What do people think about honey in ancient times?

In ancient China people believed that honey heals all internal organs, gives strength, reduces fever, tempers will, gives lightness to body and prolongs youth and lifetime.

What is the caloric value of honey?

One kilogram of honey contains 3150 calories. It is equal to the caloric content of wheat bread, condensed milk, lamb, beef, veal liver.

What is the nutritional value of honey?

Nutritional value of 200 g of honey is equal to 450 g fish oil, 180 g of fat cheese, 240 g of walnut kernels, 350 g of meat. Body can absorb 100% honey (meat – 95%, eggs – 95.5, milk – 91, white bread – 96, black bread – 85, potatoes – 89).

How to get monofloral honey?

You need the following conditions: beehives are placed in the center or close to the main array of the honey plant. Family groups are placed no more than 40-60 families in a group. Before the beginning of flowering of plants you should pump all the honey, except honey, located on part of the open brood. Monofloral honey is pumped only in clean extractor from the framework without brood and pollen. You should not mix the different botanical origin honeys.

How to determine by the external features white honey?

White honey in a liquid state is colorless or slightly yellow, during crystallization it turns into light amber mass, very sweet. It has a strong sharp spicy taste and tickles in the throat, and a pleasant aroma.

What percentage of glucose in lime and buckwheat honey?

White honey contains 35.6% glucose, buckwheat – 31.1%, the water content is 16.9% and 20.1%.

When honey can ferment? With higher water content, because of content of yeast and enzymes from it the sugars break down into a number of products, such ethanol, carbon dioxide, water, glycerol, fusel oils, higher alcohols, acetic acid. Honey gets darker, water content increases,accumulated by-products give it a peculiar odor, flavor and taste. Emit carbon dioxide increases the amount of honey, the foam appears on the surface. The most favorable temperature for fermentation is 14-20°C (68 F) and the water content is about 22%.

Why you need to pasteurize the honey?

Honey is pasteurized to destroy osmophilic yeast or to get honey, which will not crystallize for 6-8 months. Honey is heated to 77-78°C (172 F) for 6-7 min and then is quickly cooled.

Why honey is heated?

Heating is used for the conversion of crystallized honey into the liquid before bottling, to reduce viscosity prior to filtration. In industry there are special cameras that are heated with hot air, steam or hot water at a temperature of 60-70°C (158 F). Usually honey is melted within 12 hours.

At what temperature the honey should be stored?

The optimal humidity in the room should be about 60%, the temperature is not above +10°C (50 F).

Why honey is blended?

Blending – is a mixing of different types of honey to produce a product of the desired quality. Usually they mix a weak flavored honey with honey with spicy taste and strong aroma. Blending is carried out also to equalize the moisture. They use homogenizers for blending – vehicles with a mechanical stirrer.

What is the difference between honeydew honey and the flower?

In contrast to the flower, honeydew honey is made from honeydew, sweet secretions of aphids, scale insects. Honeydew honey contains high amounts of mineral salts, dextrins, nitrogen and other substances. ITs color is varied from light amber (from conifers) to dark (from deciduous plants). Viscosity is higher. It has specific taste, sometimes unpleasant. Honeydew honey is harmless. Honeydew honey is harvested in the same way as the flower.There are reports that honeydew honey is valued as highly as the flower. Is this true? Honeydew honey is not different from the flower by sweetness. It has much more protein, dextrin, macro and micronutrients, which are involved in the process of exchange of solid matter in the body. Therefore, many people give preference to honeydew honey.

Can honey diastase be a reliable indicator of naturalness?

Diastase activity provides knowledge about its naturalness, the conditions of heating and storage. All kinds of fraud, including honey with sugar, have less diastase activity. Long-term storage of honey at both high and low temperatures also lowers the diastase number. However, not all honeys have high diastase activity. Honey locust has a low diastase number.

Can I keep honey on the light for a long time?

Can not. The work of the German scientist Dustman (1978) proved that honey, stored at the window for 48 hours, loses medical properties.

