As early as thousands of years ago, people discovered the usefulness of honey. Due to the long-term desire of mankind to collect a large amount of honey, modern beekeeping has gradually emerged. In Spanish cave paintings dating back 8,000 years ago, archaeologists discovered scenes depicting humans collecting honey from wild bee colonies. It is worth mentioning that they collected honey without the protection of beekeeping clothing, which shows that even in ancient times, honey was irresistible. But what exactly is this sweet golden yellow liquid and how do bees make it?
As the name suggests, the production of honey is a characteristic of a type of bee we call honeybees (Apis genus). Some of their close relatives, such as wheat bees and bumblebees, also make honey-like substances. However, honey from bees has a distinctive feature: it never deteriorates.
Lewis Bartlett, a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Georgia, who studies bee diseases and evolution, said: “Honey is hygroscopic, that is, it can absorb water from the air. But when the water content is increased to be suitable for yeast growth, it will make the honey ferment. , Smelly.” And the natural process of honey bees producing honey greatly reduces the water content of honey, so that no microorganisms (including yeast) can survive in honey long enough to make it deteriorate. As long as the honey is kept sealed, it will stay delicious forever-this explains why scientists find honey that is still edible in dry ancient Egyptian tombs!
Several factors have contributed to the unique and delicious chemical composition of honey. Honey is made from nectar collected by worker bees from flowers. Its main components are sucrose, glucose and fructose. Once the nectar is brought back to the hive, the bees pass the nectar back and forth in each other's mouths. This process is called trophallaxis and helps to reduce water content. Subsequently, the worker bees store the honey to be made in the storage chamber of the honeycomb, where the high temperature will further cause the loss of water by evaporation. Once the water content is low enough, bees will cover the honey with beeswax. Bartlett said: "The whole process is very fast, maybe less than a week, but it also depends on the biological process in the group."
When it comes to biological processes in a bee colony, bees themselves affect the chemical composition of honey in many ways. The digestion of bees can decompose the sucrose in nectar into glucose and fructose, which is an excellent food source for microorganisms such as yeast and is not conducive to the storage of honey. The growth and reproduction of these microorganisms is indeed limited by the low water content of honey, but this is only part of the reason. In order to further fight against microorganisms, bees must also add an enzyme in honey: glucose oxidase. This enzyme promotes the oxidation of glucose and produces hydrogen peroxide, a compound with powerful antibacterial properties.
All in all, bees use a combination of biochemistry and behavior to turn nectar into honey. But why do they do this? Facts have proved that bees love honey for the same reasons as us: honey is a long-term food source rich in sugar. Since there are no flowers to forage in winter, and the weather is too cold to make them fly, they need a lot of honey to help the bee colony through the winter.
Some beekeepers try to replace bees to complete some of the steps in honey production, which is sometimes necessary. For example, when the weather is too humid, bees may have difficulty reducing the water content of honey, and beekeepers will remove the honey and try to evaporate the remaining water. However, some people think that the honey produced in this way is not perfect. "I don't like it very much," Bartlett said. "I think it tastes different."
Climate change will change the global temperature and humidity levels, and it will become more difficult for bees and beekeepers to make the honey they love. However, considering the development of the beekeeping industry from the age of cave paintings in Spain 8,000 years ago to the present, we have every reason to believe that human wisdom and actions to deal with climate change will produce a solution as sweet as honey.
