Who would think that a honey bee would work so hard, for so little!
Here at VonThun Farms, honey can’t get more local!! BEEcause there aren’t enough honey bees to do the jobs that we need done (pollination!), we need to bring bees onto the farm.
Stiles Apiaries and Mr. B’s Bees supply us with our busy little beavers that are responsible for pollinating all the crops we grow. We also have an observation bee hive that we use to help educate the thousands of school kids that visit each year. The local honey, supplied by both Stiles Apiaries and Mr. B is available in our Country Farm Market.
Here are some cool facts about honey bees (collected online):
- The honey bee has been around for millions of years.
- Honey bees have 6 legs, 2 compound eyes made up of thousands of tiny lenses (one on each side of the head), 3 simple eyes on the top of the head, 2 pairs of wings, a nectar pouch, and a stomach.
- Honey bees have 170 odorant receptors, compared with only 62 in fruit flies and 79 in mosquitoes. Their exceptional olfactory abilities include kin recognition signals, social communication within the hive, and odor recognition for finding food. Their sense of smell is so precise that it could differentiate hundreds of different floral varieties and tell whether a flower carried pollen or nectar from meters away.
- The honey bee’s wings stroke incredibly fast, about 200 beats per second, thus making their famous, distinctive buzz. A honey bee can fly for up to six miles, and as fast as 15 miles per hour.
- The average worker bee produces about 1/12th teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.
- A hive of bees will fly 90,000 miles, the equivalent of three orbits around the earth to collect 1 kg of honey.
- It takes one ounce of honey to fuel a bee’s flight around the world.
- A honey bee visits 50 to 100 flowers during a collection trip.
- The bee’s brain is oval in shape and only about the size of a sesame seed, yet it has remarkable capacity to learn and remember things and is able to make complex calculations on distance travelled and foraging efficiency.
- A colony of bees consists of 20,000-60,000 honeybees and one queen. Worker honey bees are female, live for about 6 weeks and do all the work.
- The queen bee can live up to 5 years and is the only bee that lays eggs. She is the busiest in the summer months, when the hive needs to be at its maximum strength, and lays up to 2500 eggs per day.
- Larger than the worker bees, the male honey bees (also called drones), have no stinger and do no work at all. All they do is mating.
- Each honey bee colony has a unique odor for members’ identification.
- Only worker bees sting, and only if they feel threatened and they die once they sting. Queens have a stinger, but they don’t leave the hive to help defend it. It is estimated that 1100 honey bee stings are required to be fatal.
- Honey bees communicate with one another by “dancing”.
- During winter, honey bees feed on the honey they collected during the warmer months. They form a tight cluster in their hive to keep the queen and themselves warm.
Now, WHY local honey you ask?
BEE’cause of all it’s health benefits, of course!!
Local honey…It’s healthier and more nutritious than you think!!
-- Good source of antioxidants: It plays a big role in the prevention of cancer as well as heart disease.
-- Honey is a treat, and is man’s oldest sweetener. It is an excellent substitute for sugar in our drinks and food. Honey is composed of sugars like glucose and fructose and minerals like magnesium, potassium, calcium, sodium chlorine, sulphur, iron and phosphate. Has a low calorie level: Another quality of honey is that, when it is compared with the same amount of sugar, it gives 40% less calories to the body. Although it gives great energy to the body, it does not add weight. Rapidly diffuses through the blood: When accompanied by mild water, honey diffuses into the bloodstream in 7 minutes. Its free sugar molecules make the brain function better since the brain is the largest consumer of sugar, thus, reduces fatigue.
– Honey contains vitamins B1, B2, C, B6, B5 and B3 all of which change according to the qualities of the nectar and pollen. Besides the above, copper, iodine, and zinc exist in it in small quantities. Several kinds of hormones are also present in it.
-- If you have a sore throat, take some honey. Honey has powerful antimicrobial properties, which can soothe your raw tissues. Pour a teaspoon of honey into a large serving spoon and then top off the spoon with lemon juice. Swallow the concoction (without water) every few hours until symptoms clear up. Some people add a pinch of black or red pepper to increase blood circulation to the throat.
-- Due to its natural anti-inflammatory effect, it will help to heal the wounds more quickly.It also has different phytochemicals–chemicals found in plants and different foods–that kill viruses, bacteria, and fungus making it a good substitute for wound dressings.
– Do you have a cut? Honey is a natural antiseptic. By applying honey to your wounds, you prevent infections. Honey contains antimicrobial agents, which prevents infections by killing the bacteria in and around your wounds. Many types of bacteria can’t survive in honey, so wounds heal, swelling eases, and tissue can grow back.
– Honey may also be effective in the treatment of your ulcers.In Europe, honey has been used internally to help cure ulcers, particularly stomach ulcers. Honey is easily digested: Because sugar molecules in honey can convert into other sugars (e.g. fructose to glucose), honey is easily digested by the most sensitive stomachs, despite its high acid content. It helps kidneys and intestines to function better.
– Burns, too, heal better with honey, studies show. The advantage of honey is that it not only prevents infections from occurring, it actually accelerates skin healing.
After a tough day at work, the bees come home to deliver their goods!
-- Honey is very effective in the treatment of some pathological conditions of the intestinal tract, the respiratory organs, the heart, and the nerves.
-- Supports blood formation: Honey provides an important part of the energy needed by the body for blood formation. In addition, it helps in cleansing the blood. It has some positive effects in regulating and facilitating blood circulation. It also functions as a protection against capillary problems and arteriosclerosis.
-- Did you know that honey can relieve you from the hangover? If you have drunk a lot and it is becoming difficult to get rid of the hangover by mixing two spoons of honey with half a cup of orange juice and half a cup yogurt. Blend them together properly and gulp it down.
-- A tablespoon of honey whisked together with an egg white, 1 teaspoon of glycerin and about 1/4 cup of flour makes an excellent firming mask. Just smooth on the face, leave on 15 minutes, and rinse off with warm water. You will be pleased with the results. Honey also makes a great moisturizing pack. Just mix 2 tablespoons of honey with 2 teaspoons of whole milk, smooth over the face and throat, or try mixing honey with lemon, whipped eggs, and yogurt and let it do its job for 15 minutes. Rinse off with warm water, and finish splashing with cold water.
– Honey also makes a great lotion for dry patches of skin on hands, elbows, or other parts. Just mix 1 teaspoon of honey with 1 teaspoon of olive oil and a 1/2 teaspoon of lemon juice. Apply to hands, elbows, heels of your foot, etc., and wash off after 15 minutes. Fast relief!
– Honey works well on chapped lips and for acne bMix 1 tablespoon of honey with a cup of warm water. Use it as a mouthwash. Honey cleans teeth and dentures, and kills germs in the mouth.ecause it has antibacterial properties.
-- To give your hair lustrous shine, mix 1 teaspoon of honey into 4 cups of warm water. Use as a hair rinse. And if you’re a blond, add the juice of 1 lemon, too.
– You can also use local honey to help cure dog allergies. Why does it have it to be local honey? Apparently local honey contains very tiny amounts of pollen. These tiny amounts of pollen are not enough to trigger the allergic reaction in your dog when they ingest the local honey. What does happen though is each time the dog eats the local honey, the dog’s body begins to build up a tolerance to the pollen. Eventually, the dog is able to tolerate the amount of pollen usually present in the dog’s enviornment. It works the same way for humans. You can give your dog anywhere from a teaspoon to a tablespoon of local honey once or twice a day. You can also mix it into to their food. Make sure it is raw local honey.
This info is compliment of: http://www.bees-online.com/HealthBenefitsOfHoney.htm
Local honey VS. store bought honey
The nutrients or enzymes that raw honey does contain are destroyed by manufacturers who heat it in order to give it a clear appearance to enhance sales. It is healthier for you to buy ‘local honey’ and not the manufacturer processed honey you find on Supermarket shelves. Much of the honey on Supermarket shelves comes from overseas and you will not really know that fact. Keep in mind that store-bought honey is pastuerized and all of the beneficial bacteria has been “cooked” out of it.
