Beekeeping and the Honey Bee

November 12th, 2010 |

If you are venturing into the hobby or business of honey bees beekeeping, it is important to understand how the honey bee works to make the honey. Making honey is not an easy task for this tiny insect. In fact, the honey bee works hard every morning.

The Process of How Bees Make Honey

The process of making honey starts with the flower. Plants use nectar to lure the honey bees to them. The honey bee gathers nectar from the flower by using its straw-like proboscis to “drink” the nectar and store it in its “honey stomach.” In return, the honey bee will transfer pollen grains from one flower to another, which pollinates the flower.

Making honey from nectar requires more than one be. Normally, the older worker bees are the bees to go out and collect the nectar. The younger worker bees finished the honey conversion back at the hive.

Nectar is largely made up of water and it also contains a small amount of complex sugars. Bees convert nectar into honey because honey contains less than 20% water and is more efficient than nectar both in terms of an energy supply and for storage.

When the older worker bees ingest the nectar, special enzymes inside your stomach break down the complex sugars and convert them into simple sugars using a process called inversion. Back at the hive, the bee regurgitates the nectar inside a honeycomb cell.

At this point the younger worker bees take over. They continually fan the nectar/pre-honey with their wings. This helps dry up any extra water. Once this is complete, the younger worker bees complete the process by capping the honeycomb cell which seals in the honey for long-term storage.

Harvesting the Honey

Okay, the bees have done all the hard work – now it’s your turn. Collecting honey is actually a fairly easy process. Once the frames are full of honeycombs and all of honeycombs are capped, you can start harvesting by pulling out the honeycombs. Before you do that however you need to put on your beekeeping protective equipment. Then you can start removing bees from the hive.

To do this you can try applying products like Bee-Go or Fishers Bee Quick. Bees find either one of these products very offensive and will abandon the super once they smell them. Because no damage to the bees and the bees will return, they just give you enough time to collect honey.

Once you have access to the honeycomb, you will need to extract it. To do this, use a warm metal knife to remove the wax caps. A warm knife will make it easier to cut the wax. Simply dunk the knife in hot water to keep it warm. Remove the caps with a cheese cloth and place into a pot. The honey will drain right through the cloth. Now it is time to extract the honey.

Tips for Selling Honey for a Profit

If you’re running your beekeeping operation as a business you will need to understand how to sell your honey, what kind of honey will sell, and some basic marketing.

Two kinds of honey, liquid and comb, are usually sold. The honey is placed in a jar is liquid honey is used for cooking and baking. Comb honey is more solid and is purchased for eating. You need to know this because you’re going to be offering each type to a different type of buyer.

If you only have a little bit of honey to sell, then consider selling it locally to neighbors, friends, and family. If you end up with a farm, then consider current Internet marketing strategies to attract online customers.

The honey bee is an amazing insect and creates great tasting honey. You can reap the benefits by harvesting high quality honey by either eating or selling honey. Either way, the honey will be tasty for someone!