Oh, Honey! What a Difference!

Lighter honey usually has a milder flavor (not quite as strong).
The darker honey will typically have a more intense flavor- and
it all depends on what the bees visit!

Did you know there are different types of honey? Different types of honey come from different flowers- because the nectar that the honeybees collect varies from one plant to another.  In fact, there are 300 varieties of honey in the United States- about 3,000 worldwide!!! 

3,000 different types worldwide?  That means that you could try a new variety of honey every day for over eight years!

Some common and popular types of honey: 
Clover- one of the most readily available sources of honey in the United States.  Most clover honey comes from the Midwest (especially North and South Dakota, and Minnesota).
Buckwheat- a very dark honey that has a rich, robust flavor.  Many people use the darkest varieties of honey for baking.  Check out some honey recipes at the "Cooking with Honey" tab or on honey.com.
Fireweed- Fireweed honey from Alaska could possibly be mistaken for water!  It's a much lighter color and has a very light taste, too.

See if your state has a unique type of honey!  Look on honeylocator.com , ask a local beekeeper at a farmer's market or fair, or see your state's beekeeping fact!

"Bee in the Know":  Honey draws in moisture from the air, so you can use it to keep muffins and bread fresh!

No Pumpkin Pie?

In the fall, many of us eat some special types of food and particpate in fun fall activites!  But did you know, some of that food wouldn't happen without honeybees?  Honeybees (and other types of wild bees) pollinate pumpkins.  So without honeybees we would have a lot fewer pumpkins for jack o' lanterns or pumpkin pie!

Pollination review:
Pollen is the male part of flower.

Honeybees in a pumpkin blossom (see the pollen?)

The female part of the flower is inside (we usually can't see it)
When honeybees take pollen from one flower to another, some of that pollen falls off, into the flower.
This makes a seed.
Fruits, vegetables, and nuts usually grow around the seed (like pumpkins!)

So, as you are carving your pumpkin, scooping out all the seeds, or roasting pumpkin seeds for a quick snack, or eating pumpkin pie for Thanksgiving, think about the work of the honeybees!

"Bee in the Know":  Honeybees pollinate pumpkins and many other vine crops, including cucumbers, watermelons, and cantaloupes!

The Queen's Business

When I visit schools, one of the first questions I'm always asked is "If the queen bee dies, what happens?".  So we are going to learn about the two things that happen if the queen bee gets sick or dies. 

1. WITHOUT ANY HELP FROM THE BEEKEEPER

If something happens to the queen bee, the worker bees know within hours that she is not there producing her special scent and laying eggs.  They get to work right away!  The worker bees will randomly select around 5 or 6 eggs from the past few days (if the queen lays around 1,500 eggs every day, they may have a few thousand to choose from) and start feeding them a special food.  This food, called Royal Jelly, is very high in protein and makes the queen bee start to develop.  Since the queen is longer, the cell she's growing in looks a little different- more like a peanut.  The queen bee that emerges first (out of the 5-6 queen bee "wannabees") has to kill the others!  She then goes to mate with drones and comes back to the hive to lay eggs for the rest of her life!

2. WITH SOME HELP FROM THE BEEKEEPER

Sometimes the beekeeper helps this process out to make it go a little faster.  Beekeepers can buy a queen from another beekeeper and put her in the hive where she'll start laying eggs very quickly.  Did you know there are beekeepers that raise queen bees?  Let's look at what they do! 

The beekeeper will remove or separate a queen bee from its beehive, so the bees think they don't have a queen (called queenless).  Then the beekeepers select very young larva- about 3 days old.  They put these larva into cups.  The bees then start feeding these larva the Royal Jelly to turn them into queen bees. Once they are ready to emerge, the beekeepers separate them (so they don't hurt each other) and put them into tiny beehives where they can mate with drones and start laying eggs!

"Bee in the Know":  The queen is the only bee in the hive that lays eggs (she'll lay about 1,500 each day)!  These eggs can turn into worker, drone, or a new queen bee.

Honey is Not Just for Cooking!

Although I certainly enjoy my peanut butter and honey sandwiches, honey is not just for cooking. Honey is antibacterial. Antibacterial means it will fight off and kill germs so it is like hand sanitizer. Because honey is antibacterial, you can put honey on a minor cut or scrape to help heal it quicker. You can also use it like a cough drop for two reasons: it will soothe your throat and help kill the bacteria causing you to feel sick.

