Honey bees have the amazing ability to transform nectar and pollen from thousands of flowers to create pure, raw honey.

I love to watch the honey bees in my garden, flying flower to flower, collecting nectar and pollen to fly it back to the hive where it will be transformed into wonderous, pure, raw honey.  The beehive is a fascinating, hive-minded, all female,  collective creating a delicious product we all love to smear on toast and add to recipes to bring a sweet element to a dish.

Bee Facts

• One honeybee will make an average of 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime (about 6 weeks)
• One honey bee will visit 50-100 flowers in one trip
• To produce one pound of honey, a colony of bees need to collectively fly approximately 55,000 miles and visit around 2 million flowers
• Honey bees can fly up to 15 mph
• Honey bees have 5 eyes
• Honey bees pollinate 80% of the world’s flowering plants–including the food we eat
• Honey is used in the medical field to speed up the healing process of burns and wounds. It is effective because it is sterile and contains antimicrobial properties
• Honey bees create honeycomb as hexagon (6-sided) shapes.  The wall of the comb is 2/1000 times thick but can support 25 times their own weight
• Honey bees are the only insect that produces food for humans
• Honey bees are essential for agriculture, pollinating many crops that we rely on for food
• The lifespan of a honey bee is about 6 weeks during the colony’s active season.  They live longer (4-6 months) during the less active winter months

Honey Facts

• Let’s talk about honey from the grocery store vs honey from the beekeeper or farmers market!  If you’re purchasing honey from the grocery store, be sure to check the contents label.  It should have only ONE ingredient-HONEY.  If it has water or corn syrup, don’t buy it.  Many large companies use these additives to stretch the contents.  The difference is that this honey will NOT contain the beneficial nutrients that comes from pure, RAW honey
• Honey is full of a variety of vitamins and essential minerals, antioxidants and amino acids
• The color on honey depends on the nectar source.  The flavor intensity is often linked with it’s color–light color is typically milder in taste and darker color has a stronger more robust flavor.  The flavor also depends on the kinds of flowers the honey bees visit
• Pure, raw honey does not spoil–in fact a pot of honey was found in good condition in King Tut’s tomb!

The Beehive

• The Queen bee is the heart and soul of the colony and can lay up to 2000 eggs in one day! There can be only ONE queen in the hive
• The Nurse bees are caring for the brood (larvae that are not yet bees)
• The Guard bees safeguard the hive
• The Forger bees gather the nectar and pollen to make honey
• The beehive is a sterile environment.  If a bee dies inside the hive, she will be carried out by bees.
• The bees keep the hive at a constant temperature of 90°F all year round. In the winter, the bees huddle together around the queen and vibrate their bodies in unison ensuring the colony’s survival until spring.  In the summer the bees will gather on the entrance deck of the hive and flap their wings to create air flow throughout the hive
• The bees create a sticky substance called Propolis or ‘bee glue’! It’s a blend of tree resins and bee saliva.  It’s purpose is to seal small gaps and cracks and sterilizing the hive with it’s antimicrobial compounds that protects bees against diseases
• The bees perform intriguing series of movements, the ‘waggle dance’, to share locations of food sources with fellow bees.  The direction and speed of the dance carry specific information.  Honey bees communicate with other bees using pheromones

What do if your honey crystalizes

If you honey develops sugar crystals and becomes very thick, don’t worry, this is a natural process for your honey.  The water in the honey starts to evaporate and depending on the container you store the honey in, some honey will crystalize faster.  It’s best to keep honey in a glass container with a lid that can be tightened.  Plastic containers will speed up evaporation.

There is a simple way to dissolve the sugar crystals so your honey will flow freely again.

• Set your glass jar of honey in a flat-bottom pan in water that is high enough to come to the height of the honey in the jar
• Have a digital thermometer close by.  The water should be heated no hotter than 110°F.  If the water gets too hot, it will kill the essential minerals, antioxidants and amino acids.  It will still be edible, just not the healthy honey you purchased.
• Constantly measure the water temperature.  Don’t walk away and think it’s ok to leave the burner on ‘low’, it will get hotter than 110°F.
• Once the honey’s sugar crystals have liquified, you can turn off the burner and let the jar of honey cool in the pan of water.

Do NOT…

• Do not store your honey in the refrigerator.  It will crystalize quickly. It’s fine at room temperature, but keep the lid tight
• Do not put your honey in the microwave to heat it up.  The microwave heat cannot be controlled and your honey could get too hot
• Do not heat honey in a plastic bottle.  You may melt the plastic into your honey

Want to learn more about the amazing honey bee?

Check out the Bee Conservancy