HOW IS HONEY MADE?

The name honey always brings to mind bees but we’re mostly concerned with the benefits we get from this sweet amber syrup and not the bees. Honeybees have been waiting for the opportunity to be appreciated for the hard work they put in making Honey. This is the time to understand the honey making process right from nectar to a jar of honey. Then we can begin to congratulate our Dear bees.

Bees live in a colony- they live in close association in large numbers in one family house called a hive. The reason why they live together is to provide defence for bigger predators and also provide long term survival. During the dry season, food is plentiful but less during winter. That is why bees make and store honey and feed themselves throughout winter when they cannot go outdoors to forage for food. All the bees in the colony have a significant role to play in the honey making and storing process.

Worker bees will travel up to 5 miles to look for food. The bees use a straw-like body part called the proboscis to collect nectar and pollen from flowers. Because these worker bees use a lot of energy during this process, they eat some of the nectar and store the remaining in their second stomach. In the second stomach, the nectar mixes with proteins and enzymes to convert the nectar into honey.

The foraging bees will bring back the pollen and nectar and meet with other worker bees. The worker bees will use their proboscis to suck out the pollen and nectar from the foraging bees stomach. The worker bees chew up the nectar and pollen and place into empty honeycomb cells.     The honeycomb is built by the worker bees before collecting the nectar.

At this point, the water content in the honey is too high (80%) so the worker bees will fan their wings quickly over the cells to reduce the liquid and dry out the nectar. The drying process transforms the liquid into a thicker consistency. This also ensures that the honey will not spoil.

Once the honey is thicker, the bees create wax from their abdomen and use it to seal and cap the honeycombs. This is when beekeepers start to harvest the honey. They extract the honey, filter it and bottled. This is the process for raw honey making. In certain factories, the honey is processed further by either pasteurising, ultra-sonication to prevent crystallisation, and heating to make it lighter.

Honey comes in a variety of flavours depending on where the bees gather nectar and pollen. Beekeepers cannot control the flavour of bees, it’s absolutely up to the bees. You can only encourage the bees to use particular plants by planting those trees close to the hive.

Honey comes with a lot of nutritional benefits so always purchase raw honey so you can enjoy all the nutritional benefits it brings. Teddy’s honey is an example of a raw honey brand you must try! Read our subsequent articles to know more on the benefits of honey.

Disclaimer: https://www.termsfeed.com/live/20d14bf8-17b6-4ee1-a4ef-552781fe5cbb