Bees
Bees are flying
insects closely related to
wasps and
ants,
known for their role in pollination and, in the case of the best-known bee
species, the
European Honey Bee, for producing
honey
and
beeswax. Bees are any of
numerous hairy-bodied
insects including social and solitary species.
Bee Deaths.
Pollinator is an animal that moves pollen from the
male anther of a flower to the female stigma of a
flower. This helps to
bring about fertilization of the ovules in the flower by the male gametes
from the pollen grains. Insect pollinators include bees, (honey bees,
solitary species, bumblebees); pollen wasps (Masarinae); ants; flies
including bee flies and hoverflies; lepidopterans, both butterflies and
moths; and flower beetles. Vertebrates, mainly bats and
birds, but also
some non-bat mammals (monkeys, lemurs, possums, rodents) and some lizards
pollinate certain plants. Among the pollinating birds are hummingbirds,
honeyeaters and sunbirds with long beaks; they pollinate a number of
deep-throated flowers. Cycads, which are not flowering plants, are also
pollinated by insects. A pollinator is different from a pollenizer, a
plant that is a source of pollen for the pollination process.
Pollination Network is a bipartite mutualistic
network in which plants and
pollinators are the nodes, and the pollination interactions form the links
between these nodes. The pollination network is bipartite as interactions
only exist between two distinct, non-overlapping sets of species, but not
within the set: a pollinator can never be pollinated, unlike in a
predator-prey network where a predator can be depredated. A pollination
network is two-modal, i.e., it includes only
links connecting plant and
animal communities.
Biological Network.
Pollen is a fine to coarse powdery substance
comprising pollen grains which are male microgametophytes of seed plants,
which produce male gametes (sperm cells). Pollen grains have a hard coat
made of sporopollenin that protects the gametophytes during the process of
their movement from the stamens to the pistil of flowering plants or from
the male cone to the female cone of coniferous plants. If pollen lands on
a compatible pistil or female cone, it germinates, producing a pollen tube
that transfers the sperm to the ovule containing the female gametophyte.
Individual pollen grains are small enough to require magnification to see
detail. The study of pollen is called palynology and is highly useful in
paleoecology, paleontology, archaeology, and forensics. Pollen in plants
is used for transferring haploid male genetic material from the anther of
a single flower to the stigma of another in cross-pollination. In a case
of self-pollination, this process takes place from the anther of a flower
to the stigma of the same flower.
Pollination
is the process by which pollen is transferred to the female reproductive
organs of a plant, thereby enabling fertilization to take place. Like all
living organisms, seed plants have a single major goal: to pass their
genetic information on to the next generation. The reproductive unit is
the seed, and pollination is an essential step in the production of
Seeds in all spermatophytes (
Seed
Plants or
Spermatophyte
comprise those plants that produce seeds, hence the alternative name seed
plants. They are a subset of the embryophytes or
land plants.
Plant Breeding -
Pruning -
Grafting -
Propagation.
Cross-Pollination is pollination of a
flower or plant with pollen from another flower or plant.
Open Pollination refers to a variety of concepts in the context of the
sexual reproduction of plants. Generally speaking, the term refers to
plants pollinated naturally by birds, insects, wind, or human. Open
pollinated generally refers to
seeds that will
"breed true". When the plants of an open-pollinated variety
self-pollinate, or are pollinated by another representative of the same
variety, the resulting seeds will produce plants roughly identical to
their parents.
Hand Pollination is a technique used when natural, or open
pollination is insufficient or undesirable. The most common techniques are
for crops such as cucurbits, which may exhibit poor pollination by fruit
abortion, fruit deformity or poor maturation. Hand-pollination is an
option only on a small scale, but is a common technique by home and small
market gardeners, involving the transfer of pollen with an
artist's brush
or
cotton swab from male to female
flowers. Sometimes the corolla is
removed from male flowers and the flower itself is brushed against the
stigmas of female flowers. The principal reasons for hand pollination
include a paucity of natural pollinators, avoiding cross-pollination
between varieties grown together or, conversely, in the controlled
production of hybrids.
