September 1, 2023 – Honey

Happy National Honey Month! September is an important month for honey producers, as it marks the end of the honey collection season for many beekeepers in the U.S.
The honey bee is one of the very few insects that produce food eaten by humans. They’ve been making honey for millions of years and humans have been harvesting it for thousands of years. There are cave paintings in Spain that show humans foraging for honey from at least 8,000 years ago. And a fossilized honeycomb has been found that dates from around 3 million years ago.
On average, a hive will produce around 65 pounds of honey each year. To make just one pound of honey, a colony of bees have to collect nectar from about 2 million flowers and fly more than 55,000 miles. In a single foraging trip, a worker bee will visit anywhere between 50 and 100 flowers, then return to the hive carrying more than half their body weight in pollen and nectar. Bees work hard all summer to ensure they have enough honey stockpiled to make it through winter. When winter comes, bees cluster themselves around the queen in the hive, shivering their bodies to produce warmth.
If you’ve ever wondered how beekeepers collect honey without being stung, they use something called a bee smoker. The smoke makes the bees less aggressive and it obscures the pheromones they use to communicate. A bee colony typically makes 2 to 3 times more honey than it needs to survive winter, so beekeepers are careful not to take anything the bees will miss.
When sealed in an airtight container, honey is one of the few foods that won’t spoil. Edible honey has been found in Egyptian tombs that are thousands of years old. The reason for honey’s longevity is because it’s naturally acidic and has a low moisture content, which makes it an inhospitable environment for bacteria.
Because of this resistance to bacteria, honey has been used as a medical treatment as far back as ancient Mesopotamia. It was often used to protect cuts and burns from infection. It’s still used as a natural treatment today, for everything from dandruff and stomach ulcers to seasonal allergies.
Pollination is extremely important, for the environment and the economy. Bees pollinate $20 billion worth of U.S. crops each year. Around 1/3 of the food we eat was either directly or indirectly derived from honey bee pollination. Learn more here.