Honey bee frequently asked questions

A colony contains one queen in normal circumstances, thousands of female workers, and seasonally hundreds or thousands of male drones. Each caste has a different body form and role.

Honey bees undergo complete metamorphosis through four stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The larval stage is open brood; the pupal stage develops beneath a wax capping.

About three days. A healthy queen normally places one rice-grain-sized egg in each brood cell.

A European honey bee worker typically emerges about 21 days after the egg is laid.

A European honey bee queen develops fastest, emerging roughly 15–16 days after the egg is laid.

A drone takes about 24 days from egg to adult emergence—the longest development period of the three castes.

UF/IFAS gives a range of about six weeks to six months. Busy summer workers often live only several weeks, while workers produced for less active periods can live much longer.

Queens commonly live two to three years, although a queen can live longer. Her egg-laying productivity usually declines before her maximum biological lifespan.

Fertilized eggs develop into females—workers or queens. Unfertilized eggs develop into male drones, so a drone has a mother but no father.

Nutrition is the key difference. Future queens are raised in special queen cells and receive royal jelly throughout larval development; worker larvae switch to other brood food after their first days.

Brood is the collective term for developing eggs, larvae, and pupae. Open brood includes eggs and uncapped larvae; capped brood contains developing prepupae and pupae.

No. Workers and queens are female and have stingers derived from an egg-laying structure. Male drones do not have stingers.

The queen is the colony’s primary reproductive female. She lays eggs and produces pheromones that help organize colony behavior and signal her presence.

Under strong conditions, a productive queen may lay up to about 2,000 eggs in a day. Actual output changes with colony strength, nutrition, weather, and season.

Not like a human ruler. Her pheromones strongly influence the colony, but workers collectively make many decisions about feeding, comb use, swarming, and queen replacement.

A drone is a male honey bee produced from an unfertilized egg. Drones are larger and rounder than workers, with very large eyes adapted for locating queens in flight.

A drone’s primary biological role is to mate with a queen from another colony, contributing genetic diversity to future workers and queens.

UF/IFAS lists a typical lifespan of about two to four months. A drone that successfully mates dies immediately afterward.

Drones must locate fast-flying virgin queens in open-air mating areas, so their large compound eyes provide a wide field of view.

No. Drones lack pollen baskets and do not forage for colony food. Workers feed them or they take food stored in the hive.

When resources become scarce or the mating season ends, workers may evict drones to conserve stored food for the queen and worker population.

A virgin queen takes one or more mating flights and mates in the air with multiple drones. She stores sperm in an organ called the spermatheca and uses it over her laying life.

Workers may supersede a queen when her pheromone signal or laying performance declines. They may also raise queens for swarming or as an emergency response to queen loss.

Foragers collect flower nectar and pass it among workers. Bees add enzymes and evaporate water until the concentrated honey is stored and capped with wax.

Nectar sources, season, location, and storage conditions influence honey’s color, aroma, and flavor. Natural variation is expected in local honey.

Yes. Crystallization is a natural physical change influenced by the honey’s sugar balance, temperature, and pollen content; it does not by itself mean the honey has spoiled.

Keep honey tightly sealed in a clean container in a cool, dry place away from direct sunlight and high heat. If it crystallizes, place the container in warm-to-the-touch water and warm it gently until the crystals dissolve, stirring if practical. Do not boil or overheat the honey, and do not add water to the jar.

Strained honey is passed through mesh to remove most pieces of beeswax, propolis, and other extraction debris while pollen, tiny air bubbles, and very fine particles may remain. Filtered honey is processed more finely so that all or most of those suspended particles and pollen grains are removed. People sometimes call minimally strained honey “unfiltered,” but Bee To Z uses the more precise description unpasteurized and lightly strained rather than ultra-filtered.

Neither style is automatically better. Filtered honey is usually clearer and may remain liquid longer because more suspended particles have been removed. Lightly strained honey retains more of the honey’s natural pollen and fine particles, but it may look less uniform or crystallize sooner. The better choice depends on whether you value clarity and consistency or minimal processing and natural batch variation.

Unpasteurized honey has not received the higher-heat treatment used to pasteurize some commercial honey. Avoiding high heat helps preserve the honey’s original aroma, flavor, and heat-sensitive components, although unpasteurized honey may crystallize sooner. Unpasteurized does not mean unstrained; Bee To Z honey is unpasteurized and lightly strained to remove pieces of wax from extraction.