Mosquitoes are pollinators too. Mosquitoes primary food source is
flower nectar, not blood. Just like bees or butterflies, mosquitoes
transfer pollen from
flower
to
flower as they feed
on nectar, fertilizing plants and allowing them to form seeds and
reproduce. All species can have negative side effects, just like
technology does.
There are approximately 3,600 species of small
flies
comprising the family Culicidae. The mosquito life cycle consists of egg,
larva, pupa, and adult stages. Eggs are laid on the water surface; they
hatch into motile larvae that feed on aquatic algae and organic material.
These larvae are important food sources for many freshwater animals, such
as dragonfly nymphs, many fish, and some birds such as ducks.
Mini drones
sporting horsehair coated in a sticky gel could one day take the pressure
off beleaguered bee populations by transporting pollen from plant to
plant, researchers said.
Roughly three-quarters of
the world's flowering plants and about 35 percent of the world's food
crops depend on animals to pollinate them, according to the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. Some of nature's most prolific pollinators are
bees, but bee populations are declining around the world, and last month,
the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed a native species as endangered
for the first time.
Tiny Robots to move and think like insects (cornell)
List of Crop Plants Pollinated by Bees (wiki)
A new study finds pollinators help increase yields on
smallholder farms by nearly a quarter who grow food on plots of
five or so acres.
The annual value of global crops directly affected by
pollinators" ranges from $235 billion to $577 billion.
Worldwide lack of pollinators for crops. The results, detailed in
Nature Ecology & Evolution, showed that across diverse crops and
locations, one-third to two-thirds of farms contain fields that aren't
producing at the levels they should be due to a lack of pollinators. The
phenomenon of a low crop yield because of insufficient visits by insects
is known as pollinator limitation. Scientists have analyzed crop yields of
more than 1,500 fields on six continents, and found that production
worldwide of important, nutritionally dense foods such as fruits,
vegetables, nuts and legumes is being limited by a lack of pollinators.
Pollinators support the reproduction of about 88 percent of the world's
flowering plants and 76 percent of the leading global food crops.
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and
Ecosystem Services (IPBES)
Pollinator
-
Honey
Pollination loss removes healthy foods from global diets, increases
chronic diseases causing excess deaths. Inadequate pollination has led to
a 3-5% loss of fruit, vegetable, and nut production and an estimated
427,000 excess deaths annually from lost healthy food consumption and
associated diseases, including heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and
certain cancers, according to new research. It is the first study to
quantify the human health toll of insufficient wild (animal) pollinators
on human health.
No Mow May
is a movement that reminds people not to mow the yard for a month so that
dandelions and other wild flowers can bloom and let bees and other insects
live and continue to support our fragile eco-system that every life form
depends on. Lawns cover 40 million acres, or 2%, of land in the US, making
them the single largest irrigated crop we grow. Lawns are mowed, raked,
fertilized, weeded, chemically treated, and watered—sucking up time,
money, and other resources. Lawns provide little benefit to wildlife, and
are often harmful. Grass-only lawns lack floral resources and nesting
sites for bees and are often treated with pesticides that harm bees and
other invertebrates. When we think of habitat loss, we tend to imagine
bulldozers and rutted dirt, but acres of manicured lawn are as much a loss
of habitat as any development site. Re-thinking the American lawn can take
a variety of forms from reducing mowing frequency or area mown to
permanently converting lawn to a more diverse and
natural landscape.
Beekeeper is a
person who keeps honey bees and practices beekeeping. Honey bees produce
commodities such as
honey,
beeswax, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly,
while some beekeepers also raise queens and bees to sell to other farmers
and to satisfy scientific curiosity. Beekeepers also use honeybees to
provide
pollination services to fruit and vegetable growers. Many people
keep bees as a hobby. Others do it for income either as a sideline to
other work or as a commercial operator. These factors affect the number of
colonies maintained by the beekeeper.
Backyard Beekeepers.
