Living is like licking honey
from a thorn.
About Honey
Actions of Honey | Types of Honey | FAQs about Honey | FAQs about Bees
Honey, well known as nature's original sweetener, is being rediscovered as a natural way to better health. Honey has always been prized for its delicious sweetness and flavor, but did you know that through the centuries honey has been valued for therapeutic and medicinal uses?
- The ancient Egyptians used honey to treat cataracts, open wounds, cuts and burns.
- Hippocrates, the Greek physician, praised honey's healing powers and formulated many honey-based cures for ailments like skin disorders, ulcers and sores.
- Physicians in ancient Rome used honey to help their patients fall asleep.
- In World War I, German doctors used honey mixed with cod liver oil to surgically dress soldier's wounds. Raw honey can be used as an emergency medical dressing. In fact, wounds that will not heal often will do so if treated with honey.
- For years, opera singers have used honey to boost their energy and soothe their throats before performances.
Honey is a miracle food, an instant source of energy that contains all the essential minerals necessary for life, a wide array of vitamins including seven of the B-complex group, amino acids, enzymes, antioxidants, plus antibacterial and antimicrobial agents. Like royal jelly, bee pollen and propolis, some substances in honey cannot be identified, hence they cannot be chemically reproduced.
Honey is the only natural sweetener that doesn't have to be refined. It is the only predigested sugar in nature. Honey DOES NOT contribute to "fat" as white sugar does. Many athletes use honey-water solutions instead of salty, mineral sports drinks for INSTANT ENERGY.
Information above provided by The National Honey Board.
- increases calcium absorption
- can increase hemoglobin count and treat or prevent anemia caused by nutritional deficiencies
- when combined with vinegar, can help arthritic joints
- fights colds and respiratory infections of all kinds
- when used externally, speeds the healing process
- helps gastrointestinal ulcer healing
- works as a natural, gentle laxative
- provides an array of vitamins and minerals
- supplies instant energy without the insulin surge caused by white sugar
Raw honey has never been heated. The jars are filled directly from the extracting barrel when honey is extracted from the hives. Raw honey will usually granulate smooth and solid after a month or two.
Unpasteurized honey is honey that has not been heated over 55 C. We warm it to only 40 C, enough to make it flow and to retard granulation. It also enables us to lightly “strain” the honey through cheesecloth and pack it into containers. Any occasional honey crystals that may appear can be melted by putting the jar of honey into hot water. We select only premium honey that is pure, smooth and creamy, with the consistency of soft margarine. It contains live yeast and enzymes because it has not been processed, and pollen because it has not been filtered, merely screened.
Liquid honey has been heated to melt the honey crystals and filtered to remove foreign material and unmelted crystals. It is unstable—it wants to revert to the crystalline state. Filtering removes nuclei (centers) around which crystals are likely to form. Although we are careful not to damage the honey, heating creates a sharper taste (bite) and inadvertently kills the yeast and enzymes.
Creamed honey is made in the same way as liquid honey (heated and filtered,) but then it is purposely re-crystallized by adding some previously creamed honey. Crystals grow and propagate on the nuclei to form a "firm" product. Hardness depends on floral sources, moisture levels, and storage temperature.
How do you subsititute honey for sugar?
Honey is one and a half times sweeter than sugar, so start by replacing up to half the sugar called for with honey. For every cup of honey, reduce the total liquid in the recipe by ¼ cup. Because honey is acidic, add 1 tsp of baking soda for each cup of honey used.
How long can honey be stored and still eaten safely?
Apparently, honey can last forever, if stored well. The ancient Egyptians left honey, among other assorted luxuries, in burial chambers to make the dead happy. Some of it, unearthed in modern times, is still edible!
Does bacteria survive in honey?
Honey has bacteria fighting properties! Honey soaks up water like a powerful sponge. Therefore, living organisms in honey tend to lose much of their life supporting moisture to the honey and their growth is effectively stopped. Honey has historically been used for wounds and first aid for cuts, abrasions and burns.
What causes honey to crystalize?
The two major sugars in honey (glucose and fructose) are the main factor. Water content also has an affect. Generally, the higher the glucose, the faster the honey crystallizes, and the higher the fructose, the slower it crystallizes.
What affects honey's viscosity?
