In the matriarchal royal world of the honeycomb, the long-bodied queen is mother of all the other bees in the hive – up to 80,000 – reigning in her own extra-large, hexagon-shaped comb. The drones are male bees, big-eyed and big-bellied, and the worker bees are teenage girls, the queen’s dainty minions. When temperatures climb to 50 degrees out there, off go the young worker bees, leaving the hive. They fly off at 15 miles per hour, their four wings fluttering 400 times per second, in search of nectar-producing blossoms to sustain the population of the hive. They travel as far as three or four miles in search of the right flowers, collecting pollen to feed the younger bees and nectar to process into honey. It takes two million flowers to make a pound of honey, and each honeybee makes one-twelfth of a teaspoon of honey during its five-to-six-week lifespan.
We collect the honey by straining it from the comb, or using centrifugal force to spin it out. Commercial harvesters pasteurize it at 155 degrees Fahrenheit to prevent crystallization; but raw honey is not heated, making for a tastier, more complex honey with a true bloom of flavor – and a healthier honey, too, I would imagine.
The magical elixir has fructose, glucose, sucrose and water, plus a hundred or so of good-for-you components that include vitamins, minerals, amino acids and enzymes. It is claimed to be antibacterial, antioxidant, a cough suppressant and an easer of sore throats. It’s said to boost the immune system and, when used topically, to treat burns, wounds and pimples. Propolis, bee pollen and royal jelly are other products of the bees touted for health-boosting properties.
Bees have been making honey for millions of years, and some cave etchings in Spain prove that for the past 9,000 we’ve been reaping the benefits. Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform writings, the Hittite code and the ancient writings of India and Egypt all mentioned honey. In ancient China it was smeared all over the bodies of smallpox victims to promote healing of the pox.
Honey wine or mead, honey beers and liqueurs have been made around the world for a long, long time. Spaniards conquering Mexico and Central America found that the native people were keeping bees. English settlers brought honeybees to New England, where the native people called them “the white man’s flies.” In Colonial days honey was not just eaten, but also used as cement, varnish and medicine.
These days, bee populations are seriously threatened by climate change, development, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), pesticides, Colony Collapse Disorder and the varroa mite. About a third of the human diet is made up of plants that need insect pollination to survive, 80 percent of that by honeybees. Scary thoughts, those.
Farmers, beekeepers, landowners and beekeeping advocates are fighting that peril by educating people and carefully choosing plants and trees that attract and please honeybees (they like shallow-throated single blossoms, their favorite colors purple and blue). One local resource is Chris Harp and Grai St. Clair Rice’s HoneybeeLives, with networking and classes for adults and children in the Hudson Valley and New York City. In Rosendale, Winter Beekeeping will be held February 16 and 17, and again March 9 and 10, at the Sustainable Living Resource Center. Two-day class registration costs $190 per person, with one-day registration $100 per person. Preregistration is required (e-mail [email protected]). Later in the season there will be lectures on bees and beekeeping, and classes called “Bee Buzz for Kids,” “Understanding and Caring for your Bees: Advanced,” “How to Inspect and Maintain a Healthy Hive” and then later, a fall/winter hive maintenance and prep.
In second-grade classrooms from March 18 to 22, Cornell Cooperative Extension is holding a state Agricultural Literacy Week, featuring two books that focus on honeybees.
Ray Tousey’s marvelous local raw honey is available at Rhinebeck Health Foods in quantities from tiny to ginormous, and in many other places in the area. Nearby Bumble and Hive is a honey-lover’s paradise, with myriad selections that include rare local and far-flung varieties, many of which are available for an educational and palate-pleasing on-the-spot taste fest.
Ray Tousey, (518) 537-5353. Keegan Ales, 20 St. James Street, Kingston, (845) 331-2739, www.keeganales.com. HoneybeeLives classes, [email protected], www.honeybeelives.org. NYS Agricultural Literacy Week, www.agclassroom.org/ny/programs/literacy.htm. Rhinebeck Health Foods, 24 Garden Street, Rhinebeck, (845) 876-2555, www.rhinebeckhealthfoods.com. Bumble and Hive, 43 East Market Street, Rhinebeck, (845) 876-2625.
