Why are honey bees not all sticky?

Question

So maybe they're feet jet sticky?

Answer 1

You've already got two helpful answers from Paul and Judybee, but I thought I'd just give you a bit more detail. I'm a beekeeper, so this is a thing I'm very familiar with.

Your question is great. And it made me laugh, too -- it's normally the beekeeper that tends to get sticky, not the bees. =D

Once in a while when I'm checking on my bees, I find frames of honeycomb which have been stuck together by the bees. No matter how careful you are, when you pull them apart drops of honey fall onto some of the bees. They l**k themselves clean with the help of their sister workers. Very quickly, all the drips of honey have disappeared and will be packed away in the comb again. If I get any honey on my gloves (I use ordinary household washing-up gloves) the bees l**k that off, too. They are astonishingly clean creatures -- I love watching them clean themselves: everything, antennae, feet (and eyes too, when they come out of the hive ready to take flight.)

To add to what Paul and Judybees have told you about nectar... Depending on the flower, the nectar can be between 20% and 40% sugar (the remainder is mostly water). Although it's very runny, it's still very sweet and is pretty sticky if you let any spill. We're really careful if we have to pick up a frame of honeycomb filled with freshly collected nectar while we're looking at our bees...!

The bees carry nectar home in their "honey crop" -- not their digestive stomach but another internal organ.

Pollen is different. It is the bees' source of protein and is fed to baby bees (larvae). Buhjones is mistaken; pollen is *not* made into honey.

Pollen particles are dry and powdery. They brush off the flower onto the bee (bees are very fuzzy -- they even have hairs on their eyes!)

The bee uses her legs to brush the pollen off herself. Then she packs the particles into "pollen baskets" on her back legs. (These pollen baskets are a lattice of special hairs). She glues the pollen grains together with a little nectar to make them easier to transport.

One of the things I love to see in my hives is the multicoloured arch of pollen grains -- green, orange, grey, blue, red, yellow, white and brown -- that bees store on each frame of eggs or baby bees.

Well, I hope that helps answer your question.

Love from me and the bees. =)

Answer 2

Bees do not collect honey - they collect nector from flowers.  Nector is not very sticky - it is mostly water.  The bee sucks up the nector with its tongue and flys back to the hive where it puts the nector into the pre-formed wax cell in the honeycomb.  This would be like a human sipping a soda and then spitting it out - you really don't get sticky unless you happened to spit in the wind! The honeycomb is made of "bees wax" which is secreted from the glands of the younger bees still in the hive.  Even if a bee where to go into the wax cell, at that point the nector is not very sticky, but the bee would have to go out of its way to go into a cell, they walk on the cell walls, not in the cells.  After storage in the cell, the bees in the hive use their wings to fan the nector and create heat.  This causes the water to evaporate and the honey to form.  Once the honey is at the right consistancy the bees cap the cell with wax to store it.  At that point they can walk over the cell and not get sticky.  The process is the same as when humans make maple syrup - the tree sap is not very sticky, but the resulting maple syup is very sticky - so we put it in a jar - since we don't make honey combs!  When the bees need the honey later, they bite off the wax cap and suck the honey back up with their tongues, it only takes a few minutes for a few bees to empty the cells completely.

Answer 3

because when they collect the stuff out of plants, they dont collect honey they collect stuff that will make honey later, so they dont bathe in it. or maybe they have thin oily hairs covering there body and legs that do not ket stuff get stuck to them thats why pollen sticks to the hairs. :D

Answer 4

Basically your assuming they would be covered in honey. This is not the case. The bees process POLLEN and make it into honey. They walk on it but they don't sink cause they're too small.

Answer 5

Bees do not get sticky for the same reason you do not when you drink something sweet.  Unless you use your hands to eat.  They get pollen all over their feet and face but drink the nectar through a tongue like structure. Pollen is collected inadvertently on the hairs of the feet.  It would be no more sticky to bees than it would if you got pollen on your hands.  Next time you see a daisy rub your finger on the yellow center.  You will see the pollen stick to your finger, but your finger will not be sticky. Bees process the nectar in their crop to produce honey which is fed to the young.  Bees also feed the young pollen.

Answer 6

Because they are not stick insects

Answer 7

because they can't ***