of excess moisture from the curing honey.
Becoming architects and master builders (Days 12 to 35): Worker bees that are about 12 days old are mature enough to begin producing beeswax. These white flakes of wax are secreted from wax glands on the underside of the worker bee’s abdomen. They help with the building of new wax comb and in the capping of ripened honey and brood cells containing developing pupae.
Guarding the home (Days 18 to 21): The last task of a house bee before she ventures out is that of guarding the hive. At this stage of maturity, her sting glands have developed to contain an authoritative amount of venom. You can easily spot the guard bees at the hive’s entrance. They are poised and alert, checking each bee that returns to the hive for a familiar scent. Only family members are allowed to pass.
Field bees (Days 21 till death): When the worker bee is a few weeks old, she ventures outside the hive to perform her last and perhaps most important job — to collect the pollen and nectar that will sustain the colony. With her life half over, she joins the ranks of other field bees until she reaches the end of her life, some three weeks later.
Understanding the Composition of Honey
Honey is the sweet result of the bees magically transforming the nectar they gather from flowers. Honey is about 80 percent fructose and glucose, and between 17 and 18 percent water. Maintaining a balance between sugar and water is critical to the quality of honey. Excess water, for example from poor storage, can trigger yeast fermentation, causing the honey to spoil. The bees nail this balance instinctually, but we can upset the delicate ration by improper harvesting and storing of honey.
More than 20 other sugars can be found in honey, depending upon the original nectar source. There are also proteins in the form of enzymes, amino acids, minerals, trace elements, and waxes. The most important enzyme is invertase, which is an enzyme added by the worker bees. This is responsible for converting the nectar sugar sucrose into the main sugars found in honey: fructose and glucose. It is also instrumental in the ripening of the nectar into honey.
With an average pH of 3.9, honey is relatively acidic, but its sweetness hides the acidity.
The antibacterial qualities associated with honey come from hydrogen peroxide, which is a by-product of another enzyme (glucose oxidase) introduced by the bees.
The plants themselves and the soil they grow in contribute to the minerals and trace elements found in honey. See Figure 2-3 for a typical breakdown of honey content.
Illustration by Howland Blackiston
FIGURE 2-3: This chart illustrates the typical content of honey (based on data from the USDA).
WHAT IS HMF?
HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) is an organic substance naturally found in all honeys. In the lab, it is used as a marker to prove the honey is raw, unheated, and it has not been stored for an excessive period of time. Freshly extracted honey displays HMF levels lower than 5 mg/kg. Levels higher than this indicate the honey may be old, overheated, or poorly stored. While the average customer may not necessarily taste the difference in honeys with high HMF levels, experienced honey tasters do.
In the European Union, non-tropical origins cannot exceed HMF limits of 40 mg/kg, and tropical origins must have a maximum HMF limit of 80 mg/kg. Honeys with HMF values above these limits are considered as “industrial honeys” and cannot be sold for direct consumption but as baker’s honey (acceptable for use in baking and as an ingredient in commercial food processing) only.
There are no formal HMF limits legally established in the United States, although some beekeepers and commercial honey packers do follow the EU directive.
Honey owes its delicate aromas and flavors to the various volatile substances (similar to essential oils) that originate from the flower. As age and excess heat decompose the fructose, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) naturally found in all honeys increases, thus lowering the quality of the honey. (see sidebar, “What is HMF?”). Each of these components that make up honey is extremely fragile, and overheating honey or improper or long-term storage can compromise not only the healthful benefits but also honey flavors as well as darken the color.
Harvesting Honey: From Bee to Bottle
Whether you get your honey from a local beekeeper or a commercially available source, the process of harvesting honey is similar. Only the scale of operations differs.
Another difference in harvesting is the “style” of honey that’s going to market. There are four major styles of honey, and the differences mostly have to do with how the honey is presented to the public:
Still in the wax comb
As a liquid extracted from the comb
As a combination of the preceding two
Whipped or creamed into a smooth, spreadable product
See Chapter 3 for more details.
How these styles of honey are harvested differ, but since here in the United States there is more extracted liquid honey sold than any other style, I use that as the example in the following sections.
It’s all about timing
Generally speaking, beekeepers (whether hobbyist or commercial) harvest their honey at the conclusion of a substantial nectar flow and when the hive is filled with cured and capped honey (see Figure 2-4). Conditions and circumstances and timing vary greatly across the country.
Photo by C. Marina Marchese
FIGURE 2-4: This frame is ready to harvest, as the bees have filled nearly every cell with cured honey and sealed each cell with a white capping of beeswax.
Courtesy
