what is honey?
Honey is a magnificent natural golden liquid produced by hard working bees and is also our favourite topping on a range of foods.
Honey bees collect nectar to create honey and store as food because it provides the energy for bees to fly and heating for the colony in the winter months. The good news for us is that honey bees will always make more honey than their hive needs, so we just bottle what's left over.
Honey's main ingredient is sugar carbohydrates and is supposed to contain a range of vitamins, minerals, amino acids, enzymes, organic acids and pollen.
how is honey made?
Honey's journey begins as nectar in a flower. Working together as a team, bees communicate with bumps and noises to find the best flowers for the job. Once they've found the best ones, they use their tongues to suck the nectar from the flower’s nectary. And then the magic begins! The nectar travels to the bee’s honey stomach, where the sugars are broken down in a process called inversion.
It is then brought back to the hive where house bees pack it into hexagon shaped beeswax honey cells. The structure of the hive and constant buzzing of the bees' wings results in evaporation, which creates our wonderful honey.
Beekeepers harvest the remaining honeycomb frames that bees don't need by placing the honeycombs in a centrifuge that spins the frames, forcing honey out of the comb. The mixture is then strained and bottled.
the History of honey
Honey has been around for over 10,000
years!!
Let’s take a moment to allow that to sink in. 10,000 years! The humans who were lucky enough to take the first tastes of that honey probably found it inside a wild bee’s nest, and we can only imagine the excitement it brought!
Rewinding 10,000 years isn’t easy - but historians do believe that most honey consumed back then was obtained via wild nests, until the Ancient Egyptians discovered a way to construct hives.
honey health benefits
Honey has been used for centuries and is believed to assist the healing of wounds, which may limit the effects of bacteria and reduce infections. Many people also use honey as a remedy to the common cold due to its natural propities.
Honey is also a great alternative to refined sugar - so if you have a sweet tooth and want a natural alternative, why not try honey.
facts about honey
As if bees weren’t amazing enough! Once the house bees have transferred the nectar into the cells, they use their wings to create a warm breeze- and this dries it out, helping it to turn into honey!
Bees make honey to store food for winter
Did you know that honey is also perfectly nutritionally balanced for our buzzy pals too? Honey provides essential energy for the colder winter months, when foraging isn’t as easy.
