Keeping Honey Bees: From Hive Management to Honey Harvesting and More by Kim Pezza

Keeping Honey Bees: From Hive Management to Honey Harvesting and More by Kim Pezza

Author:Kim Pezza [Pezza, Kim]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 978-1-57826-453-7
Publisher: Hatherleigh Press
Published: 2013-08-26T16:00:00+00:00


Types of Honey

There are many types of honey, and the type of honey you get depends on where your bees are getting their nectar from. In other words, if the bees feed on orange blossoms, you would have orange-blossom honey. If they are around clover fields, you get clover honey. If they feed from buckwheat fields, they will produce buckwheat honey, and so on. Wildflower honey would be honey made from various wildflower sources. In some honeys, these nectars and flavors may be blended as well. The color of the honey ranges from very light to very dark, with the flavor also depending on the nectar source.

Many consumers will ask if the honey is organic. While some areas do certify that their honey is organic, it is not the norm for the industry. It is very difficult to be sure that the honey that the bees produce is organic, for the simple reason that you do not know for sure where your bees have sourced their nectar and pollen. Even though you may have your hives in an organic orchard, for example, what if a few bees ventured away from the orchard to a neighbor’s fruit tree in his yard? Or another orchard a mile away, which may or may not be organic itself? As a result, few organic-certification organizations will certify honey as organic.

As a consumer, there are a few different ways that you can purchase honey. There is liquid honey, which is the most common form of honey there is. Liquid honey is what you normally see for sale in jars or little squeeze bears. Then there is granulated or crystallized honey, which has a sugary look to it. Creamed honey is liquid honey with finely crystallized honey added to it, while cut-comb honey is pieces of honey-filled comb, usually cut and sold in squares and, occasionally, rounded shapes. Finally, there is chunk honey, which is simply chunks of comb in a container of honey.

Many commercial honeys found in grocery stores have had the pollen filtered out. That leaves only the nectar, and although it is all natural from the honeybee, it is not considered real honey. Also note that, unless your store-bought honey says 100-percent organic, raw, or natural, you risk having corn syrup or high-fructose corn syrup mixed in. (In fact, imported Chinese honey can be up to 40 percent corn syrup.)



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