HONEY

INTRODUCTION

Honey Is…

Honey is honey, it’s just that simple. A bottle of pure honey contains the natural sweet
substance produced by honey bees from the nectar of plants or secretions of living parts
of plants. Nothing else.

When scientists begin to look for all of the elements found in this wonderful product of
nature, they find a complex of naturally flavored sugars as well as trace enzymes,
minerals, vitamins, and amino acids. (Complete information concerning honey’s
chemical makeup and nutritional content is available in our downloadable PDF brochure,
“Honey, a Reference Guide to Nature’s Sweetener”).

Honey is made by bees in one of the world’s most efficient facilities, the beehive. The
60,000 or so bees in a beehive may collectively travel as much as 55,000 miles and visit
more than two million flowers to gather enough nectar to make just a pound of honey!

The color and flavor of honey differ depending on the bees’ nectar source (the
blossoms). In fact, there are more than 300 unique kinds of honey in the United States,
originating from such diverse floral sources as Clover, Eucalyptus and Orange Blossoms.
In general, lighter colored honeys are mild in flavor, while darker honeys are usually
more robust in flavor.

OR

Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by
honey bees (the genus Apis) is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of
honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans. Honey produced by other bees
and insects has distinctly different properties.

Honey bees form nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation and store it as a primary
food source in wax honeycombs inside the beehive. Beekeeping practices encourage
overproduction of honey so that the excess can be taken without endangering the bee
colony.

Honey gets its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose and has
approximately the same relative sweetness as that of granulated sugar.[1][2] It has attractive
chemical properties for baking, and a distinctive flavor which leads some people to prefer
it over sugar and other sweeteners.[1] Most micro-organisms do not grow in honey
because of its low water activity of 0.6.[3] However, honey sometimes contains dormant
endospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be dangerous to infants as
the endospores can transform into toxin-producing bacteria in the infant's immature
intestinal tract, leading to illness and even death[4] (see Health hazards below).

Honey has a long history of human consumption and is used in various foods and
beverages as a sweetener and flavoring. It also has a role in religion and symbolism.
Flavors of honey vary based on the nectar source, and various types and grades of honey
are available. It is also used in various medicinal traditions to treat ailments. The study of
pollens and spores in raw honey (melissopalynology) can determine floral sources of
honey.[5] Because bees carry an electrostatic charge, and can attract other particles, the
same techniques of melissopalynology can be used in area environmental studies of
radioactive particles, dust or particulate pollution.

Honey history

Honey is as old as written history, dating back to 2100 B.C. where it was mentioned in
Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform writings, the Hittite code, and the sacred writings of
India and Egypt. It is presumably even older than that.

Its name comes from the English hunig, and it was the first and most widespread
sweetener used by man. Legend has it that Cupid dipped his love arrows in honey before
aiming at unsuspecting lovers.

In the Old Testament of the Bible, Israel was often referred to as "the land of milk and
honey." Mead, an alcoholic drink made from honey was called "nectar of the gods," high
praise indeed.

Honey was valued highly and often used as a form of currency, tribute, or offering. In the
11th century A.D., German peasants paid their feudal lords in honey and beeswax.

Although experts argue whether the honeybee is native to the Americas, conquering
Spaniards in 1600 A.D. found native Mexicans and Central Americans had already
developed beekeeping methods to produce honey.

In days of old, honey has been used not only in food and beverages, but also to make
cement, in furniture polishes and varnishes, and for medicinal purposes.

And, of course, bees perform the vital service of pollinating fruits, legumes, vegetables
and other types of food-producing plants in the course of their business of honey
production.
 Honey in india
Honey and beekeeping have a long history in India. Honey was the first sweet food tasted
by the ancient Indian inhabiting rock shelters and forests. He hunted bee hives for this
gift of god. India has some of the oldest records of beekeeping in the form of paintings by
prehistoric man in the rock shelters. With the development of civilization, honey acquired
an unique status in the lives of the ancient Indians. They regarded honey as a magical
substance that controlled the fertility of women, cattle, as also their lands and crops. The
recent past has witnessed a revival of the industry in the rich forest regions along the sub-
Himalayan mountain ranges and the Western Ghats, where it has been practiced in its
simplest form.
In India beekeeping has been mainly forest based. Several natural plant species
provide nectar and pollen to honey bees. Thus, the raw material for production of honey
is available free from nature. Bee hives neither demand additional land space nor do they
compete with agriculture or animal husbandry for any input. The beekeeper needs only to
spare a few hours in a week to look after his bee colonies. Beekeeping is therefore ideally
suited to him as a part-time occupation. Beekeeping constitutes a resource of sustainable
income generation to the rural and tribal farmers. It provides them valuable nutrition in
the form of honey, protein rich pollen and brood. Bee products also constitute important
ingredients of folk and traditional medicine.
The establishment of Khadi and Village Industries Commission to revitalize the
traditional village industries, hastened the development of beekeeping. During the 1980s,
an estimated one million bee hives had been functioning under various schemes of the
Khadi and Village Industries Commission. Production of apiary honey in the country
reached 10,000 tons, valued at about Rs. 300 million.
Side by side with the development of apiculture using the indigenous bee, Apis
cerana, apiculture using the European bee, Apis mellifera, gained popularity in Jammu &
Kashmir, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal.
Wild honey bee colonies of the giant honey bee and the oriental hive bee have also been
exploited for collection of honey. Tribal populations and forest dwellers in several parts
of India have honey collection from wild honey bee nests as their traditional profession.
The methods of collection of honey and beeswax from these nests have changed only
slightly over the millennia. The major regions for production of this honey are the forests
and farms along the sub-Himalayan tracts and adjacent foothills, tropical forest and
cultivated vegetation in Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
Eastern Ghats in Orissa and Andhra Pradesh

