The process of making Honey
This is a second post in my series of posts about New Zealand’s Manuka Honey. The first one is titled New Zealand – The Land of Honey
The process of obtaining honey is very interesting. As you know bees live in a beehive. Its present form was invented in 1814 by the Russian beekeeper Prokopovich. Researches show that in order to prepare 100 grams (3.53 ounces) of honey, bee must collect pollen from about one million flowers!!! The Bee family consist of queen, whose sole responsibility is to lay eggs, several hundreds of male drones, who does no work but have the ability to fertilize the queen, and several thousands of working bees whose responsibilities change with age. At their first days of life working bees clean cells, on the second week they feed the queen and larvae with the milk that their body produces. Then on the third week working bees clean honeycombs and build new ones, and guard the hive. And the last period of their life, which in total is 30 to 40 days, working bee spends outside the hive collecting nectar. On their rear legs working bees have container, which can carry up to 20 grams (0.705 ounces) of nectar. The nectar brought to the hive is processed by the young working bees and then is shifted from cell to cell until it becomes thick. In order to evaporate liquid from the honey, bees divide into two groups and intensively flitter their wings – one group drives the air inside the hive and the other expels it. When only 20% of liquid is left in the honey, bees seal the cells with wax lids. The structure of the received honey depends on a type of plants from which nectar has been collected, climatic conditions, and many other factors. Generally honey contains about 16 to 20 percent of water, about 75 percent of carbohydrates, 0.3 percent of protein and 0.3 percent of mineral salts. Honey also contains organic acids, enzymes, and vitamins (such as B2, RR, V6, N, C, E) and other substances.
In my next post titled The Magic and Science of Manuka Honey I will finally talk about New Zealand’s wonderful Manuka Honey.
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