Food Facts--Honey is For the Bees

I had the chance recently to learn about taking care of honeybee hives. Yes, that does mean that I put on all the gear and got to smoke the bees. It was so cool, it is like nothing you have ever experienced, especially because these bees were wild. The best part is that the beekeepers gave us a taste of the raw natural honey and by whatever deity you believe in, it was so good!

So in honor of that experience, lets learn about honey.

The Sticky Truth

Honey is basically the regurgitated nectar that bees put into their honeycombed hives and seal with wax. Yes, it sounds gross but through evaporation, the nectar becomes thick and sweet, frankly if it tastes good, who care what kind of little insect barfed it up. The honey's sweetness is from mono saccharides and glucose and has the same sweetness as regular sugar. It actually is a bit higher in calories than sugar, but obviously it is better for you. The use of honey as a sweetener has been around for thousands of years. The ancient Egyptians even stored it in tombs with the dead. On a side note, this honey that was like thousands of years old is still good to eat. The reason is because bacteria cannot live in the honey because of its low water content so it doesn't really break down which is weird because its sugar and bacteria loves sugar, I mean have you smelled your bread lately, ugh. Of course we all know that young children under 2 years old should  not eat honey but why? Well the answer is that honey sometimes does have a few things living in it. In this case, they are called endospores. They belong to a certain bacterium that creates toxins in the intestines of the infants causing severe illness and in some cases death.

Please don't feed your infants honey....just don't.

Yeah this Stuff is Like Magic.....Right?

Just a little fun fact, honey actually has electrolytes which means that it can conduct some electric currents but don't try to light a light-bulb, its not that good at conducting.

The health factors of honey are numerous but some are a little bit skewed. Some people use it for just about everything: cough suppressant, fungal remover, burns, etc. There is some evidence of honey working on the skin to aid in burns and cuts but there is still not enough evidence for more serious applications like stomach ulcers or cancer.  The truth with honey is that you have to know what you are using. The content of honey is mainly sugar so the best it probably can do is kick start your metabolism. Some types of honey may have better medicinal properties based on the nectar of the plant the honey is made from, but of course there could be little affect on your body unless you want to down several gallons worth of the sweet stuff. Also, if you are immune deficient, I would advise you not to ingest honey because it can lead to bacterial infections just like with infants.

As a safety measure, don't use honey to heal yourself unless you are trapped in the wilderness. Just don't. Go see a doctor instead.

It's Like Gold!

Honey comes in three grades A, B, and C. A is, of course, the best to buy. The grade means it has a normal flavor and its smell is like that of the plant the nectar was taken from. the other grades just get lower from that point B being okay tasting and smelling and C being fairly good.

Honey also comes in different stages of processing. I got to try raw honey for the first time and it is very good. All raw means is that it is straight from the hive with very little processing or none at all. Pasteurizing just heats up the honey to get rid of any yeast living in it, it also make the honey darker, pulling out some of the flavor in the process.

This stuff really is like gold, sometimes the price is quite high but I am sure it is because honey takes about 50,000 bees to create  500 pounds of honey each year.

The Bees

Some interesting facts about bees that I learned while working at the hives.

• The smoker device is not used to get bees high on smoke but to simulate a forest fire. The bees will think their hive is in danger and become preoccupied with saving their honey.
• Several queens may be incubating at the same time but when the first one hatches, the others are destroyed
• Drone bees are the males and are out-numbered by the females. Each winter the drones are rejected from the hive and left to die.
• Bees will work themselves to death...oh yeah. Sometimes bees are seen struggling on the ground around the hive, trying to fly but are so exhausted that they eventually die of starvation. 
• Bees will search out a new home if theirs gets too small. Scouts will fly out and select a new location then the queen will be moves and the bees will gather around her protecting her.
• At beekeeping sites, each stacked box structure is a different hive with a different queen. Like neighboring kingdoms, if one bee mistakes a colony for their own, they will be killed immediately. 
• If you come in contact with an angry bee, cover your face. They will always attack there first.
• Once stung, a bee dies shortly after because their stingers and most of their lower halves fall out of their bodies.

And that is honey and bees According to B.

What do you think of honey and the process it takes to make it? Do you use it for anything specific? What about recipes? Tell me in the comments below.