How honey is extracted using the Winnie the Pooh method. How bees make tasty and healthy honey What white honey looks like

Even a person who is indifferent to sweets, understanding the benefits of honey, occasionally buys himself a jar to recharge himself with energy and improve his body. But few people know that there is another variety of this amazingly useful product. We are talking about honey from wild bees. Yes, yes, this is exactly the dessert that all bears love so much.

Wild honey, why is it wild

Wild bees are very different from domesticated bees that live in bee apiaries. They live in forest tree hives, which are called boards. Such boards are located far from various industrial facilities and roads.

Did you know? Another name for wild bee honey is bee honey.

The diet of forest bees consists exclusively of natural substances, excluding various artificial additives that beekeepers often add to their pets. As the name suggests, wild honey is so called because it is produced by wild bees. The price of on-board honey is much higher than usual because:

• wild honey is more difficult to obtain;
• it is collected in limited quantities;
• its benefits are significantly higher than those of ordinary honey.

Beneficial properties of wild honey and how to take it

On-board honey owes its popularity to substances whose beneficial properties are significantly higher than usual. Due to its environmentally friendly and natural ingredients, wild honey is often used for medicinal purposes.

Beneficial properties of wild honey

This unusual natural delicacy has a beneficial effect on the human body. The positive effect is:

Important! When wild honey comes into contact with metal, all its beneficial properties are lost.

When to take miracle honey

Wild honey is a valuable product, and it is important to know how it is useful. On-board honey will be an invaluable assistant for such diseases as:

• cardiovascular diseases;
• disturbances in the functioning of the gallbladder, kidneys and liver;
• in problems related to urology and gynecology;
• wild honey has a positive effect on cancer;
• in case of problems with the gastrointestinal tract and metabolism.

How to take, features of using on-board honey

You can take wild honey, knowing its beneficial properties, in different ways, it all depends on the reason for taking it. If you just love this kind of honey, then there are no special rules, just eat and enjoy. If you take honey to get rid of an illness, then you need to adhere to some techniques. For example, for a cold, it is recommended to prepare an infusion of herbs with the addition of wild honey. This infusion is diluted one tablespoon in a glass of water and drunk before bed. If you have a problem with the nasopharynx, then suck one teaspoon of this honey. In case of problems with the gastrointestinal tract, it is recommended to take a spoonful of honey on an empty stomach.

On-board honey is an expensive pleasure. Quite often, unscrupulous entrepreneurs try to sell ordinary honey under the guise of wild honey. Therefore, when you are planning to buy on-board honey, it is important to know what it is. This forest delicacy has the following characteristics:

If, when buying on-board honey, you find that it has a liquid consistency and its smell is similar to ordinary homemade honey, rest assured - this is ordinary honey, and not a real delicacy for bears. Naturally, the most reliable way to check the authenticity of honey is to call on an experienced beekeeper for help.

How to get on-board honey yourself, and what you will need for this

Honey from wild bees is collected directly from the hollow in which they live. This process is called "beekeeping". Wild bees, unlike their domesticated relatives, are particularly aggressive. When planning to collect wild honey, it is important to be careful.

Did you know? Bort is a hollow in which wild bees have settled.

Equipment and tools

To get wild honey, beekeepers simply smoke out the bees, filling their home with smoke. It is better to dress in clothes specially designed for beekeepers, in which you will not be bitten.

Wild honey extraction process

Onboard beekeepers themselves create habitats for bees. They hollow out a hollow in some tree at a height of about 5 m. The boards are placed at a distance from several meters to several kilometers. The honey extractor of wild bees smokes the swarm out of the side, then collects the valuable product by hand. The seized honeycombs cannot be inserted into the frame honey extractor, so he also has to squeeze out the honey manually. Having taken out the honeycombs from one hive, he goes to another, moving on horseback or on foot.

• 1. Nectar collection
• 2. Honey production process
• 3. Purpose of honey production

Honey collection is the main occupation of honey bees. All efforts of the nest are aimed at collecting and preparing honey products. Individual members of the family have different functions, however, their common goal is honey.

The responsibilities of a bee colony are:

• exploration of new sources of pollen and nectar;
• extracting honey and transporting it to the hive;
• wax production and construction of honeycombs - reservoirs for honey mass;
• “packaging” of honey into honeycomb cells;
• creation by the queen of new members of the bee family for future honey collection;
• defense of honey reserves, brood and queen.

In short, the proper fulfillment of these duties is the key to the well-being of the whole family. Only one fundamental question remains unclear: how do bees make honey? We will try to answer this in this article.