International Pollinators Initiative -
Bee Culture
-
The ABC Xyz Bee Culture (amazon)
Mason Bee
-
Bee Source
-
Bee Removal Service
Beehive
is an enclosed structure in which some honey bee species of the subgenus
Apis live and raise their young. Though the word beehive is used to
describe the nest of any bee colony, scientific and professional
literature distinguishes nest from hive. Nest is used to discuss colonies
that house themselves in natural or artificial cavities or are hanging and
exposed. The term hive is used to describe an artificial/man-made
structure to house a honey bee nest. Several species of Apis live in
colonies. But for honey production, the western honey bee (Apis mellifera)
and the eastern honey bee (Apis cerana) are the main species kept in
hives.
Observational Indoor Glass Covered Beehive. (reddit video)
Bee's Knees is an
outstandingly good person or thing. Something or someone who is excellent
and surpassingly wonderful or cool. A highly admired person or thing.
Cat's Meow is an expression used to say
that someone or something is considered outstanding and is very appealing.
A highly admired person or thing. The cat's pajamas.
Bee
Sting is a wound caused by the
stinger
from a female bee (honey bee, bumblebee, sweat bee, etc.) being injected
into one's flesh. The stings of most of these species can be quite
painful, and are therefore keenly avoided by most people. Bee stings
differ from
insect bites, and
the
venom
or
toxin of stinging insects is quite different. Therefore, the body's
reaction to a bee sting may differ significantly from one species to
another. In particular, bee stings are acidic, whereas wasp stings are
alkaline, so the body's reaction to a bee sting may be very different from
its reaction to a wasp sting. The most aggressive stinging insects are vespid wasps (including bald-faced hornets and other yellowjackets) and
hornets (especially the Asian giant hornet). All of these insects
aggressively defend their nests. Although for most people a bee sting is
painful but otherwise relatively harmless, in people with insect sting
allergy, stings may trigger a
dangerous
anaphylactic reaction
that is potentially deadly. Additionally, honey bee stings release
pheromones that prompt other nearby bees to attack.
Melittin
is the main component and the major pain producing substance of honeybee (Apis
mellifera) venom (40–60% of the dry weight). Melittin is a basic peptide
consisting of 26 amino acids.
Apitoxin
(wiki)
Bee Venom is a complex
mixture of compounds, which include proteins, peptides, amino acids,
phospholipids, sugars, biogenic amines, volatile compounds, pheromones,
and a high quantity of water (>80%) (44–46).
Bee Venom Therapy has been used since
ancient Greece to help relieve pain from rheumatoid arthritis. This is due
to its anti-inflammatory and pain-relieving effects. Research has found
that
BVT can
lead to a decrease in swelling, pain, and stiffness in people with
rheumatoid arthritis.
EpiPen
or epinephrine autoinjector or
adrenaline autoinjector, is a medical device for injecting a measured
dose or doses of epinephrine or adrenaline by means of autoinjector
technology. When someone is experiencing a
severe allergic reaction, known as
anaphylaxis, which may cause death. It typically causes more than one
of the following: an itchy rash, throat or tongue swelling, shortness of
breath, vomiting, lightheadedness and low blood pressure. These symptoms
typically happen in minutes to hours.
Africanized Bee
is a hybrid of the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), produced originally
by
crossbreeding of the East African
lowland honey bee (A. m. scutellata) with various European honey bee
subspecies such as the Italian honey bee (A. m. ligustica) and the Iberian
honey bee (A. m. iberiensis). The East African lowland honey bee was first
introduced to Brazil in
1956 in an effort
to increase honey production, but 26 swarms escaped quarantine in 1957.
Since then, the hybrid has spread throughout South America and arrived in
North America in
1985. Hives were found in
south Texas in the United States in
1990.
Africanized honey bees are typically much more defensive than other
varieties of honey bees, and
react to disturbances
faster than European honey bees. They
can
chase a person a quarter of a mile or 400 m; they have killed some
1,000 humans, with victims receiving 10 times more stings than from
European honey bees. They have also killed horses and other animals.
Africanizedbee is also known as the Africanized honey bee or killer bee.
