Production of Good-quality Honey

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 82, Issue 1, 15 January 1951, Page 75

Production of Good-quality Honey

Seasonal Notes for the Domestic Beekeeper

MANY new beekeepers each year find difficulty in harvesting their honey crops without undue disturbance of the bees and also have trouble in keeping their honey in good condition for domestic use for long periods. This article contributed by the Horticulture Division describes how honey is produced and conditions necessary to get honey of good keeping quality.

HONEY is the nectar and saccharine floral exudation of plants, gathered, modified, and stored in the comb by bees. Secretion of nectar is a remarkable function of plant life. It consists, primarily, of the production of a sugar solution from special organs of the plant known as nectaries, located in various parts of the flower. Nectar secretion has been considered by many naturalists to be a means of attracting insects to plants to ensure proper dissemination of pollen and cross-fertilisation of the flower.

In whatever form the beekeeper desires to market honey or secure sufficient from a few hives for his own use the bees must first store the honey in a comb entirely of their own making or in a comb built by them on a wax-base comb foundation supplied by the beekeeper.

Search for Nectar

The older bees in a hive perform the task of flying to the fields, searching out nectar-bearing flowers, and bringing load after load of diluted nectar back to the hive. The field bees visit the flowers and remove the nectar: with their tongues and mouth parts, the individual bee usually visiting the. same kind of flowers on each trip until it has accumulated a small drop about twice as large as a pinhead. Nectar is swallowed into the honey stomach in the worker bee’s abdomen. When the field bee arrives at the hive it regurgitates the nectar from the honey stomach through the mouth parts, yielding the load to a younger hive bee for ripening and storage.

Removal of Excess Moisture

Fresh nectar from the flowers is a complex product containing 30 to 70 per cent, moisture, sugars, minerals, proteins, and other substances. The process of ripening to convert the watery nectar into thick honey includes the removal of excess moisture, which is reduced to between 17 and 18 per cent, in honey. The young bees exude the nectar between their mouth parts to some extent. Excess moisture is also removed by the bees fanning with their wings to circulate currents of warm air through the hive. During the honey season, when there is a heavy flow of nectar, this work goes on in the hives until very late at night, according to the amount of nectar gathered during the day. The work is characterised by a heavy, continuous humming sound in the apiary. Where there is sufficient comb space in the hive to enable the bees to

place comparatively thin layers of fresh nectar in the cells for ripening, evaporation is very rapid. When the nectar has been converted and thoroughly ripened into honey; and the comb cells become filled with the concentrated sweet the hive bees seal over the storage cells with a thin dome-shaped capping of wax, which they secrete from glands on the undersides of their bodies. The average chemical constituents of ripe New Zealand honeys are as follows:

Factors Affecting Keeping Quality

Though the keeping quality of honey varies slightly according to its floral source and seasonal conditions when it was produced, no honey should be removed from the hives for extracting from. the combs during a honey flow before it is thoroughly ripened and capped over by the bees. If this rule is not adhered to, there is danger of taking honey from Which the normal amount of moisture has not been removed, resulting in a low-grade product which may ferment quickly when placed in storage for long. It is also very important to keep all honey utensils clean and sterile. Honey may be spoiled by added moisture absorbed while the honey is exposed to a damp atmosphere or by moisture accidentally introduced by the beekeeper during extracting operations. It is a bad practice to store full combs for long during wet weather before extracting the honey or to leave liquid honey exposed in open containers. To obtain a product of good keeping quality cleanliness and dry conditions wherever honey is exposed are essential. Whether the beekeeper produces section, comb, or extracted honey none should be removed from the hives until it is fully capped by the bees. Though extracting combs may be left on the hives for some time before harvesting if necessary, it is desirable to remove all section honey immediately it is fully capped, to prevent travel stains caused by bees moving up and down through the supers. Any unfinished sections should be assembled in a separate super and returned to the hives at once to be finished.

Safe Removal of Honey

The most effective and safe method for domestic beekeepers to remove

surplus honey from the hives is the use of a Porter bee escape fitted into a flat board cleated on one side to provide a bee space as illustrated, and made to the top dimensions of the hives in use. The bee escape is a small metal trap or spring through which the bees can pass only one way, and once they leave the super by this means they cannot return. To place the board in position, loosen the top super with a hive tool, tilt the super up with one hand so that it rests on one end, and slide in the escape board as far as it will go; then let the super rest gently on it and straighten both the board and super into alignment with the hive. With practice the operation can be completed in a few seconds without undue disturbance of the bees, which is most important where they are kept in residential areas. When bees are shut off from the colony below in this manner they will not rest until they find an exit, which they eventually do by passing down through the flexible outlet in the escape board. Should there be brood in the super, however, the bees will not leave. The usual practice is to place escape boards on the hives late in the day and remove the honey supers early the following morning, when they are usually free of all bees. Information on the purchase of Porter bee escapes and the construction of escape boards may be obtained from local Apiary Instructors of the Department of Agriculture.

Per Per cent. Per cent. Dextrose . . 36.2 Water 17.5 Levulose . . 40.0 Ash .. 0.18 Sucrose . 2.8 Dextrins, etc. 3.32