Nectar collection

The entire process of making honey begins with the collection of nectar. As soon as the air warms up to 12 degrees, insects wake up from hibernation and begin their first cleansing flights, getting rid of fecal accumulations accumulated during the cold. Since bees make honey only when the first honey plants bloom, the winged workers have a lot of time to prepare for the honey season (cleaning the hive, checking the honeycombs and frames).

The colony learns that the flowers have bloomed from the scouts, who are engaged exclusively in patrolling the territory, looking for clearings with flowers. As soon as they find them, they use a special signal dance to announce this to the whole family. The swarm of miners becomes excited and prepares to fly to the site. Led by the scout, the bees fly to the honey collection site and begin to extract nectar and pollen.

How bees collect nectar

Nectar is a translucent sweet substance secreted by a flower. The insect, using a long tube-like proboscis, sucks it out, after which it enters a special honey ventricle (a bee has 2 stomachs: one for its own nutrition, and the other for collecting nectar). To fill the stomach to the top (its capacity is 70 mg, which is similar to the weight of the bee itself), you need to visit at least one and a half thousand flowers. Having filled it, the insect flies home, where worker bees are waiting for her, who suck this sweetness with their proboscis from the mouth of the breadwinner.

Honey production process

The nectar received from the foragers is distributed by worker bees: one part of it goes to feed the larvae, and the other to honey.

The way bees make honey is a complex, one-of-a-kind process. Therefore, it is important to cover all stages of such production:

• First, the working insects chew the nectar for a long time and thoroughly. At this time it is actively fermenting. Sugar breaks down into glucose and fructose, making the entire substance more digestible. In addition, the saliva of bees has a bactericidal effect, disinfects nectar, and the honey obtained from it is stored longer;
• The finished and chewed sweetness is laid out on pre-prepared honeycombs. The cells are filled approximately 2 thirds;
• Now the most important task is to speed up the evaporation of excess moisture. To do this, insects actively flap their wings, increasing the temperature in the hive. Gradually, the moisture evaporates and a viscous syrup is formed, consisting of 75-80% glucose and fructose, and only 5% sucrose (this percentage of sugars in honey determines its ease of digestibility);
• The cells with honey are hermetically sealed with wax stoppers and left to ripen. Wax stoppers also contain bee saliva enzymes, which further disinfects the cell and prevents liquefaction and fermentation of the finished product.

Honey production process

During the honey harvest season, a family is able to produce up to 200 kg of product.

Purpose of honey production

After all the main points of honey production have been covered, it is worth identifying its purpose - why bees need honey.

The main purpose of honey collection, its meaning laid down by nature, is a supply of food for itself and the larvae for the winter. A good supply of food is the key to a normal winter. If a bee colony goes hungry, it will die, or in the spring it will be so weakened that it will not be able to participate in the summer honey harvest.

Thus, the answer to the question why bees make honey is obvious: in order to maintain a normal level of vital activity, replenishing energy reserves whenever they are depleted by any hive work (defense from uninvited guests, fanning nectar in order to remove excess moisture, cleaning, feeding larvae, etc.).

Insects kept in the apiary produce much more honey than is needed for food. This is due to the fact that the beekeeper additionally stimulates them to collect the sweet product by regularly removing honeycombs from the hives. And the bees, believing that the reserves will not be enough for the winter, are constantly stocking up.

The dangers and benefits of honey are still debated today. In this article we will try to understand what artificial and natural honey is made from, and what role bees play in its production.

What do bees make honey from?

You need to understand that without pollen there would be no bees, both for adults and their babies.

Before foraging bees begin collecting pollen, they must wait for information about where honey collection has begun, from which it notifies about where to fly several times, after which all those ready for work fly after it. In turn, the collecting bees collect pollen on their paws and bring it to the hive to the receiving bees. They pour fresh nectar into cells and begin to make honey from it. In addition to nectar, honey contains secretions from the mandibular gland, which contains a large number of useful microelements. At the stage of honey production, bees pay great attention to removing moisture from it. No more than 20% water should remain in the finished product. This is done so that the honey can be stored longer. But, unfortunately, there are very few storage facilities in nature where it can be stored. In this regard, the bees have to seal each cell with wax so that neither air nor moisture can escape. If the wax blockage is broken, the honey will quickly begin to ferment and will no longer be of any value. This is probably all you need to know when considering what honey is made from. Next, we will try to understand the process of its production.

Honey extraction process

Honey production technology includes stages from pumping out honey to its arrival on store shelves. It is very important that, when going through all the stages, such a valuable product does not lose its beneficial medicinal properties, otherwise they will have to be improved by artificial methods. But before you start pumping out honey, you need to worry about where and how the bees will winter.

Printing honeycombs and pumping out honey as one of the most important stages of its extraction

Before you start pumping, you need to go through the stage of unsealing the honeycombs. This must be done as carefully as possible so as not to harm either the bees or yourself. To do this, most often use a knife heated in hot water. You can also use chain or needle vibrating knives.

