Benefits of Honey

Honey is a great food that both honey bees and humans consume. Honey bees collect pollen and nectar from flowers that they visit during pollination which they take back to their hive to turn into honey. Honey is primarily made up of sugars and water, with trace amounts of vitamins and minerals. Some of the key vitamins and minerals are: calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, zinc and more!

One way to use honey in addition to consuming it, is using it for wound care. Honey has been shown to speed up the process of wound healing, particularly burn wounds. 

Honey can also be used as a cough suppressant. This is because honey helps thin mucus and loosen coughs. Just taking two teaspoons of honey can help relive nighttime coughs for better sleep and more comfortability. 

Honey also can help various diseases by reducing heart risks, lowering memory loss, and even boosting one's mental health. In addition, honey contains antioxidants, which helps protect the body from inflammation. 

Bee Healthy with Products of the Hive

Honeybees are the only insects to provide humans with products that we can use. But did you know that these products of the hive can help to keep you healthy? Humans have been harvesting honey for more than 8,000 years while Ancient Egyptians used honey as part of their beauty regiment 3,000 years ago. From beauty care regiments to health supplements, the products of the hive can make you beautiful and healthy both inside and out.

Honey

One of the most apparent products of the hive packed with many health benefits is honey! There are trace amounts of vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and vitamin B6. Besides the trace vitamins and minerals found in honey, this golden liquid has antioxidants but also improves your health by lowering blood pressure and has been shown to improve cholesterol. In addition to using honey as a sweetner or in your cooking, it has other uses like a moisturizing hair mask or skin scrub. Honey is a humectant helping to draw moisture to the skin when used as a mask leaving your skin smooth and hydrated and helping to combate acne and inflammed skin. It is the antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties found in honey that make it a great option when you have a cough and are looking for a soothing remedy or as a wound treatment. For years, honey has been used as an alternative wound care treatment on cuts, scraps, burns, and sunburns because of its ability to promote healing and prevent infection.

Pollen

Pollen is not only food for the bees but also something that we can enjoy because of the numerous health benefits. In pollen, there are over 250 proteins, amino acids, minerals like calcium, magnesium, and potassium, as well as vitamins A, E, D, C, and B. Pollen also has high quantities of antioxidants which can decrease wrinkles and signs of aging but also can decrease free radicals that lead to cancer. But those are not the only health benefits as pollen can lower high blood pressure and the risks of heart diesease. So the next time you are cooking, try incorporating some of those delicious yellow, green, and brown pollen pellets into your recipe to get a flavor boost in addition to the numerous health benefits found in pollen!

Propolis

The bee glue as it is sometimes referred to can close the openings within the hive but also be consumed as a way to keep you healthy. Because of the antifungal and anti-inflammatory properties in propolis, it has been used for thousands of years for wound healing in medicine and for beauty. Propolis can help to stimulate blood flow while also decreasing inflamation from bug bites, rashes, and other skin irritants. Your oral health can also benefit from consuming propolis as it can reduce plaque and heal sores. 

Beeswax

Besides the pleasant aroma of a beeswax candle to calm and relax you after a long day, the additional health benefits of beeswax may surprise you. When using beeswax in skin care products like lotion, makeup, chapstick, and face masks, the vitamin A works to rejuvenate and soften the skin. A beeswax lotion will add moisture to the skin but also help your body to retain the natural moisture found in the skin by creating a barrier from the elements. The healing properties of beeswax reduce acne as well as black spots but also help to reduce the appearance of scars. Incorporating beeswax into your skin care routine is easy and will benefit your skin.

Bee Bread

Bee bread is not only food for the bee larve but can also be consumed by humans. Bee bread is comprised of pollen, honey, beeswax, and enzymes mixed in from the bees and is filled with vitamins and amino acids. Besides the trace nutritional benefits, bee bread can help you when stressed to sleep better at night. 

Royal Jelly

Royal jelly sounds like it has to be healthy because it is royal. Royal jelly is nature's superfood for the bees and the queen. The queen bee is fed a diet made up of only royal jelly which helps her to develop into the largest bee and the bee responsible for laying eggs each and every day. The most common use of royal jelly is in beauty creams to promote collagen production. In addition to promoting collagen production, royal jelly is both antibacterial and antiviral which can assist in boosting the immune system. 

From pollen to honey, it is easy to be healthy with the many products of the hive. These poducts can be incorportated into your daily beauty regiment, your daily meal prep, or even into your health care routine! 

