Honey bees poop just like any other creature. Their faeces are often produced in yellow droplets, the same colour as their primary foods.
The honeybee digestive system is made up of multiple parts. This allows bees to process nectar and eat in separate parts of their bodies. Bee defecation is a normal process that keeps bees and hives healthy.
Bees, like all living creatures, need to excrete waste. But bees have a unique waste removal system compared to many other animals Specifically, bees don’t pee or urinate. Instead, they excrete all their waste in the form of poop
Bees Don’t Pee
One of the most surprising facts about bees is that they don’t pee or urinate like humans and other mammals do. Bees don’t have a separate liquid waste system for getting rid of excess water and dissolving waste materials.
This is an adaptation that helps bees retain as much water as possible in their bodies. Bees obtain most of their water from nectar. If they lost water through urination, they would quickly become dehydrated and die.
So bees hold on tightly to the water stores in their body and excrete waste in solid form only.
Bees Poop Out Waste
While bees don’t pee, they do poop. Their poop contains any solid or dissolved waste materials that need to be expelled from the body.
The poop of bees also contains uric acid. Uric acid is the main nitrogenous waste product of insects like bees. It’s similar to the urea found in mammalian urine.
Along with undigested bits of pollen, uric acid gives bee poop its familiar yellow color. The poop tends to look like smears or dots of yellowish to brownish material.
Bees aren’t able to separate and excrete their uric acid as a liquid. So it gets mixed in with the solid fecal waste as the poop is formed.
Why Don’t Bees Pee?
This system of excreting nitrogenous wastes via poop rather than urine helps bees:
- Retain as much water as possible in their bodies to avoid dehydration
- Poop less frequently than urinating since poop requires more materials to be gathered
- Keep their nests clean by only excreting outside the hive
For bees that live solitary lives, not peeing also means they don’t have to leave scent markers or expend energy on finding places to void liquid waste.
So while it may seem unusual, bees have evolved an efficient waste removal strategy that works well with their biology and lifestyle. Next time you come across a smear of yellow bee poop, you’ll know it contains all the wastes those busy bees needed to expel!
Does the Queen Bee Poop?
The queen bee is not exempt from bodily duties. Worker bees will clean up after her mess.
The queen bee’s hive is her toilet. However, what’s particular about the queen bee’s waste is that it serves another purpose. The makeup of a queen bee’s microbiome is different from that of a regular bee’s.
When prospective queen bees are young, their faeces emit pheromones that other bees find disgusting. This makes the potential queen’s poop a great weapon when it comes to fighting for the throne. Young queen bees may spray each other with their poop to defeat the other.
How Often Do Bees Poop?
Bees may defecate a few times a week. In the winter seasons, they may hold their waste for months. Bees do not do well in temperatures below 55 degrees Fahrenheit. If bees cannot hold their poop, then the hive can become overwhelmed with waste.
Fun Fact:
Bees also eat other bees’ poop. Researchers have found that this interesting food choice helps bees’ immune systems and gets them healthy gut bacteria.
Beekeeping Fun Fact #1: Bee Poop – Beekeeping University
FAQ
What do bee droppings look like?
How do bees go potty?
What do carpenter bees squirt out?
Do bees poop?
Yes, bees poop. However, they don’t pee like humans or other animals do. This is shocking to many because you’d assume that any creature that poops will also pee. But with bees, this isn’t the case. A bee’s waste removal is handled by poop. There is no need for liquid excretion.
How does bee poop differ from humans?
Just like humans need to excrete, bees need to excrete waste material from the body. Bee’s poop is different from humans because of digestive system differences. Bees eat pollen grains and pollen particles are unable to digest. So bees need to excrete waste material from their body called bee poop.
Does a bee urinate?
No,, a bee does not urinate in the same way humans and mammals do. Bees do not separate solid and fluid waste products in their digestive system. Instead, they release uric acid and ammonia, along with their feces, through Malpighian tubes. This tube forms the anus of a bee which it uses to expel any waste.
Is honey bee poop?
No, honey is not bee poop – I don’t know who got that myth started. Honey bees make honey primarily from plant nectar that is collected by worker bees. Collected nectar does not pass through the bee’s digestive system. Another popular question revolves around the idea that honey is bee vomit.
How does bee poop form?
Inside the bee’s tubules, there are special pumps that absorb water and other essential ions and leave the nitrogenous waste to be transported to the gut. The waste then mixes with poop in the hindgut. Unlike humans, bees mix their poop and urine together and excrete it.
How often do bees poop?
Just like us, bees need to eliminate waste regularly—but how often they poop depends on a few factors, like their diet, the time of year, and even their role within the hive. During the warmer months, bees are out and about, foraging for nectar and pollen. They poop quite often—sometimes every 20-40 minutes!