Resources and Potential

The raw materials for the beekeeping industry are mainly pollen and nectar that come
from flowering plants. Both the natural and cultivated vegetation in India constitute an
immense potential for development of beekeeping. About 500 flowering plant species,
both wild and cultivated, are useful as major or minor sources of nectar and pollen. There
are at least four species of true honey bees and three species of the stingless bees. Several
sub-species and races of these are known to exist. In recent years the exotic honey bee
has been introduced. Together these represent a wide variety of bee fauna that can be
utilized for the development of honey industry in the country. There are several types of
indigenous and traditional hives including logs, clay pots, wall niches, baskets and boxes
of different sizes and shapes. In modern beekeeping, the combs are built on wooden
frames that are moveable. This facilitates inspection and management of bee colonies.
Three types of moveable frame hive are in common use : the Newton type along with its
standardized version ISI Type A, the Jeolikote Villager, and its counterpart ISI Type B,
and the Langstroth type. Besides the hives, the beekeepers need equipment and
implements like the hive stand, nucleus box and smoker. The industry also needs
equipment and machinery for handling and processing of honey, beeswax, for
manufacture of comb foundation sheets, and for other operations.
India has a potential to keep about 120 million bee colonies, that can provide self-
employment to over 6 million rural and tribal families. In terms of production, these bee
colonies can produce over 1.2 million tons of honey and about 15,000 tons of beeswax.
Organized collection of forest honey and beeswax using improved methods can result in
an additional production of at least 120,000 tons of honey and 10,000 tons of beeswax.
This can generate income to about 5 million tribal families.

Honey Market in India

About 10,000 tons of forest honey are produced annually. Apiary honey produced under
the KVI sector is estimated to be a little less than 10,000 tons in 1990-91. Over 95 per
cent of this was from the A. cerana colonies, the rest being from the European bee
colonies. Forest honey, mostly from rock bee hives, is usually collected by tribals in
forests and is procured by forest or tribal corporations as a minor forest produce. Quite a
large quantity is also collected by groups or individuals on their own. Forest honey is
usually thin, contains large quantity of pollen, bee juices and parts, wax and soil particles.
The honey collector gets between Rs. 10 and Rs. 25 per kilogram of the forest honey.
Forest honeys are mostly multifloral.
Apiary honey is produced in bee hives and is harvested by extraction in honey
extractors. Other types of beekeeping equipment like queen excluder, smoker, hive tool,
pollen trap, honey processing plant are also used. Beekeepers sell the honey to the co-
operative society, if one exists in the area. In many parts of India, the beekeeper gets a
much higher price if he sells it directly to the consumer. Apiary honeys are usually
multifloral when marketed by state-level marketing organizations, because honeys from
different sources are mixed while pooling, storage and processing. Several unifloral
honeys are available in markets restricted to small areas within the state where it is
produced. Rubber plant contributed to over 60 per cent of the total apiary honey
production during 1990-91. Besides this, jamun, hirda, beheda, arjun, neem, litchi,
palmyrah palm, eucalyptus, lagerstroemias, tamarind, cashew tree, scheffleras, tun,
karanj, false acacia, wild shrubs like shain, crops of different varieties of mustards,
sesame, niger, sunflower, berseem clover, khesari, coriander, orchard trees including
different types of citrus, apple, puddum, cherry and other temperate fruit trees, coconut
tree and coffee plantations are some important sources that provide unifloral honey.
Much of the forest honey is sold to the pharmaceutical, confectionery and food
industries, where it is processed and used in different formulations. Apiary honey is
usually processed at the producers level. This consists mainly of heating the honey and
filtering. A few beekeepers or honey producers co-operative societies have better
processing facilities that involve killing of honey fermenting yeasts. About 50 per cent of
the apiary honey under the KVI sector is graded and marketed under AGMARK
specifications. In 1985 the consumption of honey was estimated to be about 8.4 g per
capita, while in other countries this was 200 g. Presently this would be about 2.5 g.
Honey has so far been consumed mainly as a medicine and for religious purposes. A
small quantity has been used in kitchen as an ingredient of pickles, jams and preserves.
With the increasing production in recent years, there is an increasing trend to use honey
in food. This is obviously the case with the affluent segments of the population. Forest
honey is used in pharmaceutical, food, confectionery, bakery and cosmetic industries.
One often finds a good demand for local honeys like honeys from Mahabaleshwar.
People in Maharashtra have a strong liking for jamun, hirda or gela honeys which have
acquired special individual medicinal significance. Similarly, kartiki honey in Kumaon,
Uttar Pradesh is locally much favored. Some honeys have an essentially non-local
market. Rubber tree honey can only be sold in non-local markets. Coorg honey with its
characteristic flavour was well-known during 1950s and 1960s. Shain or sulah honey
from Kashmir has been very popular. Presently litchi honey from Bihar and other
northern states is in great demand. The price structure is regulated by the market forces of
supply and demand. Beekeepers in well-known hill stations and other places of tourist
attraction take advantage of the popularity of honey and can market their produce at
remunerative prices.
Indian honey has a good export market. With the use of modern collection,
storage, beekeeping equipment, honey processing plants and bottling technologies the
potential export market can be tapped.

