There is so much more to learn! Does honey have bee hairs in it?

Helen Charles
1 day ago
4 min read

One of the things I love most about the work I do, is the curious minds of the children I teach. Kids have an incredible fascination with the natural world. Bees, in particular, capture imaginations like few other creatures. They fly, they dance, they make honey, they work as a team; they are a superorganism! - what’s not to wonder about?

I always tell children during our programs: “I’ve taught you a little bit today… but there is so much more to learn.” And that’s usually the moment when I’m rewarded with the BEST questions - the wonderfully unexpected, delightfully curious kind.

One question that popped up this week, is one that I’ve never been asked before:

“If bees are hairy… do their hairs end up in our honey?”

We all know that moment of horror when we find a human hair lurking in our food. But a bee hair in honey? I’ll be honest - I hadn’t thought much about it until I was asked. But once you start digging into the answer, it turns out to be a fantastic window into bee biology, evolution, and just how clever bees really are.

A jar of honey straight from the hive! — A jar of honey - straight from the hive!

Why are bees so hairy anyway?

If you’ve ever seen a macro photo of a bee, you’ll know they are absolutely covered in tiny hairs - from head to toe. This isn’t an accident!

Bees evolved from predatory wasps around 120 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period - yes, back when dinosaurs were roaming the Earth! As flowering plants (called angiosperms) began to spread, some wasps shifted from hunting insects to feeding their larvae on pollen and nectar.

This dramatic dietary change - from meat to a plant-based menu - drove physical changes over time. Hairy bodies turned out to be perfect for collecting pollen, and slowly, those wasp ancestors became the first bees. Bees and flowers evolved together, forming one of nature’s most successful partnerships.

Hairy bee on beekeeping suit — Bees are hairy!

A perfect pollination partnership

When bees visit flowers, they’re after a sweet reward - nectar. But while they’re busy slurping nectar, pollen sticks to their hairy bodies and gets carried from flower to flower.

The result?

Bees get food
Flowers get pollinated
Plants can make seeds and fruit

It’s a beautifully balanced symbiotic relationship - one that supports much of the food we eat.

What happens to the nectar inside the hive? (it’s fascinating… and a little gross to humans)

Once back at the hive, the nectar doesn’t magically turn into honey straight away.

Bees regurgitate and pass nectar from mouth to mouth, using their long tongues (called a proboscis). This process is known as trophallaxis - it is a big word but it really just means nectar sharing. It helps reduce the water content of the nectar and adds enzymes that begin turning it into honey.

It might sound a bit gross to us - but for bees, it’s perfectly normal.

No hair nets or gloves?!

A world away from human run industrial kitchens, inside the hive bees make honey without hair nets, gloves, or stainless-steel. But here’s the incredible part:

Bees are meticulous cleaners.

They groom themselves constantly
They groom each other
Younger house bees remove debris from the hive

In fact, the very first job a worker bee does when she hatches is to clean her own bedroom. Cleaning is quite literally in their DNA.

Before honey cells are sealed with wax, bees clean them thoroughly. And once honey thickens, its sticky texture actually traps particles, stopping them from floating around.

So no — bees aren’t casually dropping hairs into honey and moving on. And one of reasons that honey lasts so long is because its natural composition - specifically its low moisture content and high acidity, making it an inhospitable environment where bacteria and microorganisms cannot survive.

From hive to jar: the beekeeper’s role

One of the reasons I love honey so much (and eat it everyday!) is that it comes entirely from nature and requires very little processing. Compared to many foods on our supermarket shelves, honey is about as pure as it gets.

Here’s what happens:

A beekeeper removes a full frame of honeycomb
The wax capping is gently scraped or cut off
The frame goes into a spinner (called a honey extractor)
Honey spins out and settles at the bottom
It’s then strained through sieves and filters

This process removes wax, pollen, and any tiny debris - including bee hairs.

Could you ever find one? Possibly. Bee hairs are incredibly fine. But just like us, bees lose hairs… and just like us, they don’t want them in their food either!

Curiosity for tasting honey!

During our programs, we get to taste delicious honey from my farm, and talk about the amazing journey it’s taken - from flower to hive to jar. And sometimes, that journey starts with a child asking an unexpected question about bee hair.

Those moments of curiosity? That’s where the real learning happens. Because when children ask questions about bees and nature, they’re not just learning facts - they’re learning how to wonder, question, and care about the world around them.