Honey should not be pumped out from all honeycombs in a row. There are store-bought and brood combs. Pumping from the latter is complicated by the fact that they contain a large amount of pollen, which complicates the filtering process. Therefore, it is better to uncork store-bought honeycombs. The place where the product will be pumped out must be clean and free from bees. That is why experienced beekeepers take the honeycombs out of the hive and take them to a specially prepared room. If pumping does take place outside, it is important to take weather conditions into account. The day should be sunny and calm.

When extracting honey, everything must be sterile, from the beekeeper’s hands to the container into which it is pumped. It is advisable that it be glass or plastic containers.

The pumping procedure itself can be done manually or electrically.

For mass production apiaries, you can use them. With their help, you can simultaneously pump out honey from sixty hundred. For smaller apiaries, a chordial honey extractor is used or the product is extracted by hand.

Next, you should clean the honey from various impurities, wax particles and bubbles. This procedure can be carried out by settling or filtering. This will help keep the honey fresh for as long as possible and slow down the crystallization process.

Process of heating and blending honey

The product can be heated before bottling or before the cleaning process. It all depends on at what stage the crystallization process begins. Various technologies are used to heat honey, one of which is called dissolving. Dissolution after pumping out the honey takes from several hours to several days. It is important to maintain a constant heating temperature. The dissolution process can be started directly in the combs. Then the whole procedure will take no more than fifteen minutes.

Having understood what honey is made from, you can move on to the blending stage. This is when different types of honey are mixed together. The procedure significantly improves its taste.

In addition to producing natural products, many resort to producing artificial ones.

What is artificial honey made from?

Many unscrupulous producers, in order to increase their profits, resort to producing artificial honey, passing it off as natural. Its production requires less time, and profits are at least doubled. This product is most often used in cooking, where it is very difficult to determine what honey is made from.

In addition, it is lower in calories and can be consumed by people with allergies to the natural product.

Most often, sugar syrup is used to make it, adding formic acid and in addition, various dyes are added.

How to distinguish “correct” (natural honey) from artificial

The hallmark of this product is its aroma, which cannot be confused with anything else. Try it if possible. The taste should be tart, and it will leave a slight sore throat. “Proper” honey must be transparent, from light beige to amber in color, without any sediment. Another important criterion for determining the naturalness of honey is its viscosity. All you have to do is take a stick and dip it in honey. As you pull out the stick, notice what kind of trail the product creates. If it blurs, then they are trying to deceive you and slip you a fake. The “correct” honey leaves behind a transparent thread with various figures. This is perhaps one of the most useful products that nature gives us. We hope this article will help answer the question of what honey is made from and how to choose it correctly.

Honey is a natural product of bees, it contains most of the healing vitamins and properties. It has an irreplaceable taste and amazing smell, honey can be taken as a separate product or with a variety of foods, and medicinal compounds are also made on its basis with the addition of various products. But not all fans of this delicacy know how and where it comes from and who makes honey. This is a long and labor-intensive process.

The honey extraction process itself takes place in 4 stages:

• worker bees chew nectar for a long time and thoroughly and add enzymes to it. Sugar is broken down into fructose and glucose, which makes the product more digestible. Bee saliva has an antibacterial property that helps disinfect nectar and prolong the storage of honey;
• finished products placed in pre-prepared cells, which are filled by 2/3;
• after starts moisture evaporation process. Insects flap their wings, which increases the temperature. Over time, the moisture disappears, forming a viscous syrup;

• honeycomb with substance hermetically sealed sealed with wax stoppers, and in the created vacuum the honey reaches full maturity. The wax plugs contain the secretion of bee saliva, which disinfects the cell, preventing fermentation of the finished product.

Why do bees make honey?

There are several possible answers to the question why:

Nectar and honey subsequently produced from it are the main carbohydrate food for these insects.

Both adult bees and brood feed on honey. Working insects, in addition to honey, also consume pollen, and they constantly need the first, and can do without the second for a certain period. In the absence of honey and artificial feeding, bees die en masse. At the moment of swarming, they take with them the required amount of food for several days.

Another possible answer is feeding requirement of brood larvae. From the 4th day, young animals begin to feed on a combination of water, pollen and honey. After birth, the uterus also consumes honey food or a mixture of sugar and honey. Why else do bees make honey? This product is an inexhaustible source for bee colonies; it produces the necessary amount of heat to maintain the required temperature in the hives (34-35 °C).

Bees, during the period of collecting food, drag pollen on their paws, contributing to fertilization of seeds of melliferous vegetation. All summer long they fly from flower to flower, performing what is called fruitful “team work.”

