Having worked once in a lab where sugars were starting materials, I like to tell people that the sugars in honey, glucose and fructose, are the same as those in invert or hydrolyzed sucrose. High fructose corn syrup has the same sugars. Corn sugar is all glucose but today they have enzymes that can convert half to fructose.
Critics complain that high fructose corn syrup is bad for you but are silent about the sugar in fruit which is fructose and none of these eco-nuts will want to tell you that fruit is bad for you.
Honey as you point out has other flavors and substances in it and unfiltered may simply be a product in low production making cost slightly higher.
It depends on the size of the colony , but there are general guidelines . With 2 deep and one medium box on , I like to have my hives weighing around 90-110 lbs in late November . They don't eat so much when it's cold - under 40° - but it takes a LOT of resources to "brood up" in the spring . Population contracts in late summer/into fall , then around late February (here , other places timing might be different) they start to build up again for the spring nectar "flow" . Peak population in my hives is probably around 35,000 to 45,000 bees . Takes a lot of bees to bring in all that nectar and pollen !
One thing we've thought of doing is having a bee hive in the back yard, but I don't know enough about it to try it, yet. We see a lot of bees at the garden center, but don't see very many in our back yard even though we've planted a lot of flowers to attract the bees.
You'd have a hard time finding anything but unfiltered raw honey around here . Processed honey is a city thing ... well , actually a consumer-driven thing . People want their honey crystal clear , and unfiltered honey is often slightly cloudy . I prefer mine straight from the comb , just strained thru some cheesecloth to get most of the wax and bee parts out .
Check with your county extension agent , he is likely to know where and when you can get some training . In the meanwhile go to
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and read up . Everything you wanted to know about bees and a lot more - including plans to build your own beehives . You might also want to look up your state's beekeepers association , they can maybe help you find a local-to-you beekeeper that might let you watch and help .
We got our first colony just 4 years ago (2013) about this time of year . We're up to 7 now - assuming the nuc (nucleus hive) I made almost
2 weeks ago is successful in making a queen . I checked 5 days after I put them in the nuc box (holds 4 deep frames) and they had queen cells started . Of the other 6 , 3 are 2 years or more old , 1 I started last spring , and 2 were started this year . I've had *very* good luck with bees ... and I give a lot of credit for that to the local beekeeper that has been mentoring me .
Yer choice bubba . Mine too , and this year's spring crop is awesome . Very mild flavor , light floral aroma . Great on fresh baked bread slathered with real butter . The wife says it really enhances the flavor of her morning tea .
Not really , the secret is lightly smoking them , and moving slowly . Sudden motion makes them defensive . Timing makes a difference too , you want to go into the hives while most of the foragers are out doing their thing . And during times when there is no nectar out there they tend to be defensive - they think you're there to steal their food ... I've gotten so when i do get stung it burns for a few minutes then goes away . Skeeter bites bother me a lot more than bee stings . Did you know that some people sting themselves on purpose ? Something in the venom has medicinal properties , look up "apitherapy" for more detail .
Honey is actually one of the healthiest "natural" sweeteners and is also a potent infection fighter.Yes, it can spike your insulin, but honey is actually VERY beneficial for coronary artery disease. Many beneficial compounds. From the US Library of Medicine: Honey is rich in phenolic compounds, which act as natural antioxidants and are becoming increasingly popular because of their potential role in contributing to human health. A wide range of phenolic constituents is present in honey like quercetin, caffeic acid phenethyl ester (CAPE), acacetin, kaempferol, galangin which have promising effect in the treatment of cardiovascular diseases. Many epidemiological studies have shown that regular intake of phenolic compounds is associated with reduced risk of heart diseases. In coronary heart disease, the protective effects of phenolic compounds include mainly antithrombotic, anti-ischemic, anti-oxidant, and vasorelaxant. It is suggested that flavonoids decrease the risk of coronary heart disease by three major actions: improving coronary vasodilatation, decreasing the ability of platelets in the blood to clot, and preventing low-density lipoproteins (LDLs) from oxidizing. In this review paper, we discussed the preventive role of polyphenols of honey against cardiovascular diseases.
This is speeking of raw, or natural, honey.
Highly processed honey looses some of these advantages, and some commercially sold honey is not even 100% pure honey - having been stretched with "corn syrup" or, from China - "Rice syrup" and even water, gypsum, and various starches. It is often adulterated to keep it from crystalizing.
A lot of our medicines had their genesis in natural products. Question usually is, is there enough present in the natural product to be effective. A coworker once told me that Linus Pauling himself had actually told him to get his Vitamin C from rose hips because of the other ingredients.
I remember a 60 Minutes story on Dr. Andrew Weil who advocates health benefits of natural products.
This is a negative url that I googled up on the interview:
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but the question was on availability of the natural medicine in the various sources recommended varying all over the map.
Yellow jacket stings were painful to but I tolerated them but now appear to be allergic. I needed a prednisone pack for one that stung me on the finger and my whole hand was swollen like I had a glove on the next day. Honeybees are fairly docile but I would not take any chances.
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