Honey,from bee to you

DO YOU LOVE the sweet taste of honey? For thousands of years, until the use of brown sugar and beets increased, honey was the only sweetener for humans. What do you know about darling? And what does it mean to send you darling?

We can learn by looking at an apiary here in South Africa, which has ten hives, all painted white and resting on supports a few inches from the ground. The cups are made of wood and the sections overlap. A base of 46 x 56 cm rests on the underlying support. At the top is a large section about 11 inches deep called the "breeding chamber". This is the heart of the hive, where new bees are bred and fed.

Above the breeding chamber there is one or more sections called "honey hedges", each about 15 centimeters deep, where the honey is stored. There is an inner casing over the trucks and an upper lid or roof.

Between the brood chamber and the honey deposit above is a perforated plate, known as the "queen of exclusion". This allows the workers to pass through, but not the queen, which limits their egg-laying activity in the chamber.

The incubators and lids contain wooden frames that surround and hold the wax chambers. The frames fit freely in the sections, allow bees to move freely and are easy to remove.

The bee up close

Here in our apiary (in South Africa) are bees of the type Apis mellifera adansonii. A close-up of these incredible insects reveals a body that is a marvel of complexity and efficiency. Every detail of their anatomy corresponds to their vital purpose: to have children, pollinate flowers and make honey.

Take, for example, the "worker bee", a sterile woman. As with other insects, its body is divided into three parts. The small head is roughly triangular in shape, with three simple eyes at the top and two larger, more complex eyes, one on each side. It has antennae, jaws that are difficult to bite (lower jaw) and a long tongue or luggage that can absorb liquids.

The central part of a bee is the chest. It is tough, round and has muscles that give strength to all six legs and four wings. It is the "engine" that allows our little flying creature to travel miles from the hive and return loaded with pollen and nectar. What kind of fuel does this engine burn? One drop darling!

The largest is the back or stomach. Like the head and ribs, it is covered by a solid shell that acts as a skeleton or "exoskeleton". Insects have no bones. It is hard to believe that in this small space there is a complex digestive system with two stomachs (one acts as a temporary container for nectar and water), intestines, the circulatory system with heart and veins and respiratory system, oxygen to all parts of the body. and a nervous system delivers.

Observers will find that the bee's body is hairy and perfect for collecting pollen from flowers. The two hind legs have small "pollen baskets" and the two middle legs have special rigid bristles for brushing pollen from these baskets. The metatarsals also have a small spur to remove wax from the undersides of the bee. The front legs have a small notch to clean the antennae and a small comb to clean the eyes. The anterior fins and the small posterior fins separate when folded. But when our little lady pushes them away, they automatically fit in, a huge bonus for flying.

Honeycombs with six-sided cell masses are attached to the wooden frame in a beehive, perfect for size, strength and space savings. Where do bees get the wax to build these combs? A miracle of creation! Some bees take a good dose of honey and are silent for about twenty-four hours. Small wax flakes mysteriously appear on the stomach. Bees then scrape off the wax and use it to build their cells. It takes 3 to 7 kilos of honey to produce half a kilo of wax.

A hectic life

The life of the worker is very busy. Life begins when the queen puts her belly in a cell and lays a small egg. Three days later, the egg hatches from a larva or worm. The young workers arrive and take charge of breastfeeding the baby. Workers have glands in their heads that secrete "bee milk" (sometimes called "royal jelly"). This food has special nutritional properties. Some say the mine will increase by over 500% on the first day.

After two and a half days, the diet switched to a mixture of pollen and honey, which is stored in the cells directly in the breeding chamber. On the ninth day after spawning, the cells are sealed with a porous wax layer, and the larva forms a silk cocoon. Fantastic and complex changes occur and about nine or ten days later a young bee almost fully grown and ready to work bites and leaves the cell.

A little outside the cell, a bee immediately comes to work. The child first cleans the cells. Then her mammary glands develop and she becomes a nurse for the larvae, which require constant care day and night for the first few days. Some officials say they need 1,300 meals a day!

A few days later, our young worker goes to work in the camp. As such, it takes the nectar and pollen from the “forage” and stores them in cells. It also helps keep the hive cool. After about two weeks (depending on the circumstances), Miss Bee takes on other tasks. Your growth-promoting glands are expanding and you use them to make cells and provide other social benefits. Then he takes a job at the entrance as a beehive keeper and only allows members of his hive. The two antennae on the head allow strangers to be distinguished by their sense of smell. It will attack intruders, including people who might be trying to gain access to the hive for honey or for some other purpose.

