Do bumblebees make honey?
Short answerMostly true
Yes, in the strict sense — bumblebees ripen nectar and store it in small wax pots — but only a few days' worth, and there is nothing to harvest. The reason is their life cycle: a bumblebee colony dies every autumn, leaving only mated queens to overwinter alone, so there is no group to feed through the winter and no reason to store for one.
What they actually store
A bumblebee nest holds a disorderly cluster of wax cells, with a few rounded pots of ripened nectar near the entrance. It is honey by any reasonable definition — nectar collected, enzyme-treated and concentrated. The quantity is a buffer against a few days of bad weather, and no more.
Why so little
Honey bees store 20-40 kg because the whole colony survives winter as a heated cluster, shivering to stay warm for months while nothing flowers. That is expensive and it has to be paid for from stores. A bumblebee colony faces no such problem: it dies. Workers, males and the founding queen all die in autumn, and only newly mated queens survive, hibernating alone underground on their own fat reserves.
Sources
- Bumblebees: Behaviour, Ecology, and Conservation — Oxford University Press (2010) · Monograph
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