Not in every situation. Pasteurization can reduce yeasts, make bottling easier, and delay crystallization, which helps large batches remain clear and consistent. Higher heat can also change honey’s aroma, color, flavor, and some heat-sensitive components. Pasteurization is useful for processing and shelf consistency, while unpasteurized honey appeals to customers who prefer less processing and more natural seasonal variation.

No. Do not give any honey to a child younger than 12 months because of the risk of infant botulism. This warning applies to both pasteurized and unpasteurized honey.

Scientific evidence is limited and inconsistent, and local honey has not been established as a reliable treatment for seasonal allergies. Bee To Z sells honey as food, not as a medical treatment. Enjoy it for its flavor and local character, and consult a qualified healthcare professional about persistent or serious allergy symptoms.

Cut comb is a section of capped honeycomb sold with the beeswax intact. Both the honey and clean beeswax comb are edible.

Not necessarily. As of August 21, 2026, honey and bee pollen are out of stock, and cut comb is sold out. Contact us to request a restock notification.

When Bee To Z honey becomes available, each jar will include a batch or lot identifier tied to its extraction record. Product information may also identify the harvest season and dominant local nectar flow when that origin can be reasonably supported. This improves traceability and helps explain natural differences in color, aroma, flavor, and crystallization. A batch label does not by itself mean the honey came from only one flower source.

Honey is primarily handled through local pickup unless another arrangement is confirmed before purchase.

A honey flow is a period when enough nectar is available that a strong colony gathers more than it immediately consumes and can store a surplus. A plant may feed bees without producing a harvestable surplus, so bloom and honey flow do not always mean the same thing.

The most dependable buildup is generally spring into early summer, roughly February through June, followed by another important flow in late summer and fall. Exact timing and strength vary with rainfall, temperature, wind, soil moisture, storm damage, colony strength, and what grows within flying distance of each apiary.

From about February into March, South Florida’s UF/IFAS bloom calendar lists orange and other citrus, oak, blackberry, beautyberry, coreopsis, sweet clover, Spanish needle, Mexican clover, and primrose willow. Citrus can provide a concentrated nectar source where enough trees remain nearby, while many of the others help colonies build brood and population.

March through May commonly brings saw palmetto, gallberry, citrus, buttonwood, seagrape, wild coffee, smartweed, Spanish needle, Mexican clover, and other shrubs and wildflowers. In suitable Treasure Coast habitat, broad stands of palmetto and gallberry can be especially important surplus-producing sources.

UF/IFAS lists saw palmetto in South Florida beginning around March, and local timing can extend through the spring. Its small cream-colored flower clusters can support a strong flow where large areas of palmetto bloom together.

May and June can include cabbage palm, other palms, gallberry, dahoon holly, buttonwood, seagrape, smartweed, Spanish needle, Mexican clover, wild coffee, and coastal mangroves. Cabbage palm is widespread locally; mangrove contributions are more important where colonies can forage near coastal or estuarine habitat.

Not always in South Florida, but midsummer can be uneven. Heat, heavy rain, drought, and gaps between mass blooms can reduce incoming nectar even when scattered flowers are visible. Mexican clover, Spanish needle, primrose willow, palms, buttonweed, smartweed, partridge pea, and coastal plants may provide supporting forage.

Florida often receives a second flow in late summer and fall. Around Port St. Lucie, likely contributors include Brazilian pepper, Spanish needle, goldenrod, asters, Mexican clover, primrose willow, smartweed, and false buttonweed. Brazilian pepper is invasive, but established stands can produce a major nectar pulse where present.

Bloom timing varies by site and weather, but Florida guidance identifies Brazilian pepper as an important late-summer and fall nectar source. In South Florida it can produce a strong localized flow, often from late summer into fall, where dense mature plants occur.

UF/IFAS lists Spanish needle, Mexican clover, primrose willow, and false buttonweed into November, with maple and wild mustard joining winter forage. These blooms may maintain colonies or stimulate early buildup, but winter surplus production is less dependable than the major spring and fall flows.

Honey bees usually forage across a landscape rather than on one plant. Differences in wetlands, preserves, citrus, palms, canals, mangroves, vacant land, landscaping, mowing, pesticide exposure, and rainfall can make the timing and flavor of each apiary’s honey different.

Signs include increased purposeful flight, fresh white wax, rapid comb building, nectar shining in cells, heavier boxes, and a sweet hive odor. A scale hive or regular weight records give better evidence than bloom observations alone.

No. UF/IFAS calendars are planning guides, not guarantees for a specific yard. Freezes, drought, heavy rain, hurricanes, mowing, development, and day-to-day weather can shift or shorten blooms and determine whether flowers actually secrete useful nectar.