Small amounts of fat
Eventually in Europe and Asia they turned the containers upright. Bees were also kept in trees in forests and by hanging containers in trees. For most of human history, honey was gathered from wild hives. Honeybees are unique in that they are not domesticated despite a very long relationship with humans. Another thing to keep in mind is the history of beekeeping. Honey is more than sugars; it contains very small amounts of fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals that bees’ bodies might like to use over the buy honey bees winter. Sugar water may be better if the bees had particularly poor nectar sources in the fall, but this would not normally be a problem if their spring honey hadn’t been stolen. That is, to make the bees start working earlier than they would normally. Theft of all of the fall-season honey is merely the most blatant form of exploitation.