What do Bees Eat?

Did you know that honeybees eat more than just honey? They eat a couple different types of food to stay healthy and have energy to work!

Of course honeybees eat honey! They make it from nectar, the sugary substance flowers make to invite the bees to visit. The honeybees gather this nectar to make into honey. You can learn about how honeybees make honey in our past post called “How Do Honeybees Make Honey?” The honey they eat is the source of carbohydrates and gives them energy. Did you know that honey is a good energy source for humans too!

The pollen baskets are packed full!

Honeybees also eat pollen (a powdery substance flowers make) for their protein. They mix the pollen with nectar and pack it onto their back legs into their pollen baskets. They then carry the pollen home to feed to the brood (baby bees). This pollen keeps the honeybees healthy so they can fight off infection in the hive and help the baby bees grow big and strong.

The milky substance inside the cells is royal jelly.

Royal jelly is a milky, protein rich substance that the honeybees feed special eggs to make them become a queen bee. If the egg wasn’t fed royal jelly then it would become a worker bee, but when an egg is fed the special food it supercharges their development so that they are able to lay eggs and become a queen bee. Royal jelly is made from glands in the bees’ head. Some people like to eat royal jelly because it has so many healthy proteins in it. While it doesn’t turn you into a queen bee it can be a great way to keep yourself healthy.

Lastly, honeybees drink water. All living animals need water and honeybees are no different. They look for slow moving sources of water because honeybees can drown. Pollinating and collecting nectar is a hard job and the worker bees need somewhere safe to land to take a drink of water. We wrote back in February about how you can build your own bee water bath!

Bees Like to Clean

This is what propolis looks like in a beehive.
It glues the frames together and seals all cracks.

Do you know the first thing a female honeybee does when she is born? She crawls out of her honeycomb cell, turns back around,  and begins cleaning. Honeybees like to keep their home clean. Have you ever heard it said honeybees keep their hives cleaner than a hospital? They do this through their use of propolis and cleaning each other.

Propolis is made of sap from trees mixed with beeswax and enzymes (special substances which give cleaning and medicinal properties). Beekeepers like to call it “bee glue” because it is a sticky substance the honeybees use to seal up cracks so no dust or debris can come in the hive. Just like a lot of the other products of the hive, propolis has cleansing properties. It cleans the air and any substance it comes in contact with. In fact, the air is so clean that it is considered sterile.

This nasal spray has propolis in it to boost
your immune system.

Just like honeybees love propolis for cleaning, a lot of medicine companies like to make cough drops with propolis. You can also find propolis in tinctures (propolis in liquid form that you can take a drop of if you’re getting sick), lip balms, toothpaste, mouthwash, and nasal spray. You can use propolis just like the honeybees do to stay healthy!

The second way honeybees keep the hive clean is through their behavior. If a hive is infected with a disease, the worker bees will remove everything infected and it will not be allowed back inside the hive. This is especially important to prevent spread of diseases. Once they remove it, they clean everything again with propolis. The honeybees even help clean each other and the queen to keep the hive as clean as possible. 

These bees are cleaning off a bee who came 
home from a day foraging.

By using propolis and having careful behavior, honeybees keep the hive extremely clean. 

How do Honeybees Make Honey?

Have you ever wondered how honeybees make honey?

Well, flowers need pollination from honeybees to grow fruits, vegetables, and nuts. The way the flowers entice honeybees to pollinate them is by producing a sweet substance called nectar. The bees gather the nectar to turn into honey for their food. When a bee lands on a flower it will stick out its tongue (also called a proboscis). The proboscis is shaped like a straw and helps the honeybee suck up the nectar. 

Notice the bee's proboscis drinking the
nectar from the flower?
Photo: dalantech - deviant art

The nectar is then stored in a bucket inside their body called a honey sac. Honeybees can’t carry buckets like we can, so they store it in a special bucket inside their body. Inside the honey sac, the nectar is mixed with enzymes, special substances which give medicinal properties to honey. These enzymes add antibacterial, antimicrobial, and hygroscopic properties. That means honey is like nature’s Neosporin. Next time you get a cut or wound, put some honey on it and then a band-aid. The honey will clean the wound because of the cleansing properties and keep it moisturized and sealed to help it heal with as little scarring as possible. Many hospitals even use honey to help heal burns.