Honey is also known as a humectant. This means it will hold in moisture. You may find honey in many different lotions which will keep your skin feeling soft and smooth. You can also find it in lip balm like in the Burt’s Bees lip balm I use made with beeswax and honey. Beeswax and honey can both keep your lips feeling soft and smooth.


Athletes, including Olympic athletes, enjoy using honey as an all natural quick source of energy. If you are feeling tired before playing sports like basketball, baseball, volleyball, or football, you can take some honey to give you an extra boost of energy.

Try using honey for something new today!

"Bee in the Know":  Scientists found out that honey works just as well as over-the-counter cough medicine to make your scratchy throat feel better.

The Story Behind the Smoke

The smoker is one of the most recognizable tools that a beekeeper uses- and also the one that causes the most questions!  Let's find out what a smoker does, and how it works!

Honeybees are very gentle, but sometimes can become nervous or aggressive when a beekeepers inspects the beehive- especially if the beekeeper accidently bumps the hive and the bees think they are in danger!   The earliest beekeepers realized that if they were going to get the honey, they would have to distract the honeybees.  So they invented the smoker.

What does a smoker look like and how is it used?  It has a can with a spout on the top.  Beekeepers build a fire inside the can using some kind of a fuel  (examples: burlap sack, wood chips like you would use for animal bedding, pine needles)  Using the bellows, we pump air through the can and out the spout.  Smoke comes out out! 

So how does a smoker work?  Well, when the honeybees smell something burning, they get busy eating honey for energy.  If the building you were in was on fire, you would run out as fast as you can.  Honeybees have to eat to have the energy needed to be able to fly.  The smoker distracts them; they are busy eating honey and not worried about the beekeepers.  The smoker also helps to cover up honeybee alarm pheromones.  Pheromones are a type of chemical signal or scent; the alarm pheromone is produced when something is intruding on the hive- kind of like saying "watch out, there's somebody here!".  When a beekeeper uses a smoker, it helps to cover up that scent!

Smokers do not hurt the bees in any way- it just helps to calm them down.  During this time, beekeepers can inspect the hive to make sure that the honeybees are healthy and making honey!

"Bee in the Know":  Beekeepers inspect their hives about every two weeks in the summertime.

Your Breakfast Without Bees

What did you have this morning for breakfast?  While you might have honey in your cereal, honeybees contribute a lot more to breakfast!  I bet you ate (or drank) something that needs honeybees for pollination!  Let's look at just a few important breakfast foods:

Fruit:
Apples
Oranges
Blueberries, cranberries, raspberries, blackberries, and other berries Watermelon/Cantaloupe
Peaches
Pears

Other Food:
Almonds for cereal
Blueberries in muffins
Jelly or Jam for your toast

Drinks:
Milk- honeybees pollinate alfalfa, which is feed for dairy cows
Apple Juice
Orange Juice
Coffee- honeybees increase coffee yields by about 30%. (we would have about 1/3 less without them)

A breakfast with honeybee pollination..........................and without.

Photo courtesy of: Scientific American

"Bee in the Know":  Some crops, like cucumbers for pickles are dependent on honeybees for pollination.  Other fruits, vegetables, and nuts are more abundant if the bees visit them; tomatoes are a good example of this.

Beeswax- It's the Bee's Business!

When beekeepers extract honey, they also harvest the beeswax.  But where does this beeswax come from?  Beeswax is created in the worker bee's wax glands on the underside of her abdomen.  It comes out in tiny little chips that they mold together to make the hexagon honeycomb cells- they create their entire homes out of beeswax!  They also cap the honey over when it is ready.  These cappings are what the beekeeper keeps.

What can we use beeswax for?  Lots of things- here's a few: 

Candles: Beeswax candles are one of the biggest uses.  These special candles are used in homes and churches because they burn slower and brighter and don't drip.  Root Candles in Medina, Ohio is a company that uses beeswax, and sometimes it's a very long process to get from the beeswax to a candle used at your dinner table.  Here's a picture of candles being dipped. 

Cosmetics:  Beeswax is now used in many lotions and lip balms because it is a natural product that helps to seal in moisture.  Check your chapstick- maybe it contains beeswax!

Other Uses:  Your mom or dad might use beeswax to help dresser drawers slide better or even in their furniture polish.  We can use beeswax all around the house- some crayons even have the honeybee's hard work in them! 

"Bee in the Know":  Many churches only use beeswax candles because they don't leave a smoky residue on the statues and windows.