Pollination
The Alnwick Garden
&
Honey
H oney is a marvellous product- it has been revered by humans for millennia, is said to have medicinal and antibacterial properties, and be a good remedy for colds and hay fever. Indeed in the past it has been used for the treatment of wounds. Given the right environmental conditions it will preserve for decades. There has been honey dug up from the Egyptian tombs which is still edible and, as some brave archaeologists would tell us, tasty! Of course we all know that lovely golden honey is delicious. But how, and why, is this actually made? To answer this we need to go back to the thousands of small producers, the honey bees.
Honey bees live in colonies in the Roots and Shoots Garden at The Alnwick Garden. They are mainly here for educational reasons and we explain to children and visitors about their importance. You see, bees pollinate one third of all we eat as well as two thirds of wildflowers. Without them we would struggle to harvest enough food to live. Their importance cannot be understated.
A by-product of this is that they also make honey. When the weather is fine and warm they will fly to brightly coloured flowers to collect nectar, a weak sugary syrup which they then carry back to the hive. They then process this by taking out some of the water, adding enzymes and store it into honey combs. It is this process which means the honey can preserve for such a long time.
We’ ve perhaps all seen honey comb in wax candles or as polish. Bees-wax honey comb,
Words: Peter Edge, Plant Centre Manager
crafted by the bees, is a wonder in itself. It is very light, very strong and makes perfect storage containers for honey. It takes a lot of energy and honey to produce this wax. For every pound of wax made a bee needs to use eight pounds of honey. And for every pound of honey made, a bee must travel 55,000 miles and visit two million flowers. This is a humbling thought first thing in the morning when you’ re spreading it onto your toast, or perhaps lighting a bees-wax candle to celebrate the solstice!
The amount of honey that bees make is dependent on weather, the health of the hive and the number of flowering plants they can visit. The reason they make this is for their own winter survival. Bees don’ t hibernate, rather they huddle together, perhaps like penguins. They vibrate to keep warm and consume the honey they have made over the summer. Honey also contains vitamins essential for bee health. They naturally produce a surplus, but it is very important that we as beekeepers don’ t take too much from them during the season.
With the effort that goes into making and storing the honey it seems only appropriate that there is a considerable effort to take it out of the comb and then jar it up. We have certainly found this to be the case. The process took a lot of effort and sticky fingers! Look out for local honey in the shop, think how amazing it is, and if you see some bees in the garden don’ t forget to say hello and think of the wonderful work that they are doing.
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