We've got five hives now, but we'll only harvest honey from one of them this year. The other four are still pretty new, and they need time to get their bearings.
Honey is a magical thing. First of all, it's basically bee puke, yet delicious and decidedly un-gross. The bees collect nectar (sweet sugar juice) from flowers. They store the nectar in sacs in their body. Then, when they return to the hive, they regurgitate it into the wax cells of the honey comb. Other bees mix it with enzymes that will turn it into honey. The bees seal up the honeycomb, and in a short while, there is honey. The flavor of honey depends on the flowers that produced the nectar.
So why is it so magical (aside from being tasty vomit)? Honey is one of the easiest foods for your body to process. It doesn't go bad easily and, as long as it is kept away from heat and humidity, can be preserved for decades - even centuries. It has various antiseptic and antibacterial properties, and may even end up being helpful treating serious infections like MRSA (multi-drug resistant strep). See? Magic, just like unicorns, IUDs, and leprechauns.
Yeah, so honey rules and we have lots of it. And speaking of bees, how much do I love this series? So much.
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