Local Honey
Honey
The Bee's Gold
Food reserves for the bees... and yet so much more!
Harvesting honey is one of the best things about being a beekeeper and something we enjoy for a variety of reasons and its many uses. Mostly for use as a sweetener, but honey also has many other uses and health benefits.
Pure, raw honey contains enzymes, antioxidants, and natural antibacterial and antifungal compounds that can help in many ways for many things.
Honey Production
Honey Fraud
Introduction
Understanding Honey
It could take many years of study to learn all that has been discovered and is known today about honey. The fun part is that, similar to learning about honey bees and beekeeping, we do not need to know everything in order to enjoy the bees and their products.
We will visit a few of the basic topics and explore more as we go.
Where Does Honey Come From?
Bees make honey primarily from the nectar they collect while foraging in the fields. Nectar provides the carbohydrate portion of their diet, while pollen provides protein—some of which ends up in the honey.
This is one of the main reasons raw, unheated (not exceeding 110°F), unfiltered, and unadulterated honey is preferred. The beneficial components found in nectar and pollen—such as vitamins, amino acids, enzymes, and antioxidants—are not destroyed or removed.
Nectar is the bait flowers use to attract pollinators so they can reproduce. Pollen is what the bee collects as she moves from bloom to bloom. Because her body becomes statically charged in flight, pollen sticks to her and is transferred to the next flower.
This process allows plants to reproduce, with the bee acting as the carrier—completing the plant’s reproductive cycle while gathering nectar.
How Much Honey Does a Hive Produce?
Visit the Honey Production page for more on that topic, or the Local Honey page for locations to purchase honey from this region.
