How do we use products from a hive?

Honeybees are quite amazing insects if you really think about it. Not only do they make it possible to have so many delicious fruits and vegetables but the products that they produce are used in so many different ways! The unique and diverse ways that these products are used my surprise you and who knows, you may even be already using them at home.

Health

What do you reach for when you feel a tingle in your throat? Make it your jar of honey or honey cough drops! Honey and propolis are found in many health products for the immune boosting properties found in them. Honey helps to naturally sooth a sore or scratchy throat. One product that you may not think of is pollen. Pollen is a great addition to your diet as it is high in protein and has many vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants found within the yellow, green, and orange pollen pellets collected by honeybees. This pollen can improve your imune system in addition to improving wound healing.

Beauty

Beeswax can commonly be found in beauty products such as chapstick, lotion, makeup, and even hand creams. The properties in beeswax not only helps to lock moisture into the skin but can also help to draw additional moisture to the skin. Royal jelly is another product made by bees that can be found in beauty products. Typically you will see royal jelly in facial and hand creams for its believed benefits that it helps to reduce the signs of aging. But besides beeswax and royal jelly, honey can be found in hand soaps, hair masks, and body wash as honey not only adds moisture to skin and hair but it can also help to reduce inflamation of the skin. 

Home Products

There are many uses of beeswax around the home! Making and using beeswax cloth wraps are a great alternative to plastic food storage bags if you are looking to wrap up some fruit or maybe a sandwhich. Not only is it reusable but it is also super easy to clean because beeswax repells water. The ability to repel water is a great reason to use beeswax to waterproof boots, clothing, tents, and equipment that you don't want to get wet. You may ocassionally see beeswax used in furniture and shoe polish or even applied to skis to help them glide. Firestarters are commonly found using beeswax to protect the firestarter from getting wet making it better able to handle the elements when camping. It can also be used to lubricate zippers, wooden drawers, instrument valves, or even grease your baking pans!

We can utilize the products of the hives in so many different ways. But the fascinating aspect is that many of these products have been used for thousands of years! Try incorporating products from the hive into your health care and beauty routine or maybe try some of the home products featuring beeswax.

8 Household Uses of Honey

Honey is more than a sweet treat! We find antibacterial, antifungal, antimicrobial (cleaning) and hygroscopic (helps with healing) properties in it which makes it useful for much more than eating. If you want to learn how honey gains these properties you can learn about it in our past blog post about enzymes. Honey has many purposes both in and outside of the kitchen. Try out of some of our favorite ways to use honey!

Honey sticks have 1 teaspoon of honey in them
which is the perfect amount for a face wash!

1. Energy boost: Honey has the power to give you energy! A lot of athletes take honey before their competitions. The healthy sugars and protein rich pollen in honey give your body the nutrients it needs to perform!
2. Face wash: To moisturize and clean your face with honey, simply wet your face with warm water and smooth some honey on your face. Leave it on 10-15 minutes and rinse off. You’ll find that your skin is cleaner, softer, and your pores are smaller. Tip: honey sticks are the perfect size for one face wash. Some Honey Queens like to travel with honey sticks to always have honey on hand for their face washes.
3. Heal cuts and wounds: Did you know honey can be used to treat small cuts, burns, and bites? Some people even call honey “Nature’s Neosporin because of the cleaning and healing properties. Take some honey on a band-aid and place on your wound. Some hospital use honey as their preferred treatment for burns.
4. Heal pimples: If you or your older sibling get pimples, you can dab some honey on it next time you get one. The cleaning properties of honey help it go away!

   

   Try adding honey to your favorite drink
   to soothe your throat

5. Hair magic: Honey can even be used on your hair! To moisturize your hair so it’s less frizzy and make it shiny, smooth  honey throughout wet hair and leave for 10 minutes before rinsing.
6. Beauty bath: Some say that Cleopatra bathed in milk and honey to keep her skin healthy and beautiful. Try adding a spoonful or two of honey to the water next time you take a bath!
7. Soothe your throat: Honey coats your throat whenever you eat it and is a natural cough suppressant. You can add it to tea or your favorite drink or snack. One of our favorite drinks is honey water which you can make by warming up water and adding honey to taste.
8. Sleep aid: Try taking a spoonful of honey before you go to bed to help you fall asleep!

