we need bees

Benefits of Honey

Honey: Medicinal, Beautifying, and Healing

Who knew that something produced by an insect would have such an impact on our lives?

Commercial Honey vs. Raw Honey

The average person is not aware of the significant differences and benefits between honey purchased off the shelf in a store to that of local raw honey bought from a farmer or beekeeper.

 

Store Honey

  • Mass produced
  • Pasteurized at high temperatures that depletes antioxidants and beneficial enzymes
  • Pollen has been removed to create clearness
  • Lacks amino acids
  • Offers nothing more than a jar of sweet liquid

 

Raw Honey

  • Locally harvested
  • Nutrients, antioxidants, enzymes, amino acids are all intact
  • May crystallize easier in raw form which requires stirring before use
  • Not clear like store honey because the pollen is present
  • Tends to be a little more expensive

 

Types of Honey and Benefits

 

Clover Honey

  • Color: light gold
  • Taste: mild hint of floral
  • Uses: baking and cooking

Manuka Honey

This honey apart from all other honey provides a vast array of health and medicinal benefits. It is the only honey that contains an antibacterial agent called methylglyoxal.

 

  • Color: Thick gel consistency (requires stirring)
  • Taste: Sweet, faintly nutty flavor and some herbal notes
  • Uses:
    • Promotes healing of eczema and burns
    • Colds, flu, bronchitis, sinusitis
    • Relieves a cough and sore throat
    • Relieve digestive upset
    • Supports digestive healing (ulcers, stomach bacteria, acid reflux)
    • Clears acne
    • Provides a source of vitamins and minerals

 

Sourwood Honey

  • Color: Light Gold
  • Taste: Butter and caramel hints
  • Uses: Enhances foods such as bread

 

Buckwheat Honey

  • Color: Dark molasses appearance
  • Taste: Strong with a lingering aftertaste
  • Uses: Making Mead Beers and Wine

 

Rosemary Honey

  • Color: Light yellow
  • Taste: Strongly sweet
  • Uses: Promotes heart and liver function, aids in digestion, lowers blood pressure and helps with gout

 

Dandelion Honey

  • Color: Vivid yellow
  • Taste: Mild sweet
  • Uses: Helps with constipation, digestive upset

Acacia Honey

  • Color: Light gold
  • Taste: Sweet
  • Uses: Sweetener for tea

 

Eucalyptus Honey

  • Color: Varies
  • Taste: Herbally menthol
  • Uses: Headaches and colds

 

Natural Remedies Derived from Using Honey

 

Honey in raw form has been used for treating ailments for centuries. There are specific healing properties that honey contains.

 

  • Indigestion
  • Upset Stomach
  • Stomach Ulcers
  • Fights Acne
  • Improves Diabetes
  • Lowers Cholesterol
  • Improves Circulation
  • Helps with Insomnia
  • Pre-biotic
  • Seasonal Allergies
  • Weight Loss
  • Respiratory Conditions
  • Eczema
  • Heals Wounds
  • Urinary Tract Infection

 

 

Beauty Help from Honey

 

Now that we know honey tastes great and has endless medicinal value, this wonder liquid also has added benefits for complexions, hair health and beauty products.

 

Beauty Uses of Honey

  • Face Cleanser (great for acne)
  • Face Moisturizer
  • Makes Hair Shiny and Health (apply just like conditioner, then rinse)
  • Reduces the appearance of Scars
  • Relieves razor bumps
  • Helps reduce dark circles under eyes
  • Used in cosmetics
  • Used in hair care products

 

Caution with infants

 

Infants under the age of one should not be given honey. There are botulinum spores in honey which will cause botulism in infants. This rare form of poisoning can lead to paralysis. Both pasteurized and raw honey contain these spores.

 

Last Thoughts

 

The cliche, “Busy as a bee” certainly applies in making our honey! Enjoy!

All About Honey

Liquid Gold

The sweetness of honey has graced tables far and wide. Glistening upon a biscuit fresh out of the oven or dribbled slowly in a cup of hot tea, honey has always been a staple of many.

What is Honey Exactly?

 

Honey is a thick syrup-textured liquid that is produced by bees. It takes on a distinct flavor that is dependent upon the source of the nectar that the bee visited.

 

Honey bees are an insect. They fly to flowers or plants that contain pollen and nectar. Nectar is the sweet liquid that is produced by flowers. Upon landing on the flower, the bee sucks the nectar into his stomach where it will be stored until it returns to the hive.

