Science Buddies: "Ask an Expert"

Can bees ever get dehydrated?

Yes, bees can get dehydrated, although their exoskeleton does a good job of keeping water in their bodies and preventing this from happening.

Just like any living thing, bees need to maintain their water balance, a process called osmoregulation. If you look up terms like "osmoregulation" and "water balance," it will help you understand why bees can get dehydrated. (Sometimes they do not keep the balance they need, especially if they do not have access to water.)

I hope that helps!

Heather

Hello!

I thought it might be helpful to know the implications of dehydration in bees.
You can check out:http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/bees/buzz.html and http://ask.yahoo.com/20021203.html to find the unfiltered facts!

"The honey that we eat is nectar that bees have repeatedly regurgitated and dehydrated.In the sack, complex plant sugars in the nectar begin to break down into simpler, more digestible sugars. When the sack is full, the bee returns to the hive to offload droplets of nectar to another food-processing worker bee. That bee will distribute it to the young or place it into the honeycomb for long-term storage. At the hive, "fanning" bees dehydrate and preserve the stored substance by flapping their wings to reduce its moisture content."

Hope this information leads to more questions!

-Grace