Honey
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Garlic Infused Honey Benefits: A Natural Remedy for Your Health
As cold season approaches, many people hope to find ways to avoid getting sick. This is usually done by strengthening your immune system. A good way to do this is by eating foods that naturally support and boost our health. Raw honey has long been known to be a healthy superfood because of it’s antibacterial and antiviral properties. Combine that with garlic, which has anti-inflammatory and immunity benefits, and you’ve created your very own natural (and tasty) medicine. Food as Medicine Food as medicine is a concept that recognizes the connection food has to our health and well being. It is believed that food, instead of medicine, is able to…
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When to Harvest Honey From Beehives
It’s the most exciting part of beekeeping – the honey harvest. After all those months of caring for your bee colony you finally get to reap the rewards of your hard work. If you are new to beekeeping you may not know much about harvesting honey, but that’s okay. This article will go over how and when to harvest honey from beehives. How Bees Make Honey First, let’s have a quick review of how bees make honey. First of all, not all bees make honey. Some bees collect and store pollen. The honey bee however, collects pollen and nectar to create honey. They store the honey to be eaten during…
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How to Use a Honey Extractor
It’s what beekeepers look forward to all year – harvesting honey. If you have top bar hives, you will use the crush and strain method. But if you have Langstroth hives, you probably want to use a honey extractor. Honey extractors spin the frames and comb, using centrifugal force to remove the honey from the comb. The honey then collects at the bottom of the extractor’s drum. The drum has a tap that drains the honey into a container of your choice. Using a honey extractor is a huge time saver, as several frames can be spun at once. Another benefit of using a honey extractor is that the wax…
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Does Honey Contain Vitamins?
Honey is widely thought of as nutritional, and it can even be medicinal. It contains powerful antioxidants and enzymes. But does honey contain vitamins? How Honey is Made Honey is made by honeybees. They collect nectar from flowers, which is then stored in their honey stomachs. The honey stomach contains enzymes that break down the sugars in the nectar. When the bee returns to the hive, the nectar is regurgitated into the mouths of other bees. This is to further break down the nectar. Then, the nectar is placed into honeycomb. The bees will fan it with their wings to evaporate the water content. The nectar thickens and becomes honey. …
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What Grade of Manuka Honey is Best?
Manuka honey is a rare specialty honey that is prized for it’s delicate floral taste and it’s antibacterial and medicinal properties. You can only get manuka honey from the manuka bush that grows in New Zealand. Because of it’s nutritional composition, manuka honey has health, beauty, and culinary uses. It contains vitamins, minerals, amino acids, and methylglyoxal, a compound with serious antibacterial effects. Choosing manuka honey can sometimes be a little difficult, as each jar is graded by standards put in place by the New Zealand Government. Manuka honey grades reflect the methylglyoxal content of the honey. So, what grade of manuka honey is best? Manuka Honey Grading The higher…
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Is Pure Honey the Same as Raw Honey?
There are a lot of different kinds of honey available, so it can be hard to know which one to get. In particular, I often see pure honey and raw honey for sale. Pure honey and raw honey are two different things, however – all raw honey is pure, but not all pure honey is raw. I realize how confusing that sounds, so read on to learn about these two types of honey. Is Pure Honey the Same as Raw Honey? Pure honey is not the same as raw honey. Pure honey is free from contaminations and added ingredients such as flavorings, sugar, and corn syrup. It is filtered to…
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5 Reasons You Should Eat Manuka Honey Daily
Made exclusively in New Zealand, manuka honey not only tastes great, it’s good for you too. Manuka honey boasts powerful health benefits due to its antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties. Read on to learn about manuka honey health benefits and see why you should eat manuka honey daily. Manuka Honey Health Benefits It’s hard to believe that something so sweet and delicious can be healthy, but it’s true. Manuka honey’s health benefits come from methylglyoxal, a unique compound that naturally occurs in nectar from flowers of the manuka bush. Methylglyoxal (MGO) contains powerful germ fighting properties, which is why manuka honey is used for healing and pain relief. The more…
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How Much Honey do Bees Need to Survive Winter?
Winter can be a challenging time for bees and for beekeepers. There are no flowers for bees to forage from, and beekeepers are limited to minimal hive inspections. Luckily, bees spend all year preparing by storing honey. For beekeepers, it is important to know how much honey bees need to survive the winter. What do Bees do in the Winter? While some people think that bees hibernate in the winter, that is not true. Instead, bees focus on staying warm. Bees are cold blooded, so it is important for them to maintain a warm temperature within their hive. To do so, they form what is called a winter cluster. Winter…
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How Much Honey Does a Bee Make?
Honey bees work together with their hive to make sweet golden delicious honey. It takes constant teamwork and dedication all year round from the bees and their keepers. Throughout the seasons, the bees go through a cycle of growing their hive, pollinating flowers, and creating honey in their hive. If anything is messed up along the way, the cycle gets disrupted, and the honey will not be produced. When you buy that little bear-shaped container of honey at the grocery store, I’ll bet you’re not thinking about the enormous amount of time and effort honey bees went through in order to make that one bottle. The truth is, it takes…
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Why is Manuka Honey So Expensive?
Manuka honey is not only delicious, it has multiple health benefits. It has been known to help with digestive health, wound healing, and even skin care. You may have noticed that a jar of manuka honey costs a lot more than regular honey. So why is manuka honey so expensive? Read on to learn all about manuka honey. What is Manuka Honey? Manuka honey is a special honey that is made when bees pollinate the manuka bush, or Leptospermum scoparium. This bush grows mostly in New Zealand, but can also be found in Australia as well. Manuka honey is so special that New Zealand has created a special advocacy group…
