Bees are known to be some of nature’s most talented alchemists. They turn plant nectar into one of the most magical and healing substances on the planet. Honey has been used in many different healing modalities across all cultures who have access to honey and honeybees. We are even finding honey inside bandages in hospitals, particularly for use on burn victims because of the deep healing powers of honey and its antimicrobial nature. Honey has been a big part of my own healing journey over the years, especially when it comes to skin and digestive issues.
One bee will produce around 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in its life. A forager bee will venture out of the hive to visit a flower and extract its nectar, and carry that nectar in its honey crop (kind of like the crop on a bird) to the hive. A sister bee will come to receive that nectar, and then she might pass it on to another sister or two until it makes it to the honey comb cell where it is stored. As the nectar enters the hive, its water content might be as high as 90%. As the bees pass it from sister to sister, it looses some of its moisture. When the nectar is placed in the honeycomb cell, other sister bees will shiver their wing muscles to help serve as a dehydrator and reduce the moisture content to around 18%. Then the sister bees will cap the cells with milky white wax, and this honey can store indefinitely because the moisture content is so low. You might hear some people refer to honey as bee vomit, but this is simply not true. The honey does not enter the bees stomach because the honey crop is located before the stomach of the bee, and there is a sort of flap that prevents the honey from entering the stomach. Honey is simply the sweet collaboration of the honeybee and earth’s bounty of flowers.