Bee Keeper Tools
Apidictor
is an instrument which measures and records the sound in a beehive. The
instrument records the aggregate sound made by the buzzing of the bees'
wings. They were thought[by whom?] to be useful for predicting when a
colony is preparing to swarm.
Bee
Smoker is a device used in beekeeping to calm honey bees. It is
designed to generate smoke from the smouldering of various fuels, hence
the name.
Cloake
Board is a special piece of equipment used in beekeeping to facilitate
raising queen bees. Invented by Harry Cloake, the cloake board, or floor
without a floor, consists of a queen excluder mounted to a wooden frame.
The wooden frame contains a slot which allows a "temporary" floor (solid
divider) to be inserted.
Hive
Frame is a structural element in a beehive that holds the honeycomb or
brood comb within the hive enclosure or box. The hive frame is a key part
of the modern movable-comb hive. It can be removed in order to inspect the
bees for disease or to extract the excess honey.
Honey
Extractor is a mechanical device used in the extraction of honey from
honeycombs. A honey extractor extracts the honey from the honey comb
without destroying the comb. Extractors work by centrifugal force. A drum
or container holds a frame basket which spins, flinging the honey out.
With this method the wax comb stays intact within the frame and can be
reused by the bees. Bees cover the filled in cells with wax cap that must
be removed (cut by knife, etc.) before centrifugation.
Honey
Super is a part of a commercial or other managed (such as by a
hobbyist) beehive that is used to collect honey. The most common variety
is the "Illinois" or "medium" super with a depth of 65⁄8 inches, in the
length and width dimensions of a Langstroth hive.
Jenter kit
is a piece of equipment used by beekeepers to raise large numbers of queen
honeybees. Rival techniques for rearing queen bees generally require
grafting the honeybee larvae by hand. As such, the development of this kit
by Karl Jenter is a significantly useful tool to assist in beekeeping.
Queen
Excluder is a selective barrier inside the beehive that allows worker
bees but not the larger queens and drones to traverse the barrier. Queen
excluders are also used with some queen breeding methods. Some
beekeepers[who?] believe that excluders lead to less efficient hives.
Refractometer
measures the extent of light refraction (as part of a refractive index) of
transparent substances in either a liquid or solid state; this is then
used in order to identify a liquid sample, analyse the sample's purity and
determine the amount or concentration of dissolved substances within the
sample. As light passes through the liquid from the air it will slow down
and create a ‘bending’ illusion, the severity of the ‘bend’ will depend on
the amount of substance dissolved in the liquid. For example, the amount
of sugar in a glass of water. A laboratory or field device for the
measurement of an index of refraction or refractometry.
Texas Bee Works
is beekeeping company based in Austin, Texas with a mission to preserve,
protect, and increase honeybee populations across the Lone Star State by
helping bees and beekeepers thrive. Founded by Erika Thompson on the
principle of putting hives before honey, Texas Beeworks supports the
health and wellness of honeybees by offering beekeeping classes, private
lessons, beekeeping services for ag exemption purposes, mentorships, and
more.
Honey bee life spans are 50 percent shorter today than they were 50 years
ago. A drop in longevity for lab-kept honey bees could help explain
colony losses and lower honey production in recent decades. A new study by
entomologists shows that the lifespan for individual honey bees kept in a
controlled, laboratory environment is 50% shorter than it was in the
1970s. As the first study to show an overall decline in honey bee lifespan
potentially independent of environmental stressors, this work hints that
genetics may be influencing the broader trends of higher colony turnover
rates seen in the beekeeping industry.
Bee Deaths - Bee Decline
U.S Beekeepers lost 44 percent of their total colonies from
April 2015 to March 2016. Insects pollinate 75 percent of the
fruits managed
honey bee colonies has plummeted from 5 million
in the 1940s to about 2.66 million today.
Honey bee colonies down by 16 percent in the winter of 2017-18 across
38 countries. The survey of 25,363 beekeepers in 36 countries found that,
out of 544,879 colonies being managed at the start of winter, 89124 were
lost, through a combination of circumstances including various effects of
weather conditions, unsolvable problems with a colony's queen, and natural
disaster.
