Why Do Bees Buzz?: Fascinating Answers to Questions about Bees

7. Honey

SEVEN Honey Question 1: What is honey? Answer: Honey is a sweet and viscous fluid that honey bees produce. Most people have a jar of honey in the kitchen, but they probably don’t use it very often. In the days before the development of refined sugars, honey was of great importance because it was the primary sweetener available. Honey is hygroscopic, meaning it pulls moisture from the air, so baked goods made with honey tend to stay moist. This property of honey creates an unfavorable environment for bacteria and mold, drawing water from inside their cells and causing them to die of dehydration. Honey is also quite acidic, which further prevents spoilage and inhibits germs. Archaeologists have found edible honey that is over three thousand years old from the tombs of Egyptian pharaohs , and experts believe that honey had an important role in many civilizations and cultures. Over 181 chemical substances have been identified in honey, although it varies from hive to hive, depending on the nectar source. Honey is roughly 38 percent fructose, 31 percent glucose , and may contain maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrates. It usually contains vitamins B6 and C, thiamin, niacin, riboflavin, and pantothenic acid, and it may have traces of essential minerals such as calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, and several different amino acids. It also contains antioxidants and is fat free. R5192.indb 117 R5192.indb 117 11/30/09 3:02:48 PM 11/30/09 3:02:48 PM 118 WHY DO BEES BUZZ? Honey that has been adequately dehydrated can be safely stored for long periods of time. However, if the air is too dry, the sugar crystals in honey can reform and give liquid honey an unappealing appearance. Luckily, crystallization can be reversed through gentle heating, which restores the liquid nature of most honeys. When honey is judged at a county or state fair, judges look for color, flavor, sugar content, as well as density, freedom from crystals, cleanliness of the honey, and neatness in the packaging. Question 2: How does nectar become honey? Answer: The production of honey begins when foraging bees transport nectar back to the hive that they have collected from nearby flowers. The foraging bees accumulate the nectar in a special organ called a honey stomach, or crop, without digesting it. New research conducted by Susan Nicolson and Hannelle Human in South Africa demonstrated that the sugar concentration of the nectar collected by honey bees from a local aloe plant, Aloe greatheadii var. davyana, doubled between the time the bees collected it and when they delivered it to the hive, and its volume decreased as well. This result suggests that the bees begin processing the nectar into honey immediately, regurgitating it onto their tongue and evaporating it on the flight back to the colony. Once back in the hive, a forager bee unloads the nectar by regurgitating it drop by drop, and a food storer bee sucks up the fluid with her proboscis from the forager’s mouth. As the nectar is passed between bees, the complex sugars in the nectar are converted by enzymes produced by glands inside the bees’ heads into simple sugars, primarily glucose, fructose, and sucrose , which become honey. The food storer bees deposit the honey one drop at a time into storage cells in the honeycomb until the cells are filled. Once a cell is full, workers fan it with their wings until the water content of the honey has been reduced from the nectar’s origiR5192 .indb 118 R5192.indb 118 11/30/09 3:02:48 PM 11/30/09 3:02:48 PM HONEY 119 nal 80 percent to less than 20 percent, and then they cover the storage cell with a wax cap. The stored honey can be used to sustain the colony through the winter until foraging starts again in the spring. Honey does not spoil (but it can ferment), so if it is not used during the winter, it will provide a reserve for the colony in the early spring. Question 3: Why are there so many different kinds of honey? Answer: The flavor and color of honey depend on which flowers the bees have been using as a nectar source. Nectar sources vary with the blooming cycle, location, and weather, and some local beekeepers collect particular types of honey in coordination with the blooming of certain flowers...