Bee Bread

Bee bread is a mixture of honey, pollen, and secretions from the brood nurse bees.

It is fed to the honey bee larvae, and newly emerged worker bees must continue to eat it for a while, as this enables development of glands that produce food for the larvae and the honey bee queen. (See this brief page about honey bee anatomy). Older worker bees survive mostly on honey.

Research has found that honey bees living in suburban areas and having access to gardens with a wide variety of plant material, actually have better diets than those honey bees that only have access to one crop, such as can be seen in intensive farming situations.

When honey bees are exposed only to monocultures, they have a very limited and probably inferior diet.