Pesticides and Bees -
Common Pesticide Damages Honey Bee’s Ability to Fly
Marla Spivak: Bees Disappearing (video)
Neonicotinoid are a class of
neuro-active insecticides
chemically similar to nicotine. The neonicotinoid family includes
acetamiprid, clothianidin, imidacloprid, nitenpyram, nithiazine,
thiacloprid and thiamethoxam. Imidacloprid is the most widely used
insecticide in the world. Compared to organophosphate and carbamate
insecticides, neonicotinoids cause less toxicity in birds and mammals than
insects. Some breakdown products are also toxic to insects. Neonicotinoid
use has been linked in a range of studies to adverse ecological effects,
including
Honey-bee colony collapse
disorder (CCD) and
loss of birds due to a
reduction in insect populations.
Some scientific findings regarding the harm caused to bees by neonics have
been conflicting and controversial. This is partly because bees exposed to
normal levels of neonicotinoids do not immediately die. Some sources have
proposed that neonictinoids reduce a bee colony's ability to survive the
winter. Most academic and governmental bodies agree that neonicotinoids
have had a negative influence on bee populations. In 2013, the European
Union and a few neighbouring countries restricted the use of certain
neonicotinoids; in 2018, the EU banned the three main neonicotinoids (clothianidin,
imidacloprid and thiamethoxam) for all outdoor uses. Several states in the
United States have also restricted usage of neonicotinoids out of concern
for pollinators and bees.
The 6th Extinction.
An assessment of acute insecticide toxicity loading (AITL) of chemical
pesticides used on agricultural land in the United States.
Vanishing Bees -
Pesticides (body burden)
Varroa destructor is an external parasitic mite that attacks
the honey bees Apis cerana and Apis mellifera. The disease caused by the
mites is called varroosis.
National Map of Bee Populations
Stealing Bees -
Bee Informed -
Bee Informed Partnership
Thomas
D. Seeley Biologist
Bee declines driven by combined stress from parasites, pesticides, and
lack of flowers.
Bumblebee Atlas -
Xerces Society
High Number of Pesticides Within Colonies Linked to Honey Bee Deaths,
Some compounds commonly regarded as “bee-safe” could be a major
contributor to honey bee colony losses in North America.
For about a decade,
Bees been dying off at
an unprecedented rate—up to 30 percent per year, with a total loss of
domesticated honeybee hives in the United States worth an estimated $2
billion.
Climate change killing bumblebees.
What's killing bees
New clue emerges, winter die off (youtube)
Serratia
Marcescens is a species of rod-shaped Gram negative bacterium in the
family Enterobacteriaceae. A human pathogen, S. marcescens is involved in
hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), particularly catheter-associated
bacteremia, urinary tract infections and wound infections, and is
responsible for 1.4% of HAI cases in the United States.
Winter Cluster -
Winter Die Off
Air pollution particles may be cause of dramatic drop in global insect
numbers. Researchers report that an insect's ability to find food and
a mate is reduced when their antennae are contaminated by particulate
matter from industry, transport, bushfires, and other sources of air
pollution.
Microbe protects honey bees from poor nutrition, a significant cause of
colony loss. Researchers have identified a specific bacterial microbe
that, when fed to honey bee larvae, can reduce the effects of nutritional
stress on developing bees. When B. apis was added to these same bees,
although they had poor nutrition, they reached the same mass as control
bees given full nutrition. The microbe was able to make up for the poor
diet. This suggests that B. apis could be added to colonies as a probiotic
to protect from nutritional stress.
Bee populations at risk of one-two punch from heat waves, pathogen
infection. Extreme heat waves affect pollinators and the pathogens
that live on them, creating a mutual imbalance that could have major
economic and public health consequences. A global research team led by
Penn State was the first to study how extreme heat waves affect the
host-pathogen relationship between two species of solitary bees (Osmia
cornifrons and Osmia lignaria) and a protozoan pathogen (Crithidia
mellificae). The researchers found that the one-two punch of extreme heat
exposure and prior infection led solitary bees, which account for over 90%
of the roughly 4,000 species of bees in North America, to be less likely
to forage for food. If bees don't forage, they don't eat, and importantly
for humans, they don't pollinate crops that are vital to the global
economy and food security.
