What is honey ?

Honey is a sweet substance produced by bees (of the species Apis mellificat) from the nectar of flowers.

Indeed, bees feed on nectar, a sweet liquid secreted by the nectaries of flowers. The bees forage the nectar, store it and transport it in their crops, the equivalent of a beef’s stomach.

As soon as it is harvested and stored, the nectar, which has an average composition of 80% water, 20% of natural sugars undergoes transformations :

• A large quantity of water is extracted from the nectar, stored in the stomachs of several bees to be used in the hive if necessary (evaporating it to refresh the habitat, prepare worker jelly, etc.). This process reverses the concentration ratio, water is reduced to an average of 17%, natural sugars are increased to 80%, proteins, minerals, vitamins, trace elements 3%. With such a composition, the nectar becomes a preservable food that the bees will eat when there are few or no flowers outside their habitats.
• Under the action of several enzymes secreted from the glands of bees, complex sugars, lipids for example, are transformed into simple sugars, fructoses, levuloses, glucoses, which can be assimilated by the body. The nectar thus becomes food predigested by the bees, which will be used by themselves during periods of low honey flow.

To store honey in their habitats, bees build with wax, a substance secreted from their wax glands, combs which are a set of small cells. The bees store the nectar there which after transformations becomes honey. Unripe honey cells are open. Those of ripe honey are closed with thin layers of wax, we speak of capped honey.

Honey is pre-digested in the body of bees. Consumed by humans, it passes directly into the blood. Consume honey, a few moments later, go urinate you will smell the smell of honey in your urine. It is also proof that it is good honey.

The nectar is not swallowed or digested by the bees. It is predigested, so it is not vomit but food made from nectar that comes from plants and enzymes secreted by glands of bees, animal origin. It then has two origins, vegetable and animal. Honey is also not excrement of bees, it does not come from the anus of bees.