The Beeholder, April 2009.

Flowering plants and pollinating bees evolved in parallel. The plant encourages visits by the bee by producing nectar which the bee uses as a source of energy and as a food store when converted to honey. However nectar is not the only source of sugars which bees turn into honey. Exudates from the Sugarcane sugar as well as the great industrial sugar mills provide enormous quantities of sugars which bees concentrate into a “honey”. (in Europe we would not be allowed to call this Honey but it is sold as such in the Caribbean.) The other major source of sugars for bees is honeydew. This is the exudate, that little glistening blob of liquid, which come from the backside of sap-sucking insects.

When the aphid or other sap-sucking insect bites into the stem or leaf a sugary, high-pressure liquid is forced into the insect. The “sap” is has a very low concentration of proteins relative to the sugar content. In order to get enough proteins to build their bodies the insect must ingest vast quantities of sap and exude the excess sugary liquid. Ants and bees gather this sugary liquid called honeydew.

Honeydew honey is very dark brown in colour, with a rich fragrance of stewed fruit or fig jam and is not as sweet as nectar honeys. Honeydew honey is popular in some areas, but in other areas beekeepers have difficulty selling the stronger flavoured product. In fact honeydew is a good indication not of the extent of flowers but of the extent of disease in the local flora. Sap-sucking insects are of course a major transmitter of plant diseases.

Honey dew is also the liquid that continues to exude from the wounds on leaves after the sap-sucking insect has moved on. You’ll have noticed the mess on cars parked beneath lime and Sycamore trees. This is honeydew dripping from open wounds. Perhaps you have also noticed in early summer masses of bees lying comatosed beneath a sycamore tree. What has happened is that natural yeasts have become embedded on the sticky leaves and have turned the sugars to alcohol. The bees are drunk.

The production of Honeydew honey has some complications and dangers. The honey has a much larger proportion of indigestibles than light floral honeys, which can cause dysentery to the bees, resulting in the death of colonies in areas with cold winters. Good beekeeping management requires the removal of honeydew prior to winter in colder areas. Bees collecting this resource also have to be fed protein supplements, as honeydew lacks the protein-rich pollen accompaniment gathered from flowers.