Honey bees experience multiple health stressors out-in-the-field. It's
not just a single pesticide or virus stressing honey bees, and affecting
their health, but exposure to a complex web of multiple interacting
stressors encountered while at work pollinating crops, found new research.
Scientists have been unable to explain increasing colony mortality, even
after decades of research examining the role of specific pesticides,
parasitic mites, viruses or genetics. This led the research team to wonder
if previous studies were missing something by focusing on one stressor at
a time.
Biotech firm says the U.S. has approved its vaccine for honeybees that
are plagued by
American Foulbrood, with previously no safe and sustainable solution
for disease prevention. Overt clinical cases of American
Foulbrood are notifiable in the USA and Canada, and the only treatment
method relies on the incineration of bees and infected hives and
equipment. Honeybees are a critical component of agriculture. One-third of
the global food supply relies on pollination, and healthy commercial hives
are essential to secure high crop yields.
Interesting Bee Facts
Bees have a positive charge and flowering plants have a negative charge.
Bees wings flap 230 times a second which creates
air vortices that
creates lift. Bees navigate using magnetism. Bees can travel
several miles from their hives to get food, or nectar. Bees keep the
hive a constant temperature using their body heat. One gallon of honey
gives a bee enough energy to fly 2 million miles. Some bees can fly as
fast as 45 mph.
Do a bumblebee's hairs talk to the flowers? It turns out that one
of the key functions played by the blanket of hairs on a bumblebee's body
could be to detect electric signals emitted by
flowers.
This Vibrating
Bumblebee Unlocks a Flower's Hidden Treasure | Deep Look (youtube)
Nectar is a sugar-rich
liquid produced by plants in glands called nectaries, either within the
flowers with which it attracts pollinating animals, or by extrafloral
nectaries, which provide a nutrient source to animal mutualists, which in
turn provide antiherbivore protection. Common nectar-consuming pollinators
include mosquitoes, hoverflies, wasps, bees, butterflies and moths,
hummingbirds, and bats. Nectar plays an important role in the foraging
economics and overall evolution of nectar-eating species; for example,
nectar and its properties are responsible for the differential evolution
of the African honey bee, A. m. scutellata and the western honey bee.
Nectar is an ecologically important item, the sugar source for honey. It
is also useful in agriculture and horticulture because the adult stages of
some predatory insects feed on nectar. For example, the social wasp
species Apoica flavissima relies on nectar as a primary food source. In
turn, these wasps then hunt agricultural pest insects as food for their
young. For example, thread-waisted wasps (genus Ammophila) are known for
hunting caterpillars that are destructive to crops. Caterpillars however,
do eventually become butterflies and moths, which are very important
pollinators. Nectar secretion increases as the flower is visited by
pollinators. After pollination, the nectar is frequently reabsorbed into the plant.
Honey
Honey is a sugary food
substance produced and stored by certain social hymenopteran insects. It
is produced from the sugary secretions of plants or insects, such as
floral nectar or aphid honeydew, through regurgitation, enzymatic
activity, and water evaporation. The variety of honey produced by honey
bees (the genus Apis) is the most well-known, due to its worldwide
commercial production and human consumption. Honey gets its sweetness from
the monosaccharides fructose and glucose, and has about the same relative
sweetness as granulated sugar. It has attractive chemical properties for
baking and a distinctive flavor that leads some people to prefer it to
sugar and other sweeteners. Most microorganisms do not grow in honey, so
sealed honey does not spoil, even after thousands of years. However, honey
sometimes contains dormant endospores of the bacterium Clostridium
botulinum, which can be dangerous to babies, as it may result in botulism.
