20 April 2021

Water, water, everywhere


Bee books frequently refer to the two uses of water by bees: cool the hive, and dilute stored honey. 

That seems odd to me. 

To convert sucrose (C12H22011) to glucose (C6H12O6and fructose (C6H12O6) means that for every sucrose molecule the bee must find one H2O molecule. 

Put another way: C12H22011 + H2O [sucrase] = 2(C6H12O6)

So far I have not found reference to this requirement for metabolic water in the books. Maybe nectar - a very dilute sugar solution - provides all the water the bees need for the sucrase conversion, while water brought into the hive is indeed for cooling and honey dilution.



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