Adding Enzymes

Passing the Sweet Catch

Forager bees fly home from the flowers. They carry fresh nectar. The nectar sits in their honey stomach.

They meet receiver bees inside the dark hive. They pass the sweet liquid over. Scientists call this passing trophallaxis.

The receiver bee drinks the sweet drop. The drop goes into her own honey stomach. The nectar is still just flower water.

It is not honey yet. The bees must change it. They have a very special trick.

Mixing in the Enzymes

The receiver bee brings the nectar back up. She moves the drop into her mouth. She rolls the drop around and around.

She mixes the drop with her spit. Bee spit is very special. It holds tiny invisible helpers.

Scientists call these helpers enzymes 1. Enzymes are special proteins. They change how other things work.

You have enzymes in your spit too! They help you digest your lunch. Bees use them to make their food.

How Enzymes Work

Think about a very long piece of string. You want to store it in a tiny box. The string is too long to fit.

You need to cut the string. You grab a pair of sharp scissors. You snip the string into small pieces.

Now the short pieces fit perfectly. Enzymes act just like those tiny scissors. Nectar has very big sugar parts.

The big parts are hard for bees to use. The enzymes cut the big sugars apart. They make many small sugars instead.

Why Cut the Sugar?

Why do bees need small sugars? Big sugars can grow mold. Mold makes the food go bad.

The bees need food for the long winter. They cannot let their food spoil. Small sugars are much safer.

They stop bad germs from growing. The enzymes protect the winter food. This is a very smart trick.

The bees work hard to stay safe. They protect their whole family.

The Science of Digestion

We call this cutting process digestion. It is a type of chemical reaction.

In plain terms: Scientists study how bodies break down food. They look at chemical reactions. They see how enzymes do the hard work.

Bees use these exact same steps. They digest the flower nectar. They change its chemical shape.

This makes the food safe for the whole hive.

A Busy Chewing Team

One bee cannot finish the job alone. She needs help from her sisters. She passes the drop to another worker bee.

The next bee chews the drop too. She opens and closes her mouth. She blows bubbles with the nectar.

This mixes the enzymes in perfectly. She adds more of her own enzymes. The bees pass the drop again and again.

Many bees work on one single drop. They chew it for about half an hour. The enzymes keep snipping the big sugars.

The drop changes color slowly. It feels thicker and heavier now.

From Nectar to Honey

The big sugars are finally all gone. Only small sugars remain in the drop. The drop is much sweeter now.

It will not spoil or go bad. The enzymes did their job very well. The bee spit changed the flower water.

It is almost real honey now! But it is still a little too wet. The bees must do one more thing.

They must put it away safely.

Trait	Flower Nectar	Bee Honey
Sugar Size	Very big sugars	Very small sugars
Enzymes	No bee enzymes	Full of bee enzymes
Spoilage	Can go bad quickly	Lasts for a long time
Taste	Light and sweet	Very rich and sweet

Looking Ahead

The bees carry the sweet drops away. They walk over the wax walls. They look for empty spots to use.

Soon they will put the drops inside. We call these spots honeycomb cells. We will learn about their shape next.

The bees will fill the cells up. Then they will dry the honey out. The enzymes will stay inside the honey forever.

They keep the honey safe and sweet.

Key Terms

• enzyme 1 — A special protein in bee spit that acts like tiny scissors to cut big sugars into small sugars.
• digestion 2 — The process of breaking down food into smaller parts so the body can use it.
• chemical reaction 2 — When parts of a substance change into a completely new shape or form.