iKenBee
Honey Bee Supplies
HONEY
CREATION
1. Bees collect nectar from flowers and blooms with their tongue called a proboscis.
2. Honey bees have two stomachs.
Nectar is stored in a special stomach (crop). Some nectar goes to the bees main stomach as food for energy.
The nectar mixes with protein and enzymes in the crop stomach-helping nectar covert to honey. (No honey is NOT bee vomit)
3. Bees return to the hive and place the mixture of the nectar into the comb.
4. Using their wings and a special angle of the comb design-the bees flap their wings causing the dehydration of the nectar-turning it into honey. Nectar has a moisture content about 80%...
Honey has a moisture content about 16-18%
5. When dehydrated to the perfect point-the honey bees then cap the honey in the comb sealing the honey in. This honey is used as a food source for the hive.
WAX & HONEYCOMB
1. Nectar/Honey is consumed by the bees.
2. Sugars from the honey are converted into wax by a gland on the bees abdomen area.
3. Wax is created in flake like pieces on the abdomen. Other bees then remove the flakes by chewing it.
4. The chewed waxed is then formed into the hexagon shaped honey comb.
5. It takes approximately 6 pounds of honey to make 1 pound of wax.
6. Built up comb is then used to store honey and for the queen bee to lay eggs inside where new bees are created.
7. Honey comb stores honey in the "supers" or wood boxes on the top of a beehive.
These boxes are called "Mediums".
8. Comb in the lower boxes called "deeps" is where the queen lays eggs that turn into brood.
These boxes are called
"Brood chambers/boxes or deeps"
EXTRACTION
1. Honey stored and dehydrated is then food for the bees.
2. When the bees need the honey as food - they open the cap to the honey comb and consume the stored honey.
3. Human extraction of the honey is as follows.
A. Remove the honey frame from the honey super.
B. Open the comb by scratching, cutting or melting the capping. This exposes the open honey comb and the raw honey.
C. The comb frame is placed in an "extractor" where the frames are spun fast causing the honey to centrifugally be pulled out of the comb. Honey collects in the bottom of the extractor for filtering and bottling.
D. Another option is to crush the actual honey comb. The honey is then squeezed through a screen/filter and drips into a collector. Then bottling the honey from here.
Comb frames can be reused.
Honey Facts.
1. Honey does not have a shelf life--honey has been found hundreds even thousands of years old and it is still edible.
When sealed in an airtight container, honey is one of the few foods known to have an eternal shelf life. There are even reports of edible honey being found in several-thousand-year-old Egyptian tombs. Honey’s longevity can be explained by its chemical makeup: The substance is naturally acidic and low in moisture, making it an inhospitable environment for bacteria.
2. Honey has been used to fight allergies, sore throats, heal wounds, balance sugar levels, fight cancer, probiotic, strengthens the immune system, anti bacterial anti fungal, and some say it enhances athletic performance.
3. Try not to heat honey--natural raw honey is the most beneficial. Heating honey will diminish its qualities and benefits. You can warm your honey to return honey from a natural crystalized form to a liquid form by placing the jar in a pot of warm water. If your bottle of honey crystalizes--thats perfectly normal.
4. FOR BEES, A LITTLE HONEY GOES A LONG WAY.
On average, a honey bee produces 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey over the course of its life. To put that into perspective, two tablespoons of honey would be enough to fuel a bee’s entire flight around the world.
Cautions
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Best not to feed to infants. Spores of Clostridium botulinum have been found in a small percentage of honey in North America. This is not dangerous to adults and older children, but infants can have a serious reaction of illness in the first year. Do not add honey to baby food or use as a soother to quiet a fussy or colicky baby. Most Canadian honey is not contaminated with the bacteria causing infant botulism, but it’s still best not to take the chance. “Do not let babies eat honey,” states foodsafety.gov, a website of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
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It is a sugar, so do not eat jars full of it if you value your good health and want to maintain a healthy weight. It has a high caloric value.