At the age of three weeks, the young woman. The bee becomes a forager. As such, it migrates from the hive, usually over long distances, to locate and collect nectar, pollen, and water. Getting a full charge can mean visiting a thousand shamrocks. No wonder workers only live five to six weeks during the honey season!

However, forage researchers don't need to investigate unfamiliar terrain every time they go out to collect pollen. Incredibly, bees have the ability to "tell" each other where to look for nectar. As? Returning to the hive after discovering a new source of nectar, the worker dances to control the other forage seekers. One in eight dances means the nectar is near. A dance with a slight twist of the tail means the nectar is long and indicates distance. When your body points vertically towards the ridge, it means the bees must fly towards the sun. Dancing from a different angle shows which direction to fly in relation to the sun. The smell of nectar and its special aroma that lingers at the source of the nectar helps other food hunters find the right place. Truly extraordinary sign language.

A look at the royal family

The queen bee stands out. "Your Majesty" is of different size and function. The queen is larger, has no instrument to handle or transport the pollen, and only uses her sting to kill rival queens. This happens when the hive blooms and new queens appear.

Does a queen bee come from a certain royal ancestor? In fact, the egg that a queen grows from is the same as worker bees. How do you make a queen?

No one really knows. However, there are some differences in the maintenance process. In a beehive, queen cells are much larger and more pronounced than normal cells. When an egg is placed in a royal cell, it receives special treatment. Instead of being fed "royal jelly" for two and a half days, future queens are given this unique food for four and a half to five days. Surprisingly, a queen takes only fifteen to sixteen days to develop, less time than workers.

When new queens appear, the bicolony prepares to "swarm", that is, form a new colony, usually with the old queen. The newly arrived virgin queens fight and leave one behind as the new queen in the old hive. The victorious queen then embarks on a wedding flight, followed by several men or "drones". One of them manages to catch up with him during the flight.

During the mating flight, the queen receives enough sperm to survive for several years. After that, it will practically be a laying machine that can lay up to 3000 eggs a day. Unlike the short lifespan of workers, a queen can live for several years and become the ancestor of many future generations.

Honey is beneficial

Honey begins with flowers that contain nectar. This attracts insects, including bees. In addition to sugar, nectar contains several minerals that are important for human health. After bees have deeply drank this sweet juice, their bodies add enzymes and formic acid. They digest and modify sugar. Later handling in the hive helps to evaporate the water.

The final product, ripe honey, consists of 41% fructose (levulos), the sweetest sugar known. It also contains 35% glucose (dextrose), 17% water, 2% sucrose and small amounts of minerals and amino acids. An official says that up to 450 different amino acids have been found in honey. Honey also contains almost all the trace elements that the human body needs. All these factors make honey an extremely pleasant and healthy food.

Honey is especially good for the little ones. It is a mild laxative and can be used safely in children, starting at half a teaspoon a day. Honey is a precocious food and can relieve indigestion. It can relieve constipation, which in turn can help with high blood pressure. Honey is a fast food and its amino acids can increase calcium in the body. In addition, it has a slight calming effect and promotes sleep. Taking two teaspoons of honey with each meal once is known to help people who are tired and irritated.

From the hive to you

How do I extract honey from a hive? An important step is to use a "smoker". It is a device consisting of a small bellows attached to a metal cylinder containing a combustible material. When lit, smoke comes out of a funny cap. Some clouds of smoke at the entrance to a beehive sound the alarm for bees. Fire is a dangerous enemy for bees. To prepare for the imaginary emergency, bees drink honey. That and the effect of smoking make them more tame and easier to control.

The next step is to open the hive by removing the roof and the inner casing. Some bees are busy with honeybees. A cloud of smoke pushes most people into the house. When most cells have been sealed with a thin layer of wax, it is clear that the honey is ripe. Everything will be clean and tidy: no dirt, no feces or residual deposits.

Now we are going to remove the honey frames and replace them with fresh wax-based ones with the cell contour already marked. Bees then build whole cells based on it.

After cutting the fine wax seal from the cells, the frames are transferred to a "honey extractor". It is a metal container in the form of a drum with inner grooves or supports to hold the frames in place. The stirrups rotate inside the drum and when the frames rotate, the honey comes out with centrifugal force. It falls to the bottom of the drum, passes through a sieve and drips from a tap or honey bowl into a holding glass.