Probably not. This is the name of the process that honey bees use to turn nectar into honey.
The average hive has 50k in population at any time. Our hive will be less to begin with, but hopefully will grow and prosper.
Here is the basic process:
Bees fly to flowers, they aren't too picky about what type of flower, and they do two things. First, they attract pollen via static electricity to their legs and the hairs on their body. Then, they use their tongue to suck the nectar out of it.
Pretty much all flowers have nectar of some kind, and this is what the bees suck into their "honey stomach". This starts the process of inversion. The bee's stomach starts to break down the natural sugars in the nectar into more simple sugars.
When the bee gets back to the hive, she regurgitates it (yes...honey is bee puke) into a cell. Another bee than eats it and her honey stomach continues the process of inversion. Sugars becomes simple and more concentrated. The second bee regurgitates it back into a cell and another bees eats it and continues the process.After a point in time and once the cell is full, they start to fan. The water content of this virgin honey is very high and still have yeasts from the sugars in it, so the bee's fan the virgin honey until the water is mostly evