Honey

Lore & Background

Honey is produced by bees that collect nectar or honeydew. Foraging bees use a proboscis to draw sugary fluids into a honey stomach, where salivary enzymes begin breaking complex sugars into simpler ones. The bee then returns to the hive and regurgitates the nectar to hive bees, who repeatedly form bubbles between their mandibles to evaporate water and concentrate the sugars. This process can take up to 20 minutes of continuous regurgitation, digestion, and evaporation. The honey is then placed in honeycomb cells, where bees generate heat to maintain a hive temperature around 35 °C, further evaporating water until the honey reaches a final water content of 15.5% to 18%. At this concentration, the sugars are supercooled and microbiological reproduction is halted. Bees then cap the cells with wax to seal the honey.

Reader's Guide

Its high sugar concentration and acidic pH prevent spoilage, allowing archaeological samples to remain edible after millennia. Honey is produced commercially worldwide, primarily by honey bees, and is used as a sweetener with distinctive flavor and chemical properties for baking. The husbandry of bees is known as beekeeping or apiculture, while cultivation of stingless bees is called meliponiculture, practiced by Mayans since pre-Columbian times. Humans have semi-domesticated honey bees by exploiting their swarming behavior, providing artificial hives such as the Langstroth hive. Honey's energy density makes it valuable for bees during lean periods like overwintering, and for humans as a food source.

Did You Know?

• Honey is a supercooled solution of sugars in water, with a final water content between 15.5% and 18%.
• A foraging bee's honey stomach holds about 40 mg of liquid, requiring visits to over a thousand flowers to fill.
• Honey does not spoil when properly stored; samples from archaeological contexts have proven edible after millennia.
• Some wasp species, such as Brachygastra lecheguana, also produce honey.