Female Honey Bees Do Almost All The Work

The vast majority of all honey bees are sterile FEMALES. They...

Are appropriately called "workers"
Feed & defend the colony, raise the babies, build the comb, & more
Collectively visit 2-million flowers to make one pound of honey
Individually make only one drop of honey in their lifetime
Find nectar in flowers aided by ultraviolet vision
Navigate using the sun and landmarks
Use a dance-language to direct nest-mates to food sources
Would have developed into queens, if exclusively fed royal jelly
Keep the brood nest at 94°F, even in winter

Can you help the bees?

Yes you can help the honey bees! And the things you can do will help many pollinators. Here are some ways to help:

• Go native — Plant native flowering bushes, shrubs, and trees that thrive in your local environment. They are great sources of nutrition for honey bees and native pollinators, including bumble bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and many more. LEARN MORE.
• Don’t poison — Don’t blanket spray your yard to get rid of mosquitoes. It does harm to lots of pollinators, including honey bees. LEARN MORE.

Your actions will also help native pollinators, birds, plant life, and wildlife in general, so there’s a big payoff.

About Honey

How Bees Make Honey

Bees make honey out of nectar they collect from flowers. They add enzymes to the nectar and dehydrate it from about 80% water down to 18%! They store the honey in the thousands of small hexagonal cells they make out of wax, and put a wax cap over each cell of honey to keep the moisture out.

Why Bees Make Honey

Unlike most insects, honey bee colonies stay alive year-round, even when there are no flowers to provide food. Their secret is to amass stores of honey and pollen in their nest - enough to last until the spring flowers reappear. They actually produce way more honey than they need. This lets beekeepers take some of the excess honey without impacting the honey bees.

Why People Like Local Honey

It tastes great! Is a natural sweetener. Honey doesn't spoil because its low water content and is acidity don't let bacteria and fungi grow. If stored in a sealed container, honey is shelf-stable and does not need to be refrigerated. In fact, cold temperatures speed up crystallization - when liquid honey becomes thicker and "cloudy".

Is 'Cloudy' Honey Still Good?

Yes! Gradual crystallization at room temperature is a sign that honey is authentic, and hasn’t been overheated during the bottling process. Most real, raw honey will show signs crystallization in the weeks or months after purchase. The taste and quality are the same, it just has a slightly different texture.

How to Re-Liquify Local Honey

If your honey crystalizes, but you prefer it to be liquid, no problem! You can melt the crystals by gently warming the honey to 110°F (43.3°C) right in its tightly sealed glass jar. It will take 15 minutes to a couple hours, depending on the size of the jar. Pro Tips: 1) Never boil or microwave honey because it will get too hot and could diminish the honey's taste and beneficial properties. Plus, if it is in a plastic container, the jar will melt into a big mess! 2) If you have an InstantPot or similar appliance with a sou vide setting, you can very accurately control the water temperature. 3) Many people just use crystallized honey as-is -- it's easier to spread, and readily melts in tea.

Four Forms of Local Honey

• Liquid Honey
• Whipped Honey (sometimes called "creamed honey", but honey is the only ingredient
• Chunk Honey
• Comb Honey

When Can Babies Start Eating Honey

Children under a year old do not have fully developed digestive systems. That's why we sterilize baby bottles, keep pacifiers clean, and wash hands - so babies don't ingest germs their small bodies may not resist. One of those germs is the botulism spore. Botulism spores are everywhere around us, including in the soil and dust (CDC), and on foods. (This is why home canned foods need to carefully processed). Sometimes, a miniscule number of spores get in honey. This is why why medical professionals recommend honey for people ages 1 to 111, but honey is not for babies under one, not even a small taste.

Cooking with Delicious Honey

Honey is a great sweetener and is a terrific substitute for sugar in your food. There are myriad great honey-using recipes you can find. This page offers some you might like to try that we love.

You can substitute honey for sugar in many recipes. Honey is sweeter than sugar, so you will use less. For example, substitute 1 cup of sugar with 2/3 cup of honey. Honey has water in it, so you will decrease other liquids in the recipe by 1/4 cup.

Maryland Master Beekeeper Val Wampler did the kitchen research to determine how to substitute honey for sugar in baked goods. At the link below are instructions and a conversion table you can use to substitute honey for sugar in many recipes.

MORE ON COOKING WITH HONEY

Buy LOCAL honey

LOCAL honey is the best honey!

Many honey enthusiasts use the most local honey they can get, touting its proven and purported health benefits, among other things, in reducing seasonal allergies. Allergy relief is not scientifically-proven, but honey has been scientifically-proven to help with sore throats and wound healing, among other benefits.

A number of MCBA members sell local honey directly to customers, or place it for sale at farmers’ markets in the area. Each August, the club has a honey sales area the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair, where you can taste and buy local honey from MCBA members.

VISIT HERE for to find local honey near you.

Honey bees versus yellowjackets (and other wasps)

People often confuse honey bees and yellowjackets. You can see the difference in the pictures above. Honey bees are fuzzy, with varying golden-brown banding. Their fuzz helps them collect pollen. Yellowjackets are sleeker, shinier, have more vivid yellow-and-black bands, and their wings extend the length of their bodies.