Honey stored in the honeycomb
Photo: Igor Dmitriey

While the honey is mixing with enzymes, the honeybee will fly home to her beehive. Inside the beehive the bee will deposit the honey from her honey sac into the honeycomb. The honeycomb is where baby bees are laid and born as well as the food (like honey) is stored. The bees will fan their wings over the nectar to dehydrate the honey (take some of the water out). Once some of the water is taken out, we have a thick, syrupy honey. The honeybees will put fresh beeswax over the honeycomb cells to make sure no dust or dirt comes in while the honey is stored until it is needed.

After all the hard work, the bees now have honey. Honey is their main food source, and they often have an excess amount of it. A beekeeper can then come in to take their extra honey they don’t need, so we can enjoy it too. Next time we enjoy honey drizzled on a biscuit or a honey smoothie, we should thank the hardworking honeybees.

Medical World of Honey

Honey is a food that never spoils and a substance most commonly used for eating. Yet, the wondrous properties of honey don't stop there! Honey can also be used as a medicine. Honey has antibacterial properties which help create an ideal wound healing environment for any scrape or cut you may have. If you do end up getting a cut or a scrape, just apply honey to the wound and wrap it in gauze. The honey will keep the wound moist and sterile to help it heal from the inside out which will reduce scarring!

Honey has been used as medicine for ages.  During the World Wars, many supplies were rationed and people had to make sacrifices. This rationing also affected the doctors and surgeons in war zones. In order to still provide for the injured, doctors would use honey on their medical equipment! They would dip the medical utensils into the honey which would then sterilize the equipment before they used it. While it would create a sticky situation, the benefits of the honey were pretty sweet!

Throughout the year, many of us struggle with a sore throat at some point. If it's from a cold or simply from how much you talk in a day, honey can aid a helping hand! Honey, especially buckwheat honey, has been proven to be a better sore throat aid and cough suppressant than the normal cough syrup you get at a drug store. Next time you suffer from a cough, give honey a try!

Whether you want to use honey on your toast in the morning or keep it in your first aid kit, the many uses of honey are endless!

Honey's Top Ten for 2018

Happy New Year, Honey! A new year equals a new you, and 2018 promises to be the sweetest yet. Start your year off right with these TOP TEN honey tips and tricks!

TEN
You're going to need a lot of energy to make it a great 2018! Try this recipe for Honey Energy Bars. Honey is often called "nature's perfect energy." Whereas refined sugar simply has empty calories, honey contains small amounts of proteins, enzymes, amino acids and minerals.

NINE
Sadly, it's likely you or someone in your family will get sick this winter. Try this recipe for Honey Cough Syrup to soothe your sore throat.

EIGHT
Homemade slime, putty and play dough is all the craze among young people! Try this easy recipe for Honey Play Dough.

SEVEN
There are more than 300 varieties of honey in the US. It all depends on the flower the bee got the nectar from! Make a goal to try at least two new kinds of honey in 2018. Buckwheat honey is great in BBQ sauces and wildflower honey would be delicious in honey butter!

SIX
When Spring arrives, plant a bee-friendly garden in 2018! Plant native flowering plants like Bee Balm, Blackeyed Susan or Goldenrod, and choose flowers that bloom at various times throughout the growing season so the honeybees will have a continuous supply of food.

FIVE
Honeybees add nearly $20 billion to the value of US crop production through pollination! As honeybees gather pollen and nectar for their survival, they pollinate crops like apples, cranberries, melons and broccoli. Try this pollination experiment that uses Cheetos!

FOUR
Read a book about honey, beekeeping or honeybees in 2018! Check your local library or read one of our favorites: Jump into Science: Honeybees, The Honeybee Man or What if There Were No Bees?

THREE
Use honey to help with your seasonal allergies! By eating a few teaspoons of local honey each day, your body can build up an immunity to the pollens in your area.

TWO
Did you know Cleopatra used to take baths with milk and honey for soft and silky skin? You can, too! Try this recipe for Milk & Honey Bath Melts.

ONE
Start every day out right by eating honey for breakfast! Try spooning some into hot tea, drizzling it on your peanut butter toast or sweetening up your oatmeal.

Enzymes in Honey

Did you know that the honeybee is the only insect that makes food for humans to eat? Honey is the only food that never spoils! When the honeybee puts the flower nectar into her honey sac inside her body, she mixes three important enzymes into the nectar that makes it into honey. What is an enzyme? An enzyme converts one thing into another. The three enzymes honeybees add to nectar are called invertase, diastase, and glucose oxidase. These enzymes are what give honey its medicinal properties and allows it to stay fresh for many years. 