How can you understand that honey is overheated?

It can be measured in the laboratory to determine the reaction to hydroxymethylfurfural. Honey, stored in the sun, contains a large number of hydroxymethylfurfural – harmful substances to the human body. Elevated level of hydroxymethylfurfural sometimes indicates that honey was faked with commercial glucose or artificial invert sugar, obtained by acid hydrolysis of sugar.

What honey has the high biological activity?

The composition of honey consists of about 300 different substances, including: 65-80% carbohydrates, 20% water and 7-15% other substances. The main components of carbohydrates are simple sugars: glucose and fructose. Their number depends on the sweetness and nutritional value. The biological activity is determined by enzymes, hormones, vitamins, and trace elements. They are responsible for the pharmacological effect: tonic, anti-microbial, anti-inflammatory, and others, so that the honey has been used successfully in the treatment of many diseases.

How much honey can I eat?

Honey is useful to all healthy and the sick, which have no restrictions in the use of carbohydrates. Normal daily dose, divided into several portions, is 100-150 g for adults and 30-50 g for children. Very large portions – 200 g or more are inappropriate, especially for prolonged use.

What distinguishes “express” honey from the natural?

Instead of natural nectar bees take 50% sugar syrup with added extracts of various herbs, fruits, vegetables, juices and other substances. It is not honey, as it is made from sugar, processed by the bees, and does not contain a complex of biologically active substances.

Can I use honey for sore stomach?

Popular wisdom says: “Honey – is the best friend of the stomach.” Scientific studies have shown that honey, depending on the method and time of admission, may regulate the secretory activity of the stomach, reducing the secretion of gastric juice at the high acidity and increase at a low. In the treatment of various gastric diseases people use the solution of honey (1-2 tablespoons per cup of water). At the high acidity of gastric juice you should drink it slowly, dissolving in warm water for a couple of hours before a meal, at a lower acidity drink the solution at room temperature 5-10 minutes before a meal.

How to choose a good honey?

Honey should be natural and should not contain sugar, starch, molasses, and other additives, have no more than 20% water. During long term storage it should crystallize. Period of crystallization depends on the plant species from which it was collected. Usually, all honey, except acacia, are crystallized in about two months after pumping. Honey color can range from light yellow, amber to dark green, it can have slightly sour taste, sometimes sharp, specific flavor.

Can I pump honey from comb containing brood?

Cells with a small amount of capped brood can be pumped to the extractor. Moderate rotation does not cause harm. Opened brood cells you cannot take to pump, as the larvae fall out of the cells and die.
How Americans dry frames of multi-hives after the pumping of honey?

On large farms they do not dry framework as they use powerful extractor groove, developing a large centrifugal force. This honeycomb has a tiny amount of honey, so that it kept well without drying. In the room where the honey is pumped out, they keep the temperature around 30°C (86 F), so the viscosity of honey decreases. To cells not torn off in extractor, they tighten 7 vertical wires or they use Wax, consisting of three layers, the middle layer – is plastic with high strength, coated on both sides with wax.

Do I need to spray the cells with water before drying?0

Yes, you do. This promotes faster drying of combs.

Does the honey collected from different plants, has different therapeutic effect?

Honey collected by bees from various plants has dissimilar properties. Honey from lime or acacia is used as a sedative, chestnut honey promotes good blood circulation, rape honey has a beneficial effect on varicose ulcers, dandelion – is used as a diuretic and has a beneficial effect on the kidneys, honey from sage cures the gastro- intestinal tract, causing sweating, honey from thyme has different antiseptic properties.

Wax

What wax is standard?

Standard wax has a light yellow, white, yellow, dark yellow and gray color, natural waxy smell, homogeneous structure, and may have the color irregularity, solids content.

What do you need to do to get a quality wax?

To get a high-quality wax from raw materials you should remove solutes. Soak waxy crude in cold or heated to 30-40°C (86-98 F) water. For melting of wax you use dishes from aluminum, stainless steel, tinned iron, tin, enamel and wood.

Where should I store the wax raw materials?

Keep raw wax in dry, well-ventilated area. If the temperature exceeds 10°C (50 F), the wax raw materials must be well compacted to avoid moth. Wet waxy material can be self-heating so raw of II and III grades should be stored in thin layers. Well dried waxy material can be stored for a long time.

Is it possible to define a natural wax by appearance?

You can. Bar of natural wax has flat or slightly concave surface and broken with a hammer easily. If it contains paraffin, it has the concave surface. A hammer does not break it, but forms a dent, where wax is slightly lighter.

Is the wax used in medicine?

Wax is just starting its way into medicine, though it was used with honey by Hippocrates. It is used to save the pharmaceutical properties of other substances (in candles), as a coolant (in applications). It is used for the manufacture of ointments, plasters, salves in combination with drugs.

What substances are contained in the wax?

The wax contains carbohydrates, esters, acids, mineral substances which have softening, anti-inflammatory and other medicinal properties. The wax has a significant percentage of vitamin “A”, which plays an important role in nutrition and restoring of skin tissue.

How to lighten the wax?

Melt the dark wax, add hydrogen peroxide – per 1 kg of wax – one tablespoon of peroxide. After cool slowly, so the wax becomes lighter.

Royal Jelly

When people started to use royal jelly as a therapeutic drug?

Royal jelly is marketed under this name in the fifties of XX century.

Is the royal jelly different from the cow milk by the structure?

Royal jelly contains proteins 18%, the cow – 4%, sugar – 15% and 5%, fats and lipids 7% and 4%.

How much royal jelly is contained in a queen bee cell?

An average – 230 mg of royal jelly.

How much royal jelly can be collected from the family of bees?

Family, ready to swarm and feeding at the same time 60 larvae can provide 100 to 400 grams of jelly per season.

Has the royal jelly valuable properties after freeze-drying?

Royal jelly, obtained by dehydration of raw royal jelly by vacuum freeze-drying has less amino acids.

Can I use for prophylaxis royal jelly and honey?

Royal jelly and honey is produced by mixing 2 g of royal jelly and 100 g of honey. It is recommended as a tonic in the recovery period in cases of severe fatigue, for children with physical debility, during puberty and adolescence, when you need to use a large number of substances with high nutritional and energy value.

What is the effect of royal jelly on the female body?

It has particularly beneficial effect on the woman’s body after childbirth, it improves lactation, regulates metabolism, restores power.

How quickly does jelly deteriorate?

It quickly deteriorates because of sunlight, oxygen, moisture, and especially heat. Under the influence of light there are a chemical recovery processes of aldehyde and ketone groups in jelly, oxygen causes oxidation, inactivates various components. Jelly begins to change its properties in 2 hours after removal from the queen bee
cell. At the temperature from 0°C to 30°C (32-86 F) it can be stored for 20 hours at 3-5°C (40 F) it loses biological properties after 12-24h. During the process of aging the humidity increases. It becomes unsuitable for treatment.

Where to store the jelly?

In cans from a dark glass, tightly stoppered with a plastic strip and poured with wax. You put them in the refrigerator and store at a temperature -6°C (20 F) to 6 months, and at +6°C (42 F) – one night for the transportation.

Can I keep jelly in honey?

For the purpose of conservation the royal jelly is mixed with honey. Add to one part of jelly 20 or 100 pieces of honey, mix it well with sucrose in a ratio 1:4, glucose – 1:20. Lithuania has developed a way to preserve it with anhydrous glucose. Glucose is dried at 105°C (220 F), it loses crystal water and acquires the ability to bind water of raw royal jelly.

How to adsorb jelly?

To extend the life of raw jelly, they use adsorption method. Effective adsorbent is a mixture of lactose (98-97%) and glucose (3.2%). They thoroughly ground in a porcelain mortar one part of jelly with four parts of the adsorbent, getting a thick smooth, called intermediates. It can be stored at 6°C (40 F) 4-6 months before drying.

