HONEY AND BEEKEEPING

Based on the origin we distinguish between floral and honeydew honey. Floral or honey out of nectar is made from the nectar of blossoms, whereas honeydew honey is made of honeydew mostly from the excretion of insects on living plant parts or excretions of plants.
Honeydew is excreted by some insects (lice, cicada, scale insects), which feed on phloemic juices of trees. In their intestines, the enzymes transform the sugars into amino acids. The insect organism absorbs only a small part of the substance, mostly sugars, the rest is excreted in the form of drops on their abdomen. Because a chemical reaction occurred, we can no longer speak of an phloemic juice, now we speak of honeydew, which is found on many trees in the form of sweet drops (chestnut, spruce, fir, linden, birch, beech, maple …).

With floral honey the bait for the pollinators is the nectar or flower pollen. Some plant species reproduce with the transfer of flower pollen. Nectar contains the biggest, up to 70 per cent portion of sugars with the mix of amino acids, proteins, lipids, organic acids, antioxidants, minerals, dextrins and etheric oils.

We can quickly notice the difference between floral and honeydew honey. Floral honey has the aroma and smell if the flower from which it originates, the taste is usually sweeter than honeydew honey, the colour lighter. Floral honey also has a higher proportion of pollen. On the other hand, the honeydew honey is more muddy, darker in colour, with a bitterer aftertaste, and also dissolute harder in the mouth.

Worker bees bring nectar or honeydew to the beehive, then young worker bees partly drain the drops to get rid of the excess water. The process of thickening is done so that the bees repeatedly spit out a sweet drop to partly dry it on air, and then swallow it again, adding a lot of enzymes, which change the composition of the to-be-honey. Such a process usually takes approximately 20 minutes, until the nectar or honey dew is thickened and appropriate for further ripening, which takes three to four days. The cells of the combs, which are filled to the brim, are closed by the bees with a wax capping, which is an important sign for the beekeeper. When the combs are covered with such cappings to about two thirds the time for extracting is ripe.

The combs are taken out in good weather, all the while taking care not to take those with the brood, arranged into clean boxes, we prevent the bees access and carefully transport it to the extraction room. The room for extraction has to be carefully equipped, controlled, tidy and clean, bright and of appropriate temperature of between 25 and 30 °C.

What follows is the opening of the combs, which requires a lot of precision and suitable equipment. In this process, we remove the wax cappings, which were previously made by the bees. We must to take extra care so that the honey in the comb does not cool down and not come into contact with bees or other insects.

Afterwards we start extracting the honey, where extra precision is once more required not to damage the combs. We have to realise that we have taken food from the bees with the extraction of honey, therefore we have to feed them to prevent possible starvation.

Because in the process of extraction unwanted particles may wander in the honey (like parts of wax, bees, wood), we strain it through a sieve of an appropriate density, with which we remove bigger unwanted parts, but not the wanted pollen.

What follows is the skimming of honey. After three days, the wax parts float to the top. This foam must be removed as soon as possible, because it binds moisture from the air on itself, otherwise it could affect the aroma.