Once the honeybee flies back to her hive box, she puts the nectar into a wax cell in the honeycomb. When the wax cell is full of nectar, she fans the nectar with her wings to reduce the water content, and now she has made what we call it honey. She caps the cell with a thin layer of wax to protect the honey to use as food later.

Each enzyme added by honeybees serves a purpose. Invertase converts most of the sucrose of nectar into glucose and fructose. In other words, it converts one kind of sugar found in nectar into two alternative sugars. Diastase becomes an essential part of the honey which breaks down starch into glucose. It is important that this takes place because glucose is the easiest sugar molecule to digest. This means that these first two enzymes help make honey healthy for eating. The last enzyme, glucose oxidase works to produce gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. Each of these helps protect unripe honey from getting bad bacteria and helps to protect against fermentation. Without these three enzymes, honey could easily become spoiled, would be harder to digest, and could even become contaminated with bacteria.  

Honey is great for eating and baking, but honey can also be used outside the kitchen as well. It has many healing properties and can be used to help with allergies, provide all-natural energy, boost memory, suppress coughs, aid sleep, treat dandruff, heal wounds and burns, strengthen immune systems and even help in anti-cancer treatments. Honey is truly remarkable. Without the honeybee and the special enzymes they produce, we would not have honey. We can be thankful for this special insect ~ the honeybee!

Honey In Medicine

Did you know honey is used as a medicine?  

In ancient science and medicine, honey was appreciated for its unique healing properties. Some of the earliest known medical writings, including the Ebers Papyrus, include honey as an important ingredient in many remedies. Today, honey is used to heal burns and wounds, treat allergies, fight infection and soothe sore throats. 

Honey can be used to heal wounds, cuts, scrapes, burns and for other medicinal purposes. Honey is antibacterial which means it kills germs; honey is also known as a humectant. This means it will hold in moisture. Since it is antibacterial, it keeps the wound clean and its moisture helps the wound to heal well. Wounds sometimes can show no signs of healing after long periods of time. It has been found that when wounds like this are treated with honey, the healing process and cell regeneration begins. Honey does this by promoting the formation of granulation tissue and by stimulates cell growth and the growth of epithelium (a type of tissue) over wounds. These two necessary tissues basically form the new skin of the wound when it begins to heal or is healed. Honey will prevent infections, help the cut heal faster, and prevent scaring by forming tissue. 

Honey is also excellent if you have a sore throat or cough. Eating honey or adding it to hot tea can help coat and soothe your throat. Also, eating 1-2 tablespoons of honey a day can help to boost your immune system!

Honey in general is very healthy! The next time you head to your local farmers market or buy honey from a local beekeeper, remember honey is not just for eating! It has a multitude of other uses. Think of honey as nature’s medicine chest! For more information on honey as nature’s medicine check out the book Honey: The Gourmet Medicine by Joe Traynor.

Honey: In the Kitchen

Have you ever tried honey and peanut butter together on a sandwich? How about honey on your pancakes for breakfast? Honey is a great complement to every meal! It can be eaten by the spoonful or mixed with other ingredients to make some deliciously sweet  dishes. 

First, choosing which kind of honey you would like to use. Honey comes in all colors and flavors! In fact, there are more than 300 different varieties of honey in the United States and over 3,000 worldwide. Each of these honeys has a different color and flavor. The flavor of honey is determined by the nectar the bees gathered. Different flowers produce different flavors as well as different colors of honey. Some honey can be light in color and very clear, almost like water. Bees can also make honey that is thick and dark like molasses. Typically, the lighter the honey in color, the milder in flavor. Darker honey is stronger and bolder in flavor. Lighter honeys, like clover honey are great to eat on toast or to sweeten drinks. Many people like to sweeten coffee or hot tea with honey. Honey and green tea is great for when you have a sore throat. The hot tea helps to sooth while the honey coats and works to heal your throat. The next time you have a sore or itchy throat, try adding 2 tablespoons of honey to one cup of hot tea. Darker honeys like Buckwheat are great for cooking and baking. 

Here are three tips when you are baking with honey.

1. Reduce the liquid called for in the recipe by ¼ for each cup of honey used. 
2. Add ½ teaspoon of baking soda for each cup of honey used. 
3. Reduce the oven temperature by 25 degrees F to prevent over browning. 