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. 

Products of the Hive

The wonderful world of a beehive has long been known as the location where our honey bees make honey. What many don’t know is that honey bees make and collect other products for the hive. Those products can be extracted and utilized by us in our daily lives.

Honey

Honey is the most common product of the hive.

Honey is the most commonly thought of product that comes from the hive. Honey bees collect nectar from the hundreds of flowers they visit in a day. That nectar gets returned to the hive where it is deposited into a honey comb cell. The nectar is then fanned by a worker bee’s wings to get a lot of the moisture out for it to be turned into the honey we enjoy. Honey can be used for cooking instead of granulated sugar, for treating minor cuts and scrapes, and is a great remedy for treating a sore throat.

                                                              Beeswax

Beeswax is made from honey bees' bodies.

Honey bees produce tiny scales of beeswax from their body that they use to build up the honey comb and cover the nectar that has been turned into honey. Beeswax that is extracted can be used to make beeswax candles, lip balms, and other skin care products.

Pollen

Pollen is collected by honey bees to be used as food.

When a honey bee visits flowers to collect nectar, it is also collecting pollen. The pollen collected is stored on the back two legs of the bee on their pollen baskets. The pollen collected is returned to the hive where it is stored in a honey comb cell to be used for food. Some people use pollen as a protein supplement. They add it to their cereal, yogurt, or even in smoothies.

Pictured is royal jelly in queen cells

Royal Jelly

A worker honey bee has glands on their head that produce a special liquid we call royal jelly. This jelly is crucial for growing queen bees, but humans also use it. Royal jelly contains botox, which prevents wrinkles, it is shown to help with wound care and can be found in skin and hair care products like the shampoo I use!

Honey is More Than a Sweet Treat!

Honey is an amazing substance. It is a health-conscious sweetener, the only never-spoiling food, and is full of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants. Honey comes in more than 3,000 varietals worldwide, depending on the nectar source from the honeybee! This causes each honey varietal to have a unique color, flavor, and chemical makeup. While most people know honey as a sweet food, many do not know about honey’s other uses.

Honey comes in over 3,000 varietals worldwide.

One of the most remarkable things about honey is that it is antibacterial. With Spring just around the corner, more and more folks are outside to enjoy the fresh season! However, between gardening, hiking, and other outdoor activities, there’s bound to be some scraped knees here and there. An incredible and natural way to care for minor wounds is honey! Some years ago, my dog Chuck ran away from home. When we finally caught up to him, he had a large cut on his paw. We took Chuck to the veterinarian, and after getting a number of stitches, she asked us to put honey on his wound. Because honey is only 17% water, bacteria cannot live in it. Additionally, honey is so viscous and thick that when it covers a wound it not only blocks bacteria from entering the wound, but it actually draws bacteria out. At the same time, it secretes a minute amount of hydrogen peroxide which actually promotes the healing process. Today, Chuck has minimal scarring and his paw is just fine. Honey works the same way on humans as it did on Chuck. Many hospitals now order honey in bulk for its medicinal purposes.

Chuck wearing a veterinarian- recommended honey cast for his wound.

Honey and other hive products are also often used in natural cosmetics. Being allergic to many artificial substances, I opt for all-natural cosmetic products, which typically feature honey. For example, the honey in my shampoo creates beautiful iridescent bubbles and develops a natural sheen to my hair because of its many vitamins and minerals.

Honey is truly a miracle substance. While many people only see honey as a delicious sweet treat, it is so much more than just a food!

Propolis: the Glue of the Hive

A honey bee with tree sap for propolis in her pollen baskets

I’d like to introduce you to one of the amazing products of the beehive--propolis! Propolis is sticky glue that bees make by collecting sap from the buds of trees, then mixing it with beeswax and some of their own special secretions to create a glue. The color and makeup of propolis changes from one part of the world to another, and even from beehive to beehive.  