Can I use jelly from the queen cells directly in the apiary?

You can.

Can you determine bad royal jelly by appearance?

Natural royal jelly has white or light cream color, with a slightly sour taste and pungent, characteristic odor, creamy consistency. There are small inclusions that are slightly thicker. Jelly with unusual taste and smell, foam, dark color, solids is unsuitable.

Pollen

What is the value of pollen and what is its content?

Pollen is a rich source of protein for bees. It has enzymes. It contains about 250 different compounds and substances: proteins, fats, carbohydrates, amino acids, vitamins, etc.

How much pollen can be collected from the family for a day?

In good weather, from one family you can collect up to 0.2 kg of this valuable product. Pollen-catchers are
placed late at night or early in the morning so the first bees pass through them. Pollen is collected every day before dew.
Why I should quickly dry the pollen?
Pollen by moisture quickly deteriorates, has mold. Nutritional and medicinal qualities are lost. After 16 hours the pollen humidity increases from 20 to 24.6%, with a pH from 6,25 to 6,45, mold colonies – from 297 to 460.

At what temperature should I dry pollen?

Pollen is dried at 40-45°C (105 F). It is dried in a specially designed device. Pollen is sprinkled by a layer of 2 cm on a nylon mesh (capacity of room is 60 kg). An electric radiator blows the warm air that rises up and goes through the holes in the frame. As a result of the circulation of heated air they get dry pollen within 12 -24 hours. Dried pollen is not dusty.

How to prepare pollen and keep it up to spring and how to feed bees with it?

Pollen is collected from ripe plants (hazel, alder, corn, etc.) by shaking, it falls on a piece of paper or film. Pollen is dried in the open air, in the shade, sieved and poured into glass jars with a tighten lid. In modern beekeeping is widely used pollen-traps so they can get from a family up to 2.5 kg of pollen in areas with abundant polliniferous vegetation. Since the beginning of honey collection you should stop collection of pollen. Keep it in a cool, dry place, preferably in a mixture with honey (in equal parts). You can store and ambrosia. To do this, cells with bee bread are cut into strips along the row of cells. Mixture of ambrosia and honey is stored in a glass jar, Honey should be at least half of mixture. Give mixture to bees in spring, 200-250 g per day or every other day, putting it to empty cells.

How pollen affects the aging body?

Pollen is used as a stimulant at the phenomena of aging and age-related weakness. After four month consumption of the pollen the content of triglycerides in the blood serum is reduced more than 2 times, uric acid – 1.5. It regulates the functions of digestion, restores appetite, helps with severely depleted.

What is the value of pollen diet for a person?

Daily consumption of pollen improves health: tiredness and fatigue fade, peace of mind returns to a man, joy of life and the desire to work appear. The beneficial effects of pollen are based on the fact that the body gets rid of toxins. A daily dose of granular pollen brought by bees or stored in the cells is from 0.5 teaspoon to one tablespoon. Pollen is necessary to use with honey, fruit juices, vegetable juices.

Can I use the pollen and honey in the treatment of prostatitis? Can I use substitutes of pollen?
Pollen and honey cure this disease. It can be taken preventively also. There are a lot of recipes of artificial pollen, but none of them is effective. Pollen can only be replaced by ambrosia. Ambrosia and honey mixture (1:1) is taken by one dessert spoon 3-4 times a day after meals.

How much time can be stored dried pollen?

Dry pollen should be packed in plastic bags up to 25 kg and kept in a clean, dry area at temperatures from 0° to 14°C (32-57 F). Guaranteed period of storage of pollen from the bees is 1 year.

Is it possible to preserve pollen?

Yes, you can preserve it. To do this, lightly sprinkle it with water from a spray and in a few hours thoroughly mix 1 kg of honey with 1 kg of pollen. In the absence of honey you take the same amount of thick sugar syrup 1:2. Crystallized honey is pre-dissolved on a water bath. The mixture is placed in a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shelf life is unlimited.

