How is honey made? There is a lot of science in the miracle of bees

Humanity has tamed bees for thousands of years to take advantage of this. natural resource called honey which is extremely attractive to our taste. In fact, there is evidence that beekeeping – or the breeding of bees for honey – already existed in ancient Egypt at least 4,500 years ago. Despite its ancestral origin, the truth is that honey is an important condiment that is part of countless sweets and traditional dishes in countless modern civilizations.

In addition, beekeeping is an activity major concern for the environment. Thanks to bees, many flowers are pollinated, which otherwise would not receive the necessary genetic material to continue their kind. Bees don’t do this voluntarily – at least not to our knowledge. They are just sweetly attracted to the nectar that comes from the flowers.

Nectar saturated with sugar, which will later be used to make honey. Indirectly, bees carry the pollen responsible for plant reproduction from the stamens to the pistils of the flowers.

This is how nectar is transformed

The magic of honey is created through chemistry, as bee saliva contains enzymes called invertases that convert sucrose in flower nectar into fructose and glucose, both simple sugars. Thus, Honey synthesis begins in the bee’s mouth. through its elongated tongue that sucks nectar. Once retrieved, the nectar can be stored in the bee crop until it reaches the hive.

Once there, the bees pass the nectar from mouth to mouth as if they two teenagers with ice in a bottle. The famous worker bees are responsible for this exchange of material by continuing to place the resulting material in the recognizable hexagonal cells that make up the honeycomb. It is here that it is possible to produce honey after the enormous efforts of the worker bees.

But this is not so fast, since it is necessary to reduce the percentage of moisture in the nectar, which is usually about 60-70%, to about 18%, which is typical for honey. the bees get it flapping wings and creating air Accelerates the process of water evaporation. What are the lists you fucked, TRUE? This allows, among other things, the honey to be preserved for a long time without spoiling, as it will be difficult for microbes to grow in an environment that is low in water and rich in sugars.

Hexagonal honeycombs and types of honey, the whole universe

The bee society is strong, solid and works with the precision of a Swiss watch. In this ideal system of nature, practically nothing happens. In fact, the hexagonal system used by bees to produce honey is considered quite a mathematical feat as it represents most efficient and economical system in the production of honey.

Have you ever wondered why bees hexagonalrather than squares or triangles? This question has baffled mathematicians for many years. And here’s the explanation: Hexagons are the most efficient method of getting more honey with less effort, as they leave no room between the holes you create. Pure fantasy of nature.

Surely you have heard of eucalyptus honey, orange blossom honey or rosemary honey, as well as other varieties. How is this possible? Are varieties of honey endless? The truth is they can exist as many types of honey as there are flowers. As you can imagine from everything we have discussed so far, the names of the various honey drinks are directly related to the original nectar from which it was made. That is, from the flower of a particular plant, where the bees receive the specified nectar.

For example, the ‘milflores’ variety of honey refers to the wide variety of nectars that were used in its creation. All this is legally regulated by the quality standard of honey in Spain, which establishes certain criteria for labeling these products. One of the most important: the obligation to indicate the origin of honey.

Solar and agro-electric honey

Another type of honey that you may not have heard much about is “sun honey”. This variety has gained significant prominence in Spain as a result of a project carried out by Endesa within its Las Corchas photovoltaic plant in Carmona, Seville. beautiful name what this product receives is due to the use of the farm, where the solar panels of the photovoltaic installation are located, on which there is a full-fledged apiary, where local beekeepers receive honey and various by-products from the activity of bees.

These types of activities are the so-called “agrovoltaics”, a growing trend to make renewable energy use compatible with sustainable local practices that enrich the specific rural areas in which they are located. In addition to the solar apiary, the Las Corchas photovoltaic power plant also hosts cattle that roam freely on the ground, feeding on the vegetables that grow at the foot of the farm’s solar panels.

We have said that beekeeping in itself is already a positive activity for the environment in everything related to the activities of bees and pollination. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) states that beekeeping “helps build sustainable life systems.” If in addition to this we add other additional activities with the same steady spiritthe truth is that the benefits associated with the use of resources such as energy and land are superior to others. According to a study in the journal Natureglobal energy demand will be offset by solar energy, if even less than 1% farmland turned into an agro-electric system.