The Honey Journey

Humans discovered honey many thousands of years ago. Since the discovery, humans have made many purposes for this sugary sweet syrup. In the ancient society, honey was used to cure wounds and diseases, moisten and soften the skin, and embalm the dead. Today, modern people use honey as food and ingredient for cosmetic products. No surprise, because although honey is composed of mostly sugar, it is known to have certain vitamins and minerals and antioxidant and germ-killing properties.

Honey is not originally made for humans. It is bee food. Bees create and store honey to help them through the winter when there are not enough sources of pollens and nectars for making food. The stored honey is called surplus honey, and this is what beekeepers gather.

Honey-making is an interesting process. It starts with the bees gathering nectar from flowers using their proboscis (tongue). They use their "honey stomach" to keep the substance, where certain enzymes start converting the nectar into honey. In the beehive, the honey is passed from bees to bees through the tongue, digesting and regurgitating the honey several times. This repeated process allows the honey to thicken. The bees then place the regurgitated honey into a honeycomb and start flapping their wings to allow the honey's water content to evaporate until it becomes around 18% water. When the sugar and water content reaches a favorable ratio, the bees cap the comb, and the honey is considered ripe.

It is time for the honey harvest. The beekeeper takes out the hive frames and, using an uncapping knife or a serrated bread knife, starts uncapping the honey-filled combs. The de-capped combs are then put in an extractor machine to extract all the honey. Directly from the extractor, the honey is filtered to remove wax pieces and bee debris using a very fine sieve. Honey is usually filtered twice before it is left to settle for 24 hours. Then, it is ready for bottling.

What should have been a bee food stored in a hive now finds its way to the store shelves, dinner tables, or cosmetic bottles. Humans, not knowing how and why honey was created to begin with, enjoy all its benefits. The bees, oblivious to their contribution to human diet and wellness, again do what they are made to do: look for nectars, process them into honey, and share with humans their finest treasure.