Honey facts for kids
Honey is a sweet food made by honeybees. They collect a sugary liquid called nectar from flowers. Then, they store this nectar in a special place called a honeycomb. Honey is very sweet and can be used instead of sugar. It's a thick liquid that can become semi-solid if it gets cold, as some of its sugar turns into tiny crystals.
Honey has been important to people for a very long time. It's even mentioned in old books like the Book of Exodus and the Qur'an, often linked to good and pleasant things.
Just like different types of wine, there are many kinds of honey. They can have different tastes, colors, and textures. For example, honey from bees visiting clover flowers is usually thick and medium-colored. It might also form crystals quickly. Honey from acacia flowers is another common type.
Sometimes, honey can cause problems if bees collect nectar from certain plants like oleanders, rhododendrons, or azaleas. This kind of honey can make people feel dizzy, weak, sweaty, or sick to their stomach. But expert beekeepers know about this. They move their bee homes (hives) to areas where bees can find safe flowers. Bees usually collect nectar close to their hive, not traveling more than two miles away.
The taste of honey really depends on the flowers the bees visited. Important things about honey are its fragrance (how it smells), its taste, and how clear it looks. Good honey should not have any bad qualities.
Contents
How Bees Make Honey
Bees make honey by collecting nectar from flowers. They use some of this nectar for their own energy, especially for flying. But most of it is stored as honey for later. When it's cold or there isn't much food, adult bees and baby bees (larvae) eat this stored honey.
People have learned to keep bees in special boxes called hives. This way, we can collect the extra honey the bees make. Inside a hive, there are three main types of bees:
- A single female queen bee who lays eggs.
- Male drone bees, which help create new queens. Their number changes with the seasons.
- Many female worker bees (from 20,000 to 40,000) who do most of the work.
When a worker bee leaves the hive to find food, it sucks up sugary nectar using its long tongue, called a proboscis. It stores the nectar in a special "honey stomach." This stomach can hold a lot of nectar, sometimes half the bee's weight! Filling it can take over an hour and require visiting more than a thousand flowers. Nectar usually has a lot of water (70-80%).
As the bee flies back to the hive, its saliva mixes with the nectar. This starts to break down the sugars. Back at the hive, the foraging bee passes the nectar to other hive bees. These hive bees keep passing the nectar to each other, bringing it up and swallowing it again. They also make bubbles with their mandibles. This helps water evaporate from the nectar.
Bee enzymes like invertase also work to change the sugar in the nectar. They turn sucrose into a mix of glucose and fructose. The bees work together for up to 20 minutes, passing the nectar around until it's ready for storage.
Then, they put the honey into the honeycomb cells. At first, it still has a lot of water (50-70%). To stop it from spoiling, the bees constantly control the hive's temperature, keeping it around 35°C (95°F). They also flap their wings a lot to create air movement. This helps more water evaporate until the honey has only about 18% water. This high sugar content stops it from fermenting. Finally, the bees seal the cells with wax. When a beekeeper takes this honey, it can last a very long time if kept sealed.
Some types of wasps, like Brachygastra lecheguana and Brachygastra mellifica in South and Central America, also make honey. Other wasps, like Polistes versicolor, even eat honey themselves for energy.
Collecting Honey
Honey is collected from wild bee nests or from special beehives kept by people. The honey is stored inside the honeycombs. Sometimes, people find wild bee nests by following a bird called a honeyguide.
Before collecting honey, beekeepers often use smoke from a special tool called a bee smoker. The smoke makes the bees think there might be a fire, so they start eating honey to save their food. This makes them less aggressive. The smoke also hides the special smells (pheromones) bees use to talk to each other.
After the honeycomb is taken from the hive, the honey is removed. This can be done by crushing the comb or by using a machine called a honey extractor. Then, the honey is usually filtered to take out any wax bits or other small pieces.
In the past, beekeepers often had to destroy bee colonies to get all the honey. They would then start new colonies the next spring. But now, with modern hives that have removable frames, beekeepers can take only some of the honey. They make sure to leave enough honey for the bees to eat during winter. If there isn't enough, they might give the bees sugar water or solid sugar. The amount of food bees need depends on the type of bees and how long and cold the winter is.
Many animals other than humans also love to find and eat honey from wild or domestic hives.
Keeping Honey Fresh
Honey can last for a very long time, even centuries! This is because of its special makeup. The main reason it lasts so long is its high sugar content, which stops tiny germs from growing and spoiling it. Honey also pulls moisture from the air. If it's left open in a damp place, it can absorb too much water, which might cause it to ferment and spoil.
Another reason honey lasts is because of an enzyme from the bees' stomachs. Bees add this enzyme, called Glucose oxidase, to the nectar. This creates two things: gluconic acid and hydrogen peroxide. These make honey a bit acidic and help stop bacteria from growing.
What is Pure Honey?
Sometimes, other sugars or syrups are added to honey. This is called "adulteration." It's done to change the taste, make it cheaper, or stop it from forming crystals too quickly. But according to international rules, any product called "honey" or "pure honey" must be completely natural. Different countries have their own rules about what can be called honey.
Adding other things to honey is a way to trick buyers into thinking they are getting pure honey. This has happened for a long time. In the past, honey was sometimes mixed with plant syrups like maple syrup or sorghum syrup. Sometimes, crystallized honey was mixed with flour to hide what was added. Today, a common thing added is clear, almost tasteless corn syrup. It can be very hard to tell if honey has corn syrup added.
Scientists can use special tests to find out if corn syrup or cane sugar has been added to honey. These added sugars come from different types of plants than the ones bees usually visit. This difference can be seen in the honey's chemical makeup. Even small amounts, like 7% of added sugar, can be detected.
In the United States, the National Honey Board says that "honey" must be a pure product. This means nothing else, like water or other sweeteners, should be added to it.
Images for kids
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French honey from different floral sources, showing differences in color and texture
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Honeycomb with its hexagonal wax cells where bees store honey
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Crystallized honey: The small picture shows a close-up of the tiny glucose crystals in the honey.
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Pouring raw honey. It flows in sheets because it's thick and sticky.
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Creamed honey: The honey on the left is fresh, and the honey on the right has been stored for two years. The color and flavor change over time, but it's still good to eat.
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Different honey flavors and containers from the 2008 Texas State Fair
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A person collecting honey in an 8000-year-old cave painting from Coves de L'Aranya, Bicorp in València
See also
In Spanish: Miel para niños
