Why don't we harvest the honey of wasps?

Question

After looking through other simular questions, it looks like a ton of people don't even think wasps make honey...

I managed to get ahold of a fresh section of a yellow jacket hive, and found honey inside. Didn't taste it cause...Well..Eww. But I smelled the stickey yellow stuff in the hives by digging it out, and it smells just like honey.

Why don't we harvest their honey?

Also, as aggresive as wasps are, it was pretty intersting to know that I could calm them down and they let their guard down ALOT when I fed a colony the honey in a comb. They had 5 wasps on guard, as I had ticked them off pretty bad earlier that day. But when I put a drop of the honey in front of each one of them, they were too busy sucking it down to notice me, letting me get close enough to even touch them with my bare hand. (just barely though) Maybe it's just the time of the year mellowing them out.

But anyway, yeah. Smells like honey...Why don't we use it?

Also it's out of the question that I mistook the hive for a bee-hive. I seen the wasps as they were coming at me a little peeved that I was stealing their hive. In fact the hole time I was in that city I had only seen one bee. Wasps were alot more common, and the only bug taking home all over our summer house.

Never thought they were so amusing. Lol.

No, I didn't know it was edible right out of the comb. :P I don't really like honey anyway. I would go back and taste it, but it's in a city 5 hours away. Just got back from a short trip.

I /know/ it was yellow jackets. You'd have to be pretty dim witted to mistake a yellow jacket for some bee. I've looked them up, they're obviously different, and with my face just inches away from the colony, it's a hard thing to make a mistake out of. they were yellow jackets.

If it wasn't honey, then I'm wondering what it is they store...Because it wasn't alot, but it was there. It was very stickey, yellowish tinge, and smelled very sweet.

Even if it wasn't honey exactly, then I'm trying to figure out what it was.

Answer 1

I am very sorry, but you are absolutely wrong on this one.

Wasps do not, and can not, make honey.

Wasps steal honey in large amounts if they can get access to a bee-hive but usually they are not so lucky. They have to organize very complicated attacks on Apiaries to get any honey at all, and they are not usually very successful - although hornets can be, especially giant Japanese hornets (shudder!!). Wasps do not, in fact store anything.

There are many species of bees, very different in appearance, that produce and store honey - you must have mistaken one of them for wasps.

Here is another thought - you may have come across a bee hive (they come in all shapes and sizes - and sometimes are rectangular or even triangular to mold to the shape of a hollowed out branch) that was either abandoned or "conquered" by the wasps. They may not have felt you were a threat for a couple of reasons - drunk on old honey (honey wine?), you didn't smell like the hive they had conquered (great sense of smell), or they were lazy due to excessive cold or heat. You may have been smelling old honey.

Wasps do not make honey - sorry.

Answer 2

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Answer 3

A wasps nest is about the size of a mans fist so I doubt much honey would be made in there. Wasps make their nests out of mud and bees make it out of bees wax. Wasps dont go around collecting pollen either. I rather doubt that what was in the wasps nest was honey , maybe some other type of something but not honey. You said that it smelled like honey so why didnt you taste it? You know that you can eat honey right from the honey comb dont you? Taste what the wasps cooked up and let us know.

Answer 4

Wasps do no longer make honey,i'm a beekeeper,wasps are hunters who kill and eat blue bottles and each form we detect a soreness.they only grow to be a pest interior the fall,they arrive to bee hives to rob honey,or your jam sandwhich,as they be responsive to wintry climate will kill them.