is critical to the quality of honey. Excess water, for example from poor storage, can trigger yeast fermentation, causing the honey to spoil. The bees nail this balance instinctually, but we can upset the delicate ration by improper harvesting and storing of honey.
More than 20 other sugars can be found in honey, depending upon the original nectar source. There are also proteins in the form of enzymes, amino acids, minerals, trace elements, and waxes. The most important enzyme is invertase, which is an enzyme added by the worker bees. This is responsible for converting the nectar sugar sucrose into the main sugars found in honey: fructose and glucose. It is also instrumental in the ripening of the nectar into honey.
With an average pH of 3.9, honey is relatively acidic, but its sweetness hides the acidity.
The antibacterial qualities associated with honey come from hydrogen peroxide, which is a by-product of another enzyme (glucose oxidase) introduced by the bees.
The plants themselves and the soil they grow in contribute to the minerals and trace elements found in honey. See Figure 2-3 for a typical breakdown of honey content.
Illustration by Howland Blackiston
FIGURE 2-3: This chart illustrates the typical content of honey (based on data from the USDA).
WHAT IS HMF?
HMF (hydroxymethylfurfural) is an organic substance naturally found in all honeys. In the lab, it is used as a marker to prove the honey is raw, unheated, and it has not been stored for an excessive period of time. Freshly extracted honey displays HMF levels lower than 5 mg/kg. Levels higher than this indicate the honey may be old, overheated, or poorly stored. While the average customer may not necessarily taste the difference in honeys with high HMF levels, experienced honey tasters do.
In the European Union, non-tropical origins cannot exceed HMF limits of 40 mg/kg, and tropical origins must have a maximum HMF limit of 80 mg/kg. Honeys with HMF values above these limits are considered as “industrial honeys” and cannot be sold for direct consumption but as baker’s honey (acceptable for use in baking and as an ingredient in commercial food processing) only.
There are no formal HMF limits legally established in the United States, although some beekeepers and commercial honey packers do follow the EU directive.
Honey owes its delicate aromas and flavors to the various volatile substances (similar to essential oils) that originate from the flower. As age and excess heat decompose the fructose, hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) naturally found in all honeys increases, thus lowering the quality of the honey. (see sidebar, “What is HMF?”). Each of these components that make up honey is extremely fragile, and overheating honey or improper or long-term storage can compromise not only the healthful benefits but also honey flavors as well as darken the color.
Harvesting Honey: From Bee to Bottle
Whether you get your honey from a local beekeeper or a commercially available source, the process of harvesting honey is similar. Only the scale of operations differs.
Another difference in harvesting is the “style” of honey that’s going to market. There are four major styles of honey, and the differences mostly have to do with how the honey is presented to the public:
Still in the wax comb
As a liquid extracted from the comb
As a combination of the preceding two
Whipped or creamed into a smooth, spreadable product
See Chapter 3 for more details.
How these styles of honey are harvested differ, but since here in the United States there is more extracted liquid honey sold than any other style, I use that as the example in the following sections.
It’s all about timing
Generally speaking, beekeepers (whether hobbyist or commercial) harvest their honey at the conclusion of a substantial nectar flow and when the hive is filled with cured and capped honey (see Figure 2-4). Conditions and circumstances and timing vary greatly across the country.
Photo by C. Marina Marchese
FIGURE 2-4: This frame is ready to harvest, as the bees have filled nearly every cell with cured honey and sealed each cell with a white capping of beeswax.
Courtesy of Howland Blackiston
FIGURE 2-5: This illustration shows the anatomy of a typical beehive. The surplus honey that is harvested comes from the top boxes, called “honey supers.”
HONEY IS HYGROSCOPIC
A substance is hygroscopic if it absorbs moisture from the air. Honey is one of those hygroscopic substances. On the positive side, this is why baked goods made with honey stay moist and fresh. It’s also why honey is used in cosmetics as a moisturizer. On the negative side, being hygroscopic means you must keep your honey containers tightly sealed; otherwise, your honey will absorb moisture from the air, become diluted, and eventually ferment. That’s why the bees seal the honeycomb cells with an airtight lid of beeswax.
Driving the bees out of the honey supers
Before beekeepers can extract the honey and bottle it, they must remove the bees from the frame’s honeycomb. Beekeepers certainly don’t need to bring thousands of bees into their extraction and bottling facility!
Removing bees from honeycomb can be accomplished in many different ways. But for commercial beekeepers (those with over 300 hives) and even for hobbyists with ten or more hives, the fastest and most practical way is to use a fume board. It looks like a hive cover, but it has an absorbent flannel inner lining. A liquid bee repellent is applied to the flannel lining, and the fume board is placed on top of the honey supers on a warm day. After just a few minutes, the bees are repelled out of the honey supers and down into the brood chamber. Instant success! The honey supers can then be safely removed and taken to the designated workspace for removing the honey from the comb.
Removing the honey from the comb
After