Whether you’re making a honey glaze for a ham or just adding it to fruits or vegetables in a recipe, the stronger honey will add a bold delicious flavor. Try this simple recipe for honey carrots! Combine 1 cup carrots, 1 tablespoon butter and three tablespoons honey. Heat on medium heat for 12 minutes. Stir and enjoy! Both lighter and darker honey is a great alternative to other syrups. If you want to try something new, use honey instead of maple syrup on pancakes and waffles. Or next time you want some chocolate or strawberry milk, try adding honey instead! Try it on your ice cream. 

Besides its deliciously sweet taste, honey also has many health benefits that make it good for you. Honey is a good source of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are your body’s primary fuel for energy. This makes it a great energy booster! If you play sports, try some honey before your next game or practice to give you an extra energy boost. Many athletes and Olympians use honey for energy. There are also lots of vitamins and minerals in honey. Vitamins and minerals boost your immune system, help you grow and develop properly and help cells and organs do their jobs. Lastly, honey is antibacterial, so it kills bacteria and keeps you healthy. 

One last tip: remember to keep honey in your pantry--not your refrigerator. The cold will cause it to crystallize. However, if your honey does crystallize, put the container in a bowl of warm water and the crystals will dissolve. Honey never spoils!

Honey, the Liquid Gold

The many colors of honey!

Have you ever wondered why there are different colors and flavors of honey? Each kind of flower produces a different flavor and color nectar that bees use to make honey. We have different kinds of honey because honeybees are flower consistent. This means that instead of going from one kind of flower to another, (like from a sunflower to an orange blossom, and then to a clover flower) she will work one kind of flower on each trip until there is no more nectar in those flowers. When beekeepers bring their bees to pollinate a specific crop, like blueberries, the bees will only be visiting blueberry flowers, so it will make blueberry honey. There are actually more than 300 different kinds of honey in America, and more than 3,000 kinds in the world! Each type of honey has a unique flavor and color. The color of honey can range from a clear “water-white” to a dark brown color. The lighter honeys have a mild flavor, while darker honeys have a strong, bold flavor. It’s fun to try different kinds of honey and taste and see the difference between each of them.

Besides its deliciously sweet taste, honey also has many health benefits that make it good for you. Honey is a good source of carbohydrates. Carbohydrates are your body’s primary fuel for energy. This makes it a great energy booster! If you play sports, try some honey before your next game or practice to give you an extra energy boost. Many athletes and Olympians use honey for energy. Honey is also full of antioxidants which help protect cells in your body from harmful molecules. There are also lots of vitamins and minerals in honey. Vitamins and minerals boost your immune system, help you grow and develop properly, and help cells and organs do their jobs. Lastly, honey is antibacterial, so it kills bacteria and keeps you healthy. 


Honey is also wonderful to use in cooking, and is useful as more than just a sweetener. It can add a special touch to any recipe. With all the unique flavors to choose from, it can add great flavor to your recipes. Honey is a humectant, which is something that holds moisture and water, so it helps keeps baked goods moist and soft. Honey is antibacterial and antifungal so it keeps bacteria and mold from growing and helps baked good last longer. Honey is also an emulsifier and thickener. If you were to take water and oil and mix them together and shake it vigorously, little oil droplets are dispersed throughout the water. Then, if you let it sit, the water and oil will separate. What an emulsifier does is bind things together, so it would help that water and oil to mix together and not separate. Because honey is an emulsifier and thickener, it works well in sauces and dressings. 

Try this delicious and easy honey recipe to cool off and get energized this summer!

Fruity yogurt honey pops 

Honey is a sweet addition to any recipe.

• 1 cup - pitted cherries or ½ cup strawberries (or other fruit of your choice)

• 1 cup - nonfat Greek yogurt

• 2 tablespoons - honey

In a small food processor or blender, puree the fruit for 30 seconds to 1 minute. Do not blend for too long or the puree will become too watery. In a measuring cup or bowl with pouring spout, stir together the yogurt and honey. Stir in about 2 tablespoons of the fruit puree. Taste and add more honey or fruit puree as desired. Pour fruit and yogurt mixture into popsicle molds, filling about ¾ of the way. Add wooden sticks and freeze for at least 3 hours. To remove: run warm water over the bottle of the popsicle mold and gently twist and pull out the popsicles.