Honey bees collect pollen and nectar in the spring when most flowers and plants are in bloom. They use their long, tube-like tongues like straws (called proboscis) to suck the nectar out of the flowers and they store it in their stomachs and carry it to the beehive. While inside the bee’s stomach for about half an hour, the nectar mixes with the proteins and enzymes produced by the bees, converting the nectar into honey.
The bees then drop the honey into the beeswax comb, which are hexagonal cells made of wax produced by the bees, and repeat the process until the combs are full. To prepare for long-term storage, the bees fan their wings to evaporate and thicken the honey (note: nectar is 80% water and honey is about 14-18% water). When this is done, the bees cap the honeycomb with wax and move on to the next empty comb, starting all over again. So, in a nutshell, the honey we eat is flower nectar that honey bees have collected, regurgitated and dehydrated to enhance its nutritional properties.
The bees make honey to store it in the hive as food for the winter when there are no blossoms and therefore little nectar available. However, a hive only needs a small portion of honey to survive the winter, meaning that we can harvest the extra honey,we take honey-filled combs from the bee hives and we bring it to the honey house for extraction. first we remove the wax cap with a sharp knife or a machine and then we place the frames in a large centrifuge (extractor) to get the honey out of the comb. and as we spin the frames the honey rushes out of the comb into the tank. We then pour the honey through a strainer to remove any wax that broke off while spinning. Now we ave pure honey the last thing we do is bottle the honey into bottles and from there our honey is ready to be sold!!!