Formation
Honey is created by bees as a food source. In cold weather or when fresh food sources are
scarce, bees use their stored honey as their source of energy.[8] By contriving for bee
swarms to nest in artificial hives, people have been able to semi-domesticate the insects,
and harvest excess honey. In the hive (or in a wild nest) there are three types of bee: a
single female queen bee, a seasonally variable number of male drone bees to fertilize new
queens, and some 20,000 to 40,000 female worker bees.[9] The worker bees raise larvae
and collect the nectar that will become honey in the hive. Leaving the hive, they collect
sugar-rich flower nectar and return.

In the hive the bees use their "honey stomachs" to ingest and regurgitate the nectar a
number of times until it is partially digested.[10] The bees work together as a group with
the regurgitation and digestion until the product reaches a desired quality. It is then stored
in honeycomb cells. After the final regurgitation, the honeycomb is left unsealed.
However, the nectar is still high in both water content and natural yeasts which,
unchecked, would cause the sugars in the nectar to ferment.[8] The process continues as
bees inside the hive fan their wings, creating a strong draft across the honeycomb which
enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar.[8] This reduction in water
content raises the sugar concentration and prevents fermentation. Ripe honey, as removed
from the hive by a beekeeper, has a long shelf life and will not ferment if properly sealed.

The Delicious Forms of Honey

Most of us know honey as a sweet, golden liquid. However, honey can be found in a
variety of forms.

• Comb Honey - Comb honey is honey in its original form; that is, honey inside of
the honeycomb. The beeswax comb is edible!
• Cut Comb - Cut comb honey is liquid honey that has added chunks of the honey
comb in the jar. This is also known as a liquid-cut comb combination.
• Liquid Honey - Free of visible crystals, liquid honey is extracted from the honey
comb by centrifugal force, gravity or straining. Because liquid honey mixes easily
into a variety of foods, it’s especially convenient for cooking and baking. Most of
the honey produced in the United States is sold in the liquid form.
 • Naturally Crystallized Honey - Naturally crystallized honey is honey in which
part of the glucose content has spontaneously crystallized. It is safe to eat.
• Whipped (or Cremed) Honey - While all honey will crystallize in time, whipped
honey (also known as cremed honey) is brought to market in a crystallized state.
The crystallization is controlled so that, at room temperature, the honey can be
spread like butter or jelly. In many countries around the world, whipped honey is
preferred to the liquid form especially at breakfast time.

Domestic and Import Assessments Collected

This table shows the total amount in dollars of assessments collected from both domestic
honey packers and importers, month by month.

Month Domestic Assessments Import Assessments

December 2009 $160,038 $143,197
January 2010 $129,672 $130,439
February 2010 $106,230 $149,644
March 2010 $111,787 $108,604
April 2010 $115,502 $207,117
May 2010 $53,960 $238,281
June 2010 $60,047 $264,788
July 2010 $64,388 $296,514
August 2010 $105,187 $302,304
September 2010 $147,786 $224,482
October 2010 $161,675 $201,319
November 2010 $137,739 $165,645