I have recently been road testing some local products to stock in the shop.
Hanna keeps bees, and as well as tasting the lovely stuff ( it is sweeter than supermarket mass produced honey) she told me a little bit about making honey:
Bees make honey by eating and regurgitating the nectar they collect from flowers several times. This mixes it with preservative enzymes in their stomach. It’s then packed into hexagonal wax cells which are then sealed. The consistency and taste of honey varies depending on where the bees have been gathering nectar, and whether it is set or not depends on whether the sugars are higher in glucose or fructose.
Hanna’s honey is not filtered, a process that that gives a more clear transparent product and delays crystallisation, this makes it, I believe, a more authentic product. Hanna heats up the honey but not to the very high temperatures mass produced honey is which destroys some of it’s natural properties
There is only one queen in a hive and she is much bigger than the other bees. Her main job is to lay eggs. She is fed by her workers and can live up to two years while her workers live for about 6 weeks.
Well I learnt quite a bit about bees, they are very interesting, but I not sure whether I want to keep any myself, I think I’ll stick to more cute and furry animals, and mainly ones that don’t sting!
