Think of someone who preserves and stores their own food and why they might do that. They might tell you it is because they want to feed their families a healthy variety of vitamins and minerals throughout the cold months, when most fresh foods aren’t available. Additionally, some might mention they would like to be certain to have plenty of food stored so they’ll survive, regardless of circumstances (this was perhaps a little more likely as a response in the past).

Honey provides necessary energy through its vitamins and sugars. If you’ve ever heard the term ‘busy as a bee’ it is very literal. Bees flap their wings over 11,000 times a minute,  which means they need a ton of energy. Storing their own honey helps guarantee that they have what they need, throughout the year.

Bees are very proactive! If you find a wild hive you might be surprised to see that they put aside enough honey to last them for years. If something were to happen to prevent them from foraging (i.e. a drought or lack of vegetation for foraging) the hive could potentially support a colony of bees of around 60,000 (at peak times) for a few years.