Busy Bees
—Allison Bedosky, Education Director
The Rye Nature Center has been selling honey left and right. Not only does it taste delicious, but this sweet treat can be quite beneficial for consumers. The more local the honey is, the better it could be for you. Not only can honey help decrease seasonal allergy symptoms, but it has also been used to heal cuts and scrapes, and can be used as a moisturizer for hair and skin.
Most of us, when offered honey will easily accept, but do we even know how it came to be in that little clear jar? Thanks to our volunteer beekeeper, I think we can definitely appreciate the process even more. It all starts with the bees. About 25,000 to be exact. Most hives have between 50,000-60,000 honeybees, half of which are field bees that collect the pollen, and the other half are hive bees that take care of the queen and build the comb in which the honey is stored and eggs are laid. The honeybees have to visit about five million flowers to produce one pound of honey. The field bees collect the nectar and store it in an extra stomach. While in this stomach, the liquid nectar mixes with enzymes to transform it into a more durable form. The nectar is then passed from bee to bee. This process is repeated until it is finally deposited into a honeycomb. Because the nectar is still in a liquid state, the bees fan the honeycomb with their wings to help evaporate water from the comb. At this point, the bees seal in the comb with a liquid secreted from their abdomens, and this is where our beekeeper takes over.
The beekeeper first uses a smoker to keep the bees calm while removing frames of honey from the hive. Usually the bees will let the beekeeper work, but if there is a dearth, or a lack of nectar in the geographical area, he needs to be careful because other bees in nearby hives will try to rob the honey. Once the frames have been removed, he uses a knife to remove the wax coating, which opens the cells and lets the honey come out. The frames are then placed in the extractor, which is a machine that spins the comb, and through centrifugal force, the honey is forced out of the cells. He has to flip the frames multiple times, which can be time consuming, but overall we think it is definitely worth it, and quite delicious! Using only ten frames, our beekeeper managed to extract thirty pounds of honey. Now that is a lot of flowers that had to be visited.
Hurry, our local honey is almost all sold out!
