Hive Products by Robin Hall

Honey

The principal product from the hive is honey. Honey starts off as nectar (a mixture of water 80% and 'sugars' 20% and is primarily collected from flowers of plants, shrubs and trees. Bees draw the nectar from the flower via a long tongue into what is referred to as a honey stomach.

Here it is mixed with enzymes and these enzymes start to covert the nectar into honey. Back at the hive the foraging bee either dumps the nectar directly into a cell or passes it to another bee that does this. The honey processing bees add invertase to the nectar and start the long process of converting, the nectar into honey. From the original nectar containing 80% water the worker bees evaporate the water off so that at the end of the process less than 20% water is contained in the honey. When the cell is full the workers will cap the cell over with a layer of beeswax. This process is continuous though the spring and summer months when there is a flow of nectar. If the weather turns cold or wet then of course the bees will dip into the honey cells to keep themselves alive. We try to get the bees to store honey in 'supers' for our convenience but they will store honey around the brood nest to feed brood. In the summer months foraging bees literally work themselves to death and from egg to their final day is often only 30 days duration.

Pollen

This is collected in vast quantities from various plants. Pollen isn't all yellow in colour. It can vary in all shades from white to black. Working out from the colour of pollen brought in can give an indication of what plants the bees are visiting. Don't forget you have to relate the colour to the plant that you know is in flower at that particular time. Pollen is protein to the bees. It is collected by the bees from various flowers and carried back to the hive attached to the back legs of the bee. In the hive it is packed into cells covered with a thin layer of honey and capped over. Pollen is also mixed with honey and this enables the bees to have their main course and pudding together. A ready prepared meal! As pollen is protein and protein makes for big fat bouncy babies bees chew pollen and together with honey prepare food for developing larvae. This is sometimes known as 'bee bread' and is highly nutritious. A similar but even more greatly enriched food is fed to developing queen bees and this is known as 'Royal Jelly'. In various parts of the world royal jelly is collected and sold. This is added to a number of health products.

Pollen can he collected via a special screen, which strips the pollen loads from the honey bee. This can be dried and carefully stored for feeding back to the bees in the spring. Care should be taken doing this as disease can be spread this way.

Propolis

Often known as bee glue. The word propolis is derived from two Greek words with mean 'before the city'. Early beekeepers noticed that bees collected propolis that they then used to build around the entrance of their colonies thereby protecting the colonies from intruders. Bees collect propolis from various trees and sometimes plants. 'Trees such as pine, Alder, Poplar, and horse chestnut are all prime candidates as producers of resin which is collected by bees and when taken back to the hive is used to strengthen comb and to fill every little nook and cranny. Some bees collect more propolis than others and this is considered by beekeepers not to be a good trait. Propolis has anti-bacterial qualities as well as anti-fungal and antiseptic properties. It is said that hives where bees collect more propolis are healthier than those who collect little. Propolis varies from light amber in colour to near black depending on the source. Propolis can be collected by the beekeeper and has value. It is used in a number of alternative medicine products.

Beeswax

The production of beeswax is second to that of honey. It is a very valuable product and has been used over the centuries in many ways, these include candles, lost wax process in casting, in medicine and household to name but a few.