Nature on our doorsteps: Honey is the sweetest harvest

Rosaleen Dwyer is the County Heritage Officer at South Dublin County Council – every week she gives us an insight into nature on our doorsteps and the beautiful biodiversity of its plants and wildlife.

HONEY bees spend the summertime preparing for the food shortages that the coming winter will bring.

In early spring and summer they gather nectar for its sugars, converting this into honey which they feed to their developing young.

Closer to the end of summer, however, their main aim is to make honey for their winter store.

A honey bee sips nectar from flowers through her straw-like tongue.

While she continues to work, she temporarily stores the nectar in a special ‘honey stomach’.

This is different to her own stomach where her own food is digested.

The nectar from heather produces excellent honey

Flower nectar consists of 70-80 per cent water, with the remaining ingredients being a mixture of sugars like sucrose, glucose, and fructose.

In the bee’s honey stomach, special enzymes begin to break down these sugars.

They also make the mixture more acid which helps to kill any bacteria that might be present.

When she returns to the hive, the bee regurgitates the nectar from her honey stomach and passes it to the hive honey bees.

They, in turn, pass it by mouth from bee to bee. In the warm hive, this process helps to evaporate the water from the mixture and to concentrate the sugars.

The mixture becomes honey when the water content drops to less than 20 percent.

Bacteria and mould cannot grow on such a low water content. This makes honey a clean sterile food for the honey bees, and for us.

The honey is sealed into special wax chambers and used over winter. In mild winters, honey bees may still be seen collecting nectar from garden flowers.

By collecting nectar whenever they can, they are helping to save the bulk of the stored honey to feed the first generation of new larvae in the following spring.

It is suggested that it takes 12 bees their entire lives working together to make a single teaspoon of honey.