What is Honey?

By finallyfaith

Honey is not “bee vomit” as some refer to it. No, in fact honey is one of the mother nature’s amazing gifts and perfect foods if harvested and used correctly.

There is some confusion as to exactly what honey is and why the bee make its. This is how the bee makes honey. At some point in the spring time the queen bee, the matriarch of the bee community, sends out a message - “okay people, time to get busy.” The bees send out a few scouts as the weather gets warmer, the scouts check out the area flowers and sense the temperature. They have been semi-hibernating all winter long and so are low on energy. They fly a ways, do their scouting then buzz right back to the hive before they run out of energy. Some don’t make it. When enough scouts bring enough good reports, then the whole host of worker bees is unleashed.

What the bees are looking for are flowers that are oozing nectar - their favorite food source. Many insects and other creatures crave nectar. It is mostly sucrose but it also contains important trace elements that are essential for good health. The hummingbird lives on nothing but nectar and must feed continuously throughout the day or perish.

The worker bee collects the nectar and sucks it up into a special sack inside its abdomen. In this sack enzymes are released with break the simple sugars down and infuse the nectar with bio available properties. Back at the hive the nectar/enzyme product is deposited into one of the many hexagonal receptacles in the honey comb. However, it is still very wet and not fully infused with enough enzymes. This is where another class of worker bees comes in.

The worker bees are separated into two classes. The older females and the younger ones. The older females were born in late summer or early fall. They kept watch on the hive all winter long and maintained order and kept the queen happy. In the springtime it is the older females who are the scouts and the collectors of nectar. The younger females, those born early in the spring, stay in the hive and perform other duties. They have a less adventurous life. They will spend their entire existence in the hive and die in late summer never having see the larger world.

One of the duties of the “lower” worker bee class is to fully infuse the freshly collected nectar with enzymes and to dehydrate it. They produce more enzymes, inject them into the nectar which is now slowly being transformed into honey. They also beat their wings furiously to create a draft that slowly dehydrates the honey. This drying process allows the enzymes to stay active while making sure the honey is highly concentrated and still fresh.

The last phase is the sealing up phase. Once the honey is enzyme enriched, dehydrated and concentrated, the worker bees seal over each section of the honey comb with wax, keeping their precious product fresh as the day it was made. These little cells of concentrated goodness are full of enzymes, trace minerals, complex sugars and all kinds of other amazing properties. This will serve as the bees only food source for the rest of the summer and all through the long winter.

So in essence this is what honey is - super concentrated flower nectar, infused with enzymes, then concentrated and dehydrated and preserved for freshness by mother natures most efficient little workers. Amazing.

ff