 

The bee that gathered the nectar will drop it off in the hive, and the worker bees take over. The worker bees “ripen” the nectar into honey. To do this, they take a drop of the nectar and once in their stomach enzymes crystallize the nectar into a runny consistency of honey.

The worker bees deposit this runny honey into honeycomb cells and then using wax glands under their abdomen, they seal the runny honey into the honeycomb. After this is done they use their wings to thicken the honey which they just sealed into the honeycomb. By doing this, the water that was in the honey (which made it runny) evaporates leaving behind the thick honey that we know.

 

Bees have been making honey as long as they have been in existence. They do this, so they have food supply (honey) during the winter when flowers are not in bloom. Bees require the nectar in the flowers to survive.

 

Is all honey the same?

 

Honey from different areas, regions, states, and countries are unique in taste, texture, and color. For example; honey produced by bees in Germany will not have the same flavor or appearance as honey produced in Texas.

 

What colors does honey come in?


  • Gold
  • Amber

 

  • Dark Amber

Semi-Clear

The “Bee-uty” of Bees

“If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would have only four years of life left. No more bees, no more pollination, no more plants, no more animals…no more man.” – Albert Einstein

Are Bees Vital to Our Existence?

 

As agriculture declines and dies off from the lack of pollination, animals that are herbivores will consume the remaining plants on our earth. When the plants are extinct, animals will die from lack of food and humanity will slowly become a thing of the past.

 

The tiny insect we know as a bee, is responsible for pollinating agriculture and plants throughout the world. Without them, we would not have vegetation, trees, and plants. Agriculture would fail to thrive.

 

Types of Bees

 

There are many types of bees; however, to us, a bee is a bee is a bee. Contrary to our perception, different kinds of bees have different purposes.

 

Social Bees

  • Bumble Bees, Honey Bees, African Honey Bees

Solitary Bees

  • Carpenter Bees
  • Digger Bees
  • Mining Bees
  • Mason Bees
  • Sweat Bees
  • Plaster Bees
  • Yellow-Faced Bees

 

A Bee’s Purpose

 

Bees along with a few other insects pollinate the world’s vegetation. Most of these bees are solitary and are known as “workers.” Many farmers have beehives set up in their fields to take advantage of bees pollinating their crops.

While honeybees are “super pollinators,” so too are the native bees. Native bees are much stronger and able to step in when the job calls for significant pollination. They quietly move about while going unnoticed.

 

How Do We Save the Bees?

 

We can help save the bees by staving off what’s known as “Colony Collapse.”

 

Colony Collapse occurs when the worker bees never return to the colony leaving the queen bee behind to care and nurse the remaining young bees. The role of a queen bee is very specific, and no other bee can fill her shoes. Laying all of the eggs for the colony, she tends to the young. Never leaving the colony, she is mainly controlled by the worker bees and is not the regal ruler of the colony as many of us assumed.

 

The vast majority of us know little or nothing about bees or the fact that they are dying off. There are a few things we can do to help prevent Colony Collapse.

 

Plant things in your yard that not only attract bees but helps them to thrive.

  • Flowering plants that are yellow, blue and purple. Bees prefer these colors
  • Clover
  • Herbs such as sage, oregano, lavender, echinacea and thyme
  • Trees that blossoms

Put a bee habitat in your yard or garden area.

  • Place a shelter in an area that is away from your house allowing bees to have solitude to thrive.
  • Place wooden blocks with holes drilled into them around an area that is quiet for those bees that prefer nesting in wood.
  • Provide water for the bees.
  • Refrain from using pesticides in your yard or garden area. Use organic pest control and your bees will thank you!

A friend of mine has this in his yard and runs an emergency plumbing service in Pompano Beach, FL. He found the bees when he was fixing a leaking pipe in his house and had to open a wall to fix the pipe. He saw the bees, heard what I have been doing to help the bees and he made a habitat for them and now helps them and plants bee-friendly plants all over his backyard. You could say he’s a neophyte bee-keeper

 

Bee-A-Beekeeper!

 

This fun hobby provides a stable environment for bees while promoting their population. Join other beekeepers in your area to swap ideas and raise awareness on the decline of bees.

 

You will find that beekeeping is rewarding with not only the “coming and going” of watching the bees hardly work is entertaining, but you get to enjoy the bounty of honey your bees produce!