People who have a weakened immune system should not eat honey because of
the risk of bacterial or fungal infection. Although some evidence
indicates honey may be effective in treating diseases and other medical
conditions, such as wounds and burns, the overall evidence for its use in
therapy is not conclusive. Providing 64 calories in a typical serving of
one tablespoon (15 ml) equivalent to 1272 kj per 100 g, honey has no
significant nutritional value. Honey is generally safe, but may have
various, potential adverse effects or interactions with excessive
consumption, existing disease conditions, or drugs. Honey use and
production have a long and varied history as an ancient activity, depicted
in Valencia, Spain by a cave painting of humans foraging for honey at
least 8,000 years ago.
Honey Bee is any
bee member of the genus Apis, primarily distinguished by the production
and storage of honey and the construction of perennial, colonial nests
from wax. Currently, only seven species of honey bee are recognized, with
a total of 44 subspecies, though historically, from six to eleven species
have been recognized. The best known honey bee is the Western honey bee
which has been domesticated for honey production and crop pollination.
Honey bees represent only a small fraction of the roughly 20,000 known
species of bees. Some other types of related bees produce and store honey,
including the stingless honey bees, but only members of the genus Apis are
true honey bees. The study of bees including honey bees is known as
melittology.
Western Honey Bee (wiki).
Honeycomb is a mass
of
hexagonal prismatic wax cells built by honey bees in their nests to
contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen. Beekeepers may remove
the entire honeycomb to harvest honey. Honey bees consume about 8.4 lb
(3.8 kg) of honey to secrete 1 lb (454 g) of wax, so it makes economic
sense to return the wax to the hive after harvesting the honey. The
structure of the comb may be left basically intact when honey is extracted
from it by uncapping and spinning in a centrifugal machine—the honey
extractor. If the honeycomb is too worn out, the wax can be reused in a
number of ways, including making sheets of comb foundation with
hexagonal
pattern. Such foundation sheets allow the bees to build the comb with less
effort, and the hexagonal pattern of worker-sized cell bases discourages
the bees from building the larger drone cells. Fresh, new comb is
sometimes sold and used intact as comb honey, especially if the honey is
being spread on bread rather than used in cooking or as a sweetener. Broodcomb becomes dark over time, because of cocoons and shed larval skins
embedded in the cells, and the tracking of many feet, called travel stain
by beekeepers when seen on frames of comb honey. Honeycomb in the "supers"
that are not used for brood (e.g. by the placement of a queen excluder)
stays light-colored. Numerous wasps, especially Polistinae and Vespinae,
construct hexagonal prism-packed combs made of paper instead of wax; in
some species (such as Brachygastra mellifica), honey is stored in the
nest, thus technically forming a paper honeycomb. However, the term
"honeycomb" is not often used for such structures.
Photo on right is from
Bees producing blue honey when collecting sugars from the dumpster of an
M&M factory.
Beeswax
is a natural
wax produced by honey bees of the genus Apis. The wax is
formed into "scales" by eight wax-producing glands in the abdominal
segments of worker bees, who discard it in or at the hive. The hive
workers collect and use it to form cells for honey-storage and larval and
pupal protection within the beehive. Chemically, beeswax consists mainly
of esters of fatty acids and various long-chain alcohols.
Flow Hive: Honey on tap directly from your Beehive
We got a
Beehive Honey tap at work. It's super cool (youtube)
Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees produce by
mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows,
or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open
spaces in the hive. Propolis is used for small gaps (approximately 6
millimeters (0.24 in) or less), while larger spaces are usually filled
with beeswax. Its color varies depending on its botanical source, the most
common being dark brown. Propolis is sticky at and above room temperature,
20 °C (68 °F). At lower temperatures, it becomes hard and very brittle.
Hallucinogen Honey Nepal Mad Honey (youtube)
Monofloral Honey is a type of honey which has a distinctive flavor or
other attribute due to its being predominantly from the nectar of one
plant species. It is stored and labeled separately so as to command a
premium price. While there may never be an absolute monofloral type, some
honeys are relatively pure due to the prodigious nectar production of a
particular species, such as citrus (Orange blossom honey), or there may be
little else in bloom at the time. Beekeepers learn the predominant nectar
sources of their region, and often plan harvests to keep especially fine
ones separate. For example, in the southern Appalachians, sourwood honey,
from a small tree that blooms late in the season, is highly regarded.
