I gained my first experience with honey when I was a child of 7 in my grandpa’s garden. He placed his beehives at the back of the garden, far away from reach of civilized people. But I and my brother were not civilized at all as we, without any hesitations, through ripe pumpkins into beehives. Of course bees thought differently about our great fun. These “bloodthirsty monsters” beat us up and when our grandparents saw us and realized how pitiful we looked, they did not even beat us up. My grandma said that few stings can be salubrious but having a look into the mirror I did not feel healthy at all. I rather felt that I am seeing a light at the end of tunnel. But this experience turned into a positive result. Since then when I am bitten by a bee (healthy bee), only a small dot is visible on my skin after the sting but I do not get swollen. What does not kill you makes you stronger. When I was older, a bee-keeper pulled his mobile beehive behind our meadow where we used to play. He taught us there how to react to bees according to the way of their flying or moving. At that time we used to spend our free time after school inside the beehive almost every day and no bee bit me at all and there were thousands of them around us. Basic rule is – no fast movements and no alcohol.
We think of honey especially during cold and damp days of beginning autumn and at Christmas. Bee-keepers celebrate their feast day right after St. Nicolas feast, on the 7th December. This is a feast of St. Ambroz, a bishop from Milan. It is said that when he was a child, a bee-swarm sat at his face and it flew away later on without biting him. He became patron of all bee-keepers after his death considering the fact that he did not get any sting at all.
Bees are much longer on the Earth than human race. First bees were found in amber and their age is estimated to 25 million years.
First mention on using honey by a human being comes from paintings in a cave in Spain dated to 15-20 thousand years B.C. At that time human could only use honey coming from wild bees. Another remark is in the Bible, the Exodus book where Moses should bring his nation to the Promised Land rich in honey and milk. Archeologists have recently found evidence on bee-keeping in the north of Israel dated to 900 years B.C. They discovered 30 unbroken beehives, honeycombs and beeswax from the time of King Salomon kingdom. These are the newest information on intended bee-keeping. Bee-keeping expanded to Egypt, Greece and Rome. Famous teacher of Alexander the Great, Aristotle, was interested to the life of bees and was convinced that they come from dead bulls. Rather big nonsense for such a great thinker I suppose. Bees are not the object of interest of bee-keepers. They are just tool for obtaining product called honey. If honey is made by bears, we would probably keep bears. Actual bee-keeping spread across Europe in connection with agriculture development. As I have already mentioned, humans sough for wild bees living in hollows of rotten woods (brt) at the beginning. Over the time they deepened the hollows and brought it closer to their dwellings as cut chopping blocks. Old name for bee-keepers is deducted from word “brt” – brtnik (in Czech or Slovak language – no equivalent found in English).
Main substances the honey is made of are nectar from flowers and honeydew juice from pine trees.
Honey is a source of food reach to energy. Honey of a good quality can not decay and no yeasts are able to live in it. Water content of a natural honey is up to 18 %. These conditions are unfriendly for life and reproduction of any organisms. Typical composition of honey is as follows: 38 % of fructose, 31 % of glucose and the rest is saccharose, solid substances and water.
Honey contains almost all minerals. One tablespoon of honey in the morning can help us by gastritis, duodenal, liver and gall bladder diseases. It strengthens immunity and stimulates organism when exhausted. Iron content in dark honey has ideal composition digestible by our body at almost 100 %. Higher losses of liquids usual by sport or fever may result to potassium excretion and cramps can occur. Honey is in this case a suitable source of potassium that should be replenished so you can avoid cramps.
Honey can be fortified with pollen and this product is suitable for people working under stress and pressure or for those recovering from heart attack or apoplectic stroke.
Honey allergy is rare because honey is a natural product. Bee is a very intelligent creature and while it gets poisoned when collecting nectar with a toxic agent, it does not fly back to beehive but it dies rather somewhere outside. If such a bee bites your perhaps then you will probably not avoid swelling even though you have never got swollen before. Whereas some of us come to work having a flue and the others catch it then too. We should take an example by bees.
But there exists also dangerous honey that I personally find as honey diluted with water or mixed honey imported from abroad. Trade networks sell honey with origin that is more than dubious in the last period of time. Cheaper e.g. Chinese honey is mixed with our honey or with water with purpose to achieve a lower price. Honey coming from exotic countries is produced from flowers that our body is not used to and such honey can develop then a very rapid allergy reactions. Moreover it is produced in the classic way from honeycombs of wild bees and it can be contaminated with body parts of maggots or grown-up bees when beaten out of honeycombs. As long as I write in this article about honey, I mean honey coming from our neighborhood and from bee-keepers that really raise bees. Right bee-keeper would never offer you adulterated or mixed honey. It is OK when honey crystallizes after time and when it has darker color, it contains more minerals. It is not recommended to give honey in amount larger than 5 g to children under 18 months because their digestion does not contain enough sour substances for safe processing of honey. Honey can be used also for external purpose as antibacterial agent healing small skin wounds.
It is not recommended to heat honey over 40 0 C because it looses then all its precious attributes. That is why add honey to your tea when it is warm, not hot.
At the end I would like to give some recommendations on honey usage:
- Consumption of honey reduces amount of acid to the half by acidosis and that is why it is better than sodium bicarbonate;
- One teaspoon before sleep helps against insomnia;
- When you have lack of hemoglobin, use dark honey with higher content of Fe, Cu and K;
- When you are nervous and tense, take one teaspoon on an empty stomach in the morning and one before going to bed in the evening.
Because I do not like sweets, I personally prefer the old recipe of Caribbean sailors who used to drink rum from wooden spoon full of honey. Whatever way of honey consumption you choose, it is definitely salubrious. Just look for a closest bee-keeper and eat honey regularly during the whole year.
At the end I would like to mention some other remarks on bees.
As my colleague, an active bee-keeper, pointed out, when the last bee dies, we will die as well. It is because pollination of plants is mainly up to bees, when I omit butterflies. Although you do not keep bees, you are afraid of sting and you do not consume honey, we all need to eat. And fruits and veggies would not exist without bees. If your neighbor gets some beehives and places them close to your garden, you should be thankful to him. You just need to move a bit more carefully in this part of your garden and the higher harvest that you will get is rather due to his bees than due to your hard work.
Contrary to Western Europe is our consumption of honey only 20 % of their consumption. They realized much sooner that honey is the right way, not sugar. You can find honey in our products – in Verbena filled candies and Ego muesli bars.