Is the pollen in the food industry?

Pollen is added to baked goods, cookies, baby foods, wafers, chocolates. It is in hermetically closed container and mixed with honey and powdered sugar.

Is it advisable to use the pollen in the treatment of gastro-intestinal diseases?

Pollen regulates bowel function if you have constipation or chronic diarrhea.

Propolis

What is propolis?

Propolis is a waste product of bees and is a combination of active substances of plant and bee origin.
Propolis contains about 30% beeswax, 40-60% resins and balsams, 5-10% essential oils, about 20% solids, 5-15% tannins, pollen and others.

How much can you collect propolis from the family of bees?

Regardless of a breed the bee family can give 50-100 g of propolis.

What is the origin of bee propolis?

The origin of propolis is independent of the bee. By origin propolis can be of two kinds: the first bees collect from buds (birch, poplar, conifers, etc.) and use it to narrow the notch, seal cracks and lap in the hive, the second – secreted by bees balsame substance as a result of digesting of flower pollen is used in cells.

At what time and how to collect propolis?

During the inspections propolis is scraped with a chisel from frames and walls of the hive. To increase the collection of propolis they put wooden or plastic rails (width 12 mm (0.5”), length 440 mm (17”), the distance between 2-3 mm (0.07”). Stick them with glue on canvas with size to match the size of the hive, and place on top of the framework, and remove the canvas. The gaps between the planks bees fill with propolis, then you just replace them. Roll them up and put for a few hours in the refrigerator. Then remove and process.

What is the easiest way to increase the amount of propolis in the hive?

You can use the nylon mesh to collect propolis. The mesh, instead of lap, is placed with sizes 1,5 × 1,5 mm (0.05”). In the summer, when the bees fill cells, it is immediately replaced. Roll 3-4 meshes and place for 1.5-2 hours in the freezer of refrigerator. Propolis becomes fragile and it is easy to remove it from the mesh.

What about valuable properties of propolis during the storage?

Propolis is storage rolled into lumps, wrapped in plastic or parchment and placed in a sealed brown glass jars or in plywood boxes. In such a container at a temperature of 25°C (77 F) propolis can be kept for one year. The stored properly propolis retains its properties over 1-5 years.

How to separate wax from propolis?

Wax and propolis have different specific gravities. To separate them from each other you make crushed powder from the mixture and pour a lot of cold water. Wax floats and propolis drowns. Another way: a mixture is poured with alcohol (70-96°) and repeatedly shaken (every 1-2 hours). Propolis is dissolved, and the wax and other impurities settle to the bottom. There are also efficient industrial technologies.

Cleaning the lap of propolis is done manually or by mechanization?

Cleaning the lap of propolis is made in a centrifuge. To preserve the quality they produce briquettes weighing 25-100 g with a hydraulic press.

Assembling the hive for the winter we notice that the lap is soaked with paint from fence. How to explain this?

With a lack of propolis in the time of greatest need bees sometimes use sticky resinous substances, including paint.

Bee venom

Is bee workable after receiving an electric shock during the selection of poison? What is the impact of such a bee sting on a person?

Loss of poison without removing the stinger does not affect the normal activity of the bees. If the bee aged 5-10 days gives bee venom, it is still able to accumulate poison as glands cease to function after 20 days of the life of bees. According to research by the Institute of Apiculture, the selection of the poison has no effect on wintering of bees, but it can reduce their honey-productivity to 24%.

Has the bee, just released from the cell, bee venom? Can it sting?

Just born bee does not have venom, these bees do not sting. Poison is accumulated by the end of the third week of life. After venom gland cells die and secretion of poison stops.

Can bee venom injected into the body of a person suffering from atherosclerosis, has a negative impact on the health?

Yes, it can. Before using any bee products in the treatment, you should consult with your doctor.

What is the stability of bee venom to temperature changes?