Queen Bee – Her Majesty- the Goddess. Reproductive center of the hive. Leaves hive only for a day or two to mate with approximately 25-30 male bees and then never mates again. She has attendants to clean, feed and take care of her larvae. When no longer fertile, she is killed by the worker bees, and a younger bee picked to be queen.
Worker Bees – Female Army. Never-ending work. Not only feed the male bees and the Queen bee but also keep them clean. Take care of the larvae, build and repair the comb, collect pollen, help nectar ripen, guard the hive, and much more.
Male Bees – His story is that of dependency. He cannot eat or even clean himself. His only work is to mate with the queen, and once done, he either dies or is killed.
Photo source freepik.com
Some interesting facts about honey-
- Honey-bees visit 2 million flowers to make half a pound of honey.
- The process involves- bees sucking nectar from the flowers, storing it in the comb, breaking enzymes into simple sugars, drying these simple sugars by the worker bees continuous flapping of wings, and the final capping of the honeycomb.
- Does honey crystallize? Of course, it does. Most pure and organic honey crystallizes at 50? or 10?. It may seem hard to believe, but honey even crystallizes in beehives at that temperature. In fact, honey, which does not crystallize, is most likely to contain adulterants like corn syrup. Honey from sunflower and mustard flowers crystallizes faster than acacia, maple, eucalyptus, or honey that is multi-floral.
- Honey is eternal- Because of high sugar content and very less water content, no microorganism can grow and contaminate honey. No wonder the honey unearthed in Egyptian tombs was as good to eat as the date it was sealed.
- Honey, with all its benefits, is still not suggested for infants under 1 year
Photo source freepik.com
Raw & Unprocessed Vs. Processed Honey
Processed Honey: It is pasteurized that involves filtration and heating at a specific temperature so that it does not crystallize. Aesthetically speaking, pasteurized honey looks the best but is not very beneficial as it loses most of the nutrients during processing.
Raw Honey: It may look slightly foggy but has 4 times more antioxidants than processed honey. The purest and the most natural form of honey is in the honeycomb. As bee wax is also edible, you can enjoy honey with the crunchiness of honeycomb.
The Raw & unprocessed honey is sold in two forms – Farm Honey & Wild Honey.
Farm Honey: The honey that is produced by the bees in bee boxes is called Farm Honey. Sidr Honey is when the boxes are kept near jujube flowers, mustard when the boxes are kept near mustard flowers, and similarly Eucalyptus, maple and more. Most types of farm honey are bright or deep golden in colour except for Kashmir acacia which is very light yellow in colour
Wild Honey: The honey produced in the beehives of the cliffs and trees in the forests is called Wild Honey. Wild honey has a very different and distinct taste, and even the colour is very dark, but once you taste it, you will never like any other honey.
This article is by
Kamaljit Beesla
Director – TruNaturals Food Pvt Ltd
About the author and the Brand
Being from a farmer’s family, Kamaljit had been directly related to the food business since her childhood. Her love for traveling places turned her to be a Professional Travel advisor despite being a wonderful homemaker. Being an avid traveler and a foodie made her realize the dominance of adulterated food in our markets and in our kitchens. As most of the time, we eat what is available and not what we want. All these factors pushed her towards the industry and she became an entrepreneur thereby bridging the gap between good quality ingredients and our kitchens.
She manages and operates with the name TruNaturals, a brand offering Pure, Fresh, and Healthy ingredients. Her choice of Finest Quality Ingredients is becoming extremely popular among the customers.
