In N.E. Florida, the months of June and July are busy times for beekeepers. It marks the time of year when the abundant nectar sources that were ramping up in the spring (called the honey flow) start to diminish as summer heats up. This year the honey flow may be a little later and not as heavy due to this year’s drought. However, this time of year end means the start of honey harvesting season where beekeepers take the stored frames of honey that their honeybees have created from the nectar of flowers, and remove it from the honeycomb, then bottle it for our use. This makes it the perfect time to answer some of the common questions that we get about honeybees, honey, and beekeeping.

How do honeybees make honey?

Honeybees spend the spring collecting nectar from flowers and bringing it back to the hive and storing it in the open cells of the honeycomb. The nectar is then dehydrated by bees that fan the honeycomb with their wings. The increased air circulation helps to evaporate some of the water in the nectar slowly turning it into honey. When the moisture content of the honey reaches 15-17 percent, the bees will place a wax “cap” over the honey, sealing it so that it remains that consistency.

How many flowers does it take to make honey?

It takes about 500-600 bees visiting about 2 million flowers to make one pound of honey.

How do bees know what flowers to choose?

Recent research has provided a lot of information on how bees select flowers. Bees will select many different flowers, but they seem to prefer purple, blue, white, and yellow flowers. A very interesting study looked at a term called flower consistency among bees. This means that an individual bee will develop a favorite color early in its life and consistently seek out that color even though it may not have the most pollen or nectar. Researchers also think that bees leave a chemical marker on “empty” flowers so other bees will save energy and avoid them.

How many types of honey are there?

The type of honey depends on what flower the honeybees collected the nectar. Orange blossom honey is collected from mainly orange blossoms, and tupelo honey is collected from tupelo trees. Other distinct honey sources include gallberry, and mangrove honeys. Beekeepers will take the hives to be near the desired flower as it is blooming. When it stops blooming, they collect their bees and extract the honey assuring that most of the honey comes from the desired plant. Some beekeepers place their bees where they will collect nectar from a variety of flowers throughout the honey flow allowing for a unique blend of flavors and colors.

Is honey good for you?

Absolutely in many ways. First the sugars in honey (glucose and fructose) are easily absorbed by the body. Honey also has small amounts of vitamins, minerals, amino and organic acids making it a more complex than processed sugars. Also, honey has antibacterial properties and has been used in wound dressings and as first aid for burns. Two words of caution though; folks with diabetes should not consume honey unless they have been given permission by their physician, and honey should not be fed to infants under one years old because of susceptibility to infant botulism.

How is the honey removed from the honeycomb?

In the hive honeybees build honeycomb on frames provided by the beekeeper. When the bees have evaporated enough water from the nectar and it becomes honey, the bees then seal the honeycomb with “caps” of beeswax. There are several different ways of extracting the honey, but most beekeepers will take a frame of capped honeycomb, remove the caps with specialized knives or scrapers, and place the frame in a honey extractor that will spin the frame. The centrifugal force of the spinning will empty the honey from the honeycomb and allow it to be collected from the bottom of the extractor. The honey is then strained to remove bits of wax and other debris, then poured into bottles or jars. In some cases, beekeepers will cut honeycomb into squares and put it into containers with strained honey. This is called cut comb honey.

If you remove the honey, aren’t you taking away the food from the honeybee hive?

A responsible beekeeper will leave some of the honey in the hive. Additionally, with Florida’s long growing season the bees will have plenty of time before winter to collect and store more nectar.

Where can we find out more information on honeybees and beekeeping?

A great source of information and networking is the University of Florida Honeybee Research and Extension Lab (https://entnemdept.ufl.edu/honey-bee/ ).  The Honeybee Lab provides all sorts of honeybee information gleaned from the latest research. You can also find more information from the following fact sheets:
Honey and its uses: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/AA154
Honeybee 4-H Project: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/4H419
The social organization of the honeybee: https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/IN1102

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