Temperature and moisture content. Viscosity of honey decreases rapidly as temperature rises. A change of 1% moisture is equivalent to about 3.5C in its effect on viscosity. Nectar source also has a minor impact on viscosity.
What is hygroscopicity in honey?
Honey reaches an equilibrium of moisture content depending on the relative humidity and will absorb moisture from the air until the equilibrium is reached. The may make the honey more susceptible to fermentation.
Does honey contain enzymes?
Honey contains a number of different enzymes, some of which are introduced by bees and some which are found in nectar. The nectar/honey source has a high impact on the degreee of enzyme activity, as do the age of the bees and the intenstity of nectar flow. Of all the enzymes in honey, Diastase and Invertase have received the most attention.
What is mead?
Honey wine
Do honeybees make honey from pollen?
No. Flowers produce both nectar and pollen to attract pollinating insects. The bees bring nectar back to the hive, concentrate it, and turn it into honey. When bees visit flowers, they get pollen all over themselves, pack it into pouches on the sides of their legs, and bring it back to the hive. The pollen is then packed into cells around the brood nest.
The color and granularity of honey is influenced by the type opf flowers on which bees feed - the beekeeper does not have a lot of control in this. Any variations in the honey we sell are caused by nature and not by any additions of water or sugar.
What do honey bees do in the winter?
Whenever the air temperature drops below 55F or so, the honeybees start to form a ball shaped cluster inside the beehive. The colder it gets, the "tighter" the cluster is. Even with zero degrees outside the temperature inside the cluster may be 90 degrees.
Usually in November the queen stops laying eggs and raising more honeybees. In January the brood raising resumes with sometimes only a small patch of brood (baby bees) and then the bees gradually increase it as the warmer temperatures resume.
In the winter the honeybees maintain the inner hive temperature by consuming honey and "shivering" which creates heat. The outside layer of bees become very cold and they are frequently rotated inside the cluster and replaced with other bees.
The only time the bees leave the hive in the winter is when the weather breaks and it is 30 degrees or so and then the bees take short flights to relieve themselves of feces. Many times the beekeeper will see lots of bees in the snow that got too cold and never made it back.
Why do honey bees swarm?
Honeybees usually swarm in the spring. When the colony gets too crowded and there is not enough room inside or if the bees decide the queen is too old and isn't laying enough eggs, the colony will make preparations to swarm. The bees will start raising queen cells - sometimes more than a dozen. A week or so later about half of the bees will leave the hive with the old queen to look for a new location. The rest of the hive will stay behind, one of the queens will hatch out, kill the other queens and the hive will start to build up again. This is nature's way of reproducing the colony. The beekeeper tries to avoid swarming as it reduces the honey crop.
What has caused the massive loss of honey bees in the last few years?
Honeybee colonies are being decimated by varroa mites. Varroa mites, the size of a pin head, grow on the honeybee pupae and cause the honeybees to weaken and die. Recently, the beekeeping community has had large losses caused by people moving bees for pollination. This has been called "Colony Collapse Dissorder." We believe it is caused by weakened hives, nutrition and varoa mite, increased use of chemical sprays, stress on the bees in moving them , and automatic treating with antibiotics twice a year.
How many flowers must honey bees tap to make one pound of honey?
Unbelievable but true, bees must tap 2 million flowers to make just one pound of honey.
How far does a hive of bees fly to bring you one pound of honey?
Over 55,000 miles …Yikes, talk about frequent flier miles!
How much honey does the average worker honey bee make in her lifetime?
1/12 of a teaspoon
How fast does a honey bee fly?
15 miles per hour
How much honey would it take to fuel a bee’s flight around the world?
About 1 ounce
Why were honey bees at one time called “white man’s flies”
North American natives called honey bees "white man's flies" because they were brought to North America by European colonists.
How long have bees been producing honey from flowering plants?
10-20 million years
How many sides does each honeycomb cell have?
Six
How many wings does a honey bee have?
Four
How many flowers does a honey bee visit during one collection trip?
50-100
How do honey bees “communicate” with one another?
Dancing. Honey bees do a dance to alert other bees where nectar and pollen are located. The dance explains direction and distance.
What does “super” mean to a beekeeper?
The super is the hive box in which honey is stored.