How is honey collected?

The process of honey accumulation is no less interesting. Before the bees begin honey collection, they receive warning from scout bees, in which direction the honey collection is located and what is the distance to it. At this moment, the foraging bees are ready to “go”, waiting for a certain signal from the scout bees. Upon the return of the first such bee to the apiary, insects receive information using information movements(beekeepers just recently called it bee “dances”) about the beginning of the honey harvest. The insect very quickly makes an incomplete circle around the honeycombs, then flies in a straight line, wagging its belly, and again makes a semicircle, but in the opposite direction.

If you show bee dance on white paper, a figure eight is formed. In order for all the honey insects to flock to the warning movements, the scout repeats the signaling movements several times. In addition, the “dance” ceremony includes the involvement of several forager bees, who make exactly the same movements, touch her belly, and sometimes take fresh nectar from her. Signaling movements bring all bees in the hive into an active state. After delivering fresh nectar to the bees, the scout flies back, followed by the rest of the insects, mobilized and prepared to begin work.

Scout bees search for new places every day for collecting nectar, where there are honey-bearing plantations with a high concentration of sugar in the nectar. Sometimes bad weather becomes an obstacle to honey collection, causing a forced break, and the foraging bees that fly in to collect pollen return empty. Insects make observations and wait for the resumption of nectar secretion in order to notify the family.

In a bee colony there are male individuals. They do not collect nectar; their function is to fertilize the uterus. After the need for them disappears, the bees kill or drive the drones out of the hive.

What is honey for?

Honey is essential for promoting health and for the human body as a whole. Has the ability to stabilize and improve the condition of most organs, strengthens protective functions, improves blood circulation, inhibits the aging process, and is a powerful source of energy.

Beneficial features explained by its origin and complex chemical components. Honey is known for its healing, antiviral, and strengthening functions, thanks to which it is widely used in medicine.

How much honey does a bee colony collect?

Each hive contains one swarm of bees with a queen. To collect honey, 11–12 frames are usually placed in a box. From one such frame you can download about 1.5-2 kg of products. This means that in one ordinary hive up to 18 kg of a unique honey delicacy is collected. But when downloading honey, beekeepers do not often manage to get such an amount of honey. Just like insects abundantly fill the middle of the foundation, and leave the outer cells half full. Therefore, from one hive it is possible to obtain 13–14 kg of honey products.

During the hot or rainy season, the amount of honey from one family does not even reach this ratio. Bees diligently collect nectar, but with a small number of honey plants, more time is spent and the cells fill more slowly. In such situations, the yield from one pumping is 7–10 kg.

Honey collection is the main occupation of bees. All efforts of the bee family are aimed at collecting nectar and further preparing honey products. Each individual of the family has certain functions, but despite this, their common goal is honey.

A short photo story about how honey is extracted from honeycombs. In a young apiary (in its first season), novice beekeepers recently produced their first honey of the year. Seventy kilograms. A little, but ok for the first time. Everything went well. The bees, of course, hovered and buzzed around, but they only stung a couple of times. Now they have to refill the cells that were returned to them after the “pumping out”. The work of a beekeeper only at first glance seems relatively “not dusty”: put on a protective suit and go check the hives.
In fact, you need to know and be able to do a lot.

You need a lot of frameworks: firstly, bees swarm and they need to be caught and transplanted into new hives (fortunately, the swarming period has already ended); secondly, the frames must be replaced as they are filled with honey. So some of it is done in reserve.
A thin wire is stretched over the frames, on which the foundation is fixed.
One plate is attached to each frame.
Attached using a special device. This is a roller on a handle that holds in boiling water. The foundation is placed under the wire, the hot roller rides along the wire and glues the foundation, melting it.
Some hives are built with one more floor. New frames are inserted there.
Not all frames can be taken away. It is considered normal that if a third of the honeycomb or more is sealed, the honey is ready. Therefore, some frames were immediately returned to the hives for “rework”
And for these bees, the frame is no longer enough. They built cells outside of it.
Sometimes you can see young bees emerging from the honeycombs. They only have enough strength to gnaw through the “lid” of the honeycomb. She is fed by other bees for several days, after which she emerges completely, having gained strength. What is cut off is called “beam”. We can say that it is a mixture of honey, wax and bee enzymes. A very valuable substance. It is valued ten times more expensive than honey. They say it helps a lot with colds in winter.
The frames must be rotated correctly. At first not quickly, then at full force. The frames are turned 180 degrees.
In the foreground are casting knives. In the background are beekeepers and a honey extractor.
And here it is - the longed-for moment. The tap opens and honey flows onto the filter.
And this is what “honey lava” looks like inside the honey extractor itself.