which allows them to work even in bad weather and at dusk.

Insect nectar collection

Bumblebees, like bees, have a strict hierarchy in the family: each individual is engaged in a specific business. They also have the main female responsible for the offspring, and most of the remaining females of the family are workers. They are the ones who go in search of nectar to bring it to the hive and process it for honey.

The life of the whole bumblebee family depends on how much they will work productively. On average, these toilers collect nectar from 30 flowers per minute. This indicator is quite high, since the bees in such a period of time manage to fly around twice as few flowers. In addition, bumblebees work longer than bees.

How much honey can bumblebees collect?

Although bumblebees work more efficiently than their smaller counterparts, their honey reserves are much poorer. This is explained by the fact that the bee family is large, so in order to feed it, you need to make large reserves. In addition, bees live more than one season and, having good supplies, they can calmly winter.

The bumblebee family consists of 400-500 individuals, and they live one season, so honey is stored only for feeding the younger generation. If you place bumblebees in a hive, then from one such structure you can get no more than 200 ml of a nutritious product.

Chemical and vitamin composition

The quality of a bumblebee product is significantly different from that of a bee, as shaggy insects can collect liquid nectar.

This affects its composition:

• carbohydrates;
• proteins;
• water;
• copper;
• zinc;
• potassium;
• iron;
• cobalt.

Calorie content of the product:

• 38.9 kcal - in 1 tsp;
• 97.2 kcal - in 1 tbsp. l .;
• 324 kcal - per 100 g;
• 1166 kcal - in 1 glass;
• 1231 kcal - in 380 g.

Important! The percentage of proteins and minerals in bumblebee honey is two times higher than in bee honey.

Useful and healing properties

• The nutritional product has a number of healing properties:
• helps with asthma and bronchitis;
• improves the digestive system;
• eliminates problems associated with the work of the liver, genitourinary system.

Where is bumblebee honey used?

With medicinal properties, bumblebee honey is used exclusively for medical purposes. In addition, it can be eaten as a regular treat for preventive purposes - to maintain immunity. Due to the fact that the hairy family is not specially stocked with honey, this product is not used anywhere else for medicinal purposes.

Contraindications and possible harm

• There are a number of contraindications for which it is not recommended to use the described product:
• allergies
• diabetes;
• individual intolerance.

How to get bumblebee honey

In the wild, insects arrange their nests in rodent burrows, in hollows or in grass. It is difficult, but possible, to obtain a useful product from such a shelter. First of all, you should put on a protective suit - this action must be performed even if the precious substance needs to be removed from the hive.

Did you know? Bumblebee fossil — a rare find, since this insect almost never gets into the resin, which hardens over time, turning into amber and holding a “captive”.

Next, you need to try to carefully get out the honeycomb. Then you should take a syringe and slowly collect fluid from the cells. When extracting the product from the hive, as in the case of the nest, you need to work with a syringe, but you do not need to remove the honeycomb.

Due to the fact that shaggy insects produce little nutritious product, it is not profitable to breed them like bees. Accordingly, few people know that bumblebees bring honey, which is no less useful than bee.