The food supplies of bees .1. The harvested products

The nourishment of the domestic bee, A. mellifica, has for decades been the subject of countless studies concerning not only the search for food but also the sense-related factors of food selection, the distribution of food to the various members of the society, and the digestive process itself. The added precisions actually in our possession concerning the above questions deserve to be scrutinized in light of recent works. Therefore, we propose to draw up an overall view, as it now appears, of the entire food supply of bees. These products include nectars, honeydew, which will become honey, pollen whose incorporation is associated with complex biochemical transformations, and, finally water, a very important element crucial to the metabolism of the hive.