From the flowers to the table Flashcards
what is honey?
Saturated sugar solution produced by honey bees from plant nectar. contains simple sugars that do not require additional digestion as well as protein (including enzymes), minerals, vitamins and water (no more than 20%)
What is nectar?
collected by bees to transform it into honey.
composed of 20-50% solids, rest is water.
most of solids are complex sugars (sucrose)
During the process called _______, forager bees regurgitate nectar and pass it to _____ ______. Before making it into honey, bees will add ________ to the nectar. This will break the bond between _____ and _______, which are components of ________.
Trophallaxis ( from foragers to another bee)
Nectar Receptors
Enzymes (Invertase)
Fructose
Glucose
Sucrose
What type of bees collect nectar from flowers?
Foragers
What is nectar flow?
the period when flowers are producing enough nectar for bees to collect and store.
Before the nectar flow period, colonies are managed by:
- swarm control (check for queen cells between brood boxes)
- Supering
How do we know when to add more supers?
White wax at top or bottom of frame
Ripened honey contains less than _____% water.
20%
How do bees dehydrate nectar to less than 20%?
fan their wings to produce currents of warm air
Honey is ready fro removal (harvest) when it contains how much water?
less than 18-20%
What needs to happen in order for the supers to be harvested? Name the physical and chemical methods to do this
BEE REMOVAL
- bee brush (only for beekeepers with few hives
- Butyric acid (olfactory bee repellent)
What are the 4 steps in honey extraction?
- Uncapping: removal of wax caps covering cells in combs using a capping spinner
- Extracting: combs are centrifuged to extract honey from the interior of the cells
- Cleaning large particles from honey: settling it in tanks for several days
- Filtration: remove small particles
What is the purpose of the capping spinner? what can you do with wax after?
Removes excess honey from wax cappings
wax capping can be melted- main source of wax for a beekeeper
What is the main source that beekeepers get beeswax from?
Melting wax from the capping spinner
How does the honey extractor work?
removes honey by centrifugal force
motion throws liquid to the walls of the machine
What are the two types of honey extractors? how do they work?
- TANGENTIAL: Spins the honey on one side of the frame at a time at slow speeds. The frames must be turned once to extract honey from both sides.
- RADIAL: Extracts honey from both sides of the frame simultaneously. The extractor looks like the spokes of a wheel, with the frame edges facing outward.
What is Barrel Feeding?
- barrel of syrup is left out
cons: disease spread, inc robbing
pros: practical, fast
used in fall
What feeding method is most commonly used by commercial beekeepers?
Protein patties
- provide protein while bees provide services to monoculture farms
- pollen captured through pollen traps in hives
- frozen & mixed w sugar syrup and soybean flour
How long is the extraction process for one load of honey?
approx 10-15 mins
Who cleans the combs before you can store them?
The bees will do this
Bottling honey steps
- heat honey bc when it is left too long it will crystallize/granulate
- honey is strained and packaged
Prolonged exposition of honey to high temperatures destroys _____ and ______ and _____ the product
enzymes
vitamins
darkens
T/F : honey can be stored in large containers for bulk purchase
False; store honey in small containers
What are the two main components of honey?
Glucose and Fructose
Honey characteristics: aroma/flavour is dependent on ________.
Taste of honey is due to _____, ________ and _______.
Colours of honey range from _______ to _______.
___________ honey is usually more expensive. An exception of this is ________.
nectar source
Sugar content, gluconic acid, proline
Water white, dark amber
Lighter, avocado blossom (very dark, very expensive).