Beekeepers try to remove the previously produced dark and strong flavored
tulip poplar honey, just before the sourwood bloom, so it doesn't mix with
the lighter sourwood. During sourwood bloom, there is little else for the
bees to forage.
Mānuka Honey is a monofloral honey produced in Australia and New
Zealand from the nectar of the mānuka tree. The honey is commonly sold as
an alternative medicine.
The Higher K-Factor
relates to a higher percentage of Manuka pollen grains.
Leptospermum scoparium or mānuka, is a species of flowering plant in
the myrtle family Myrtaceae, native to Australia and New Zealand. Grows
into a moderately sized tree, up to 15 m (49 ft) or so in height. It is evergreen, with dense branching and small leaves 7–20 mm long and 2–6
mm broad, with a short spine tip. The flowers are white, occasionally
pink, 8–15 mm (rarely up to 25 mm) in diameter, with five petals. The wood
was often used for tool handles.
Mānuka sawdust imparts a delicious flavour when used for smoking meats and fish.
Honey Benefits
Honey: its Medicinal property and Antibacterial Activity. Indeed,
medicinal importance of honey has been documented in the world's oldest
medical literatures, and since the ancient times, it has been known to
possess antimicrobial property as well as wound-healing activity. The
healing property of honey is due to the fact that it offers antibacterial
activity, maintains a moist wound condition, and its high viscosity helps
to provide a protective barrier to prevent infection. Its immunomodulatory
property is relevant to wound repair too. The antimicrobial activity in
most honeys is due to the enzymatic production of hydrogen peroxide.
However, another kind of honey, called non-peroxide honey (viz., manuka
honey), displays significant antibacterial effects even when the hydrogen
peroxide activity is blocked. Its mechanism may be related to the low pH
level of honey and its high sugar content (high osmolarity) that is enough
to hinder the growth of microbes. The medical grade honeys have potent in
vitro bactericidal activity against
antibiotic-resistant
bacteria causing several life-threatening infections to humans. But,
there is a large variation in the antimicrobial activity of some natural
honeys, which is due to spatial and temporal variation in sources of
nectar. Thus, identification and characterization of the active
principle(s) may provide valuable information on the quality and possible
therapeutic potential of honeys (against several health disorders of
humans), and hence we discussed the medicinal property of honeys with
emphasis on their antibacterial activities.
Honey is also
only 17% water, which
sucks the water out of bacteria and kills it. Bees also have a antibiotic
chemical that is transmitted to the honey.
Bacteria from Bees possible alternative to Antibiotics. Thirteen
lactic acid bacteria found in the honey stomach of bees have shown
promising results in a series of studies. The group of bacteria
counteracted antibiotic-resistant MRSA in lab experiments. The bacteria,
mixed into honey, has healed horses with persistent wounds. The formula
has previously been shown to protect against bee colony collapse.
Sweet:
Honey reduces cardiometabolic risks, study shows.
Researchers have found that honey improves key measures of cardiometabolic
health, including blood sugar and cholesterol levels -- especially if the
honey is raw and from a single floral source.
Apitherapy is the
practice
of using bee products such as
honey, pollen, propolis,
royal jelly, and
bee venom for disease prevention or
treatment proposes. (Apis is a Latin word that means bee).
A Taste of Honey is Worse than none
at All, I don't think so. I would rather have a taste of honey than
always wondering what honey would have tasted like. Saying that once you
have a taste of honey you would always want more, and that
desire would torment you,
but only if you let it. Missing something doesn't have to be bad. Just
because you don't have something anymore, this doesn't mean that you
should
cry about it the rest of
your life. I will always remember honey and I would like to have some more
honey someday again, but there's so many other things in life to enjoy, so
I would rather enjoy all the other things and not worry about the things
that I don't have anymore. And if honey did come back, I would definitely
not mind having another taste of sweet sweet honey. But only as long as I
can still control myself and not let the honey turn into an
obsession, because that would be a
waste of good honey.
I Second That Emotion - Smokey Robinson (youtube)