{"id":5529,"date":"2023-12-26T09:04:27","date_gmt":"2023-12-26T14:04:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beekeepingfornewbies.com\/?p=5529"},"modified":"2023-12-26T09:04:28","modified_gmt":"2023-12-26T14:04:28","slug":"what-is-honey-a-guide-for-beginning-beekeepers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beekeepingfornewbies.com\/what-is-honey-a-guide-for-beginning-beekeepers\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Honey? (A Guide For Beginning Beekeepers)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
Although several insects make honey, it is mainly associated with the western honey bee (Apis mellifera<\/em>) – the most common species of honey bee used for honey production worldwide.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Honey is a sweet, viscous, naturally produced food. Honey bees collect plant nectar, alter its chemical makeup using enzymes, and store it in wax comb cells. By dehydrating the mixture, bees create honey, a supersaturated product with significantly more sugar than water. Once converted, bees cap honey with wax for storage.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Thus, honey is a \u201cnaturally available product and is the only concentrated sweetener that can be found in nature.\u201d [1]<\/a> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Bees store honey as their primary food source.<\/strong> Beekeepers harvest the bees’ surplus honey for human consumption as food or as an additive to other products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Harvesting honey is one of the primary reasons for being a beekeeper. Everyone knows honey is a thick, liquid sweetener. Besides that, though, what is honey?<\/p>\n\n\n\n This article is a beginning beekeeper\u2019s guide to this fantastic hive product including information on why and how bees make honey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n See our article about beekeeping as a hobby<\/strong><\/a> for reasons to enjoy beekeeping other than honey harvesting.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Honey bee diets consist of honey, beebread, and royal jelly, which they make from harvested pollen, nectar, and water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nurse bees feed bee bread and royal jelly to developing bee larvae. Honey is the primary food source for adult bees.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n By making honey, bees have a high-energy food source that lasts for extended periods without spoiling. In addition, capped honey is available to the bees when other food sources are not, especially during winter and summer nectar dearth<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Learn more!<\/strong> See our article What Do Honey Bees Eat?<\/strong><\/a> for more information about the honey bee\u2019s diet.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n The primary building block of honey is the nectar produced by flowering plants<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nectar is a watery, sweet liquid containing sugars and other components, including amino acids, vitamins, minerals, enzymes, pigments, and aroma sources. [2]<\/a> Nectar is about 80% water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Nectar attracts bees (and other pollinators) to flowers. While gathering nectar and pollen, a honey bee inadvertently pollinates plants. This transfer of pollen aids the plant\u2019s reproduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Foraging bees gather nectar with a tongue-like proboscis and store it in a “honey stomach,” which mixes the nectar with bacteria and enzymes. The chemical makeup of the nectar changes as a complex sugar (sucrose) breaks down into simple sugars (glucose and fructose).<\/p>\n\n\n\n Upon arriving at the hive, foragers transfer the nectar mixture to house bees, who continue the conversion process. House bees regurgitate some of the nectar to evaporate water content.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Bees then regurgitate the nectar mix into wax comb cells where they fan it to further evaporate more water. Eventually, the water content is reduced to about 15 \u2013 18%, thereby increasing the glucose and sucrose content to about 70%. Thus, the original runny nectar liquid becomes honey, a supersaturated sugar solution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Why Do Bees Make Honey?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
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How Do Bees Make Honey?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n