Bees made this entrance smaller by filling it with propolis

Have you heard that beehives are cleaner than a hospital? That’s because bees like a clean home and because propolis is antibacterial, so it helps to stop disease and bacteria in a beehive!

With more than 180 different compounds, propolis is the hive's chemical weapon against harmful pathogens and diseases. Propolis is antibacterial, antimicrobial, anti-fungal, antiseptic, antiviral, and antibiotic. It helps kill all the bad bacteria and keeps the hive healthy.

Scraping propolis off of the propolis trap

Honey bees have many uses for propolis inside the hive. It’s used to coat the whole inside cavity of the hive, smooth out any rough surface, and seal up cracks or holes in the hive. They even use it to imprison small hive beetles (a beetle that likes to hang out in beehives and eat honey) and to embalm (cover) dead animals like a mouse that might happen to die inside the hive.

In ancient times propolis was used to treat wounds

It’s not just the bees who find propolis useful, it has been used by humans for a very long time! Beekeepers harvest propolis from their beehives by using a propolis trap. In ancient times, propolis was used for its medicinal properties in treating wounds and tumors to fight infections and promote healing. The Egyptians even used it to embalm mummies!

Propolis is just as effective today as it was back then, and it is still used for medical purposes for fighting infection, boosting the immune system, healing cold sores, treating skin injuries, and healing the mouth after dental surgery. It can also be found in beauty and skin care products, cough syrups, and healing ointments. Propolis is even used in agriculture to fight plant viruses in certain crops! 
 

Raw propolis from a beehive

Propolis is another incredible product from honey bees that is important to the beehive and useful to humans. You can find propolis and many propolis products online, at your local health food store, or from your local beekeeper. 

Pollen: the Protein of the Hive

A honey bee brushes pollen grains off of her fuzzy body

Pollen is a fine powder that flowers produce as part of its growing process. When it is transferred from flower to flower through pollination, pollen fertilizes flowers and helps them grow seeds and fruits, vegetables, or nuts. When a honey bee lands on different flowers, she is covered in pollen, because it sticks to tiny hairs on her body. When she is completely covered in pollen, she hovers over a flower and uses special combs on her front legs to brush the pollen from her body into two pollen baskets on her back pair of legs. These baskets are like pockets made of tiny hairs. When the baskets are full, they will have bright round balls of pollen in them. She takes the pollen back to her honey bee hive where other worker bees take the balls of pollen off of her legs and pack them into cells for safe keeping.



Honey Bees store the pollen in cells in their beehive



Honey bees need pollen for food because it's a good source of protein that helps with muscle and organ development. Just like we eat nuts, meat and fish, cheese and yogurt or beans and lentils for protein, bees eat pollen. Honey bees also mix the pollen with honey to create “bee bread” which is fed to the baby bees and helps them grow and gives them energy. Pollen also contains fats, vitamins, and minerals which keeps the bees healthy. The pollen from one plant varies from another, and it comes in a rainbow of colors both bright and pale depending on the plant from which it was gathered. The colors of pollen include yellow, orange, green, pink, and blue. 

A pollen trap on the front of a honey bee hive

Beekeepers sometimes collect pollen from beehives by placing a pollen trap on the entrance of a hive. The pollen trap is made up of holes that the bees can easily fit through but are not quite big enough for those large balls of pollen to squeeze through. When bees crawl through holes in the pollen trap, it causes the balls of pollen to gently fall of their legs and into a tray that catches it. 

Pollen is very healthy for humans to eat because it contains many vitamins and minerals and is a rich source of protein. It is a great natural energy booster that helps keep you going all day. Bee pollen also has enzymes that aid the body’s digestive system (the breaking down of food into substances that can be used by your body). Enzymes help your body get all the nutrients you need from the food you eat. Also, pollen can boost your immune system and protect your body from disease and sickness. Lastly, pollen can be used to soothe inflamed and irritated skin and helps protect skin and build new skin cells. 

I’ll leave you with an amazing fact about pollen: it takes a bee working 8 hours a day for 1 month to make one teaspoon of pollen which contains over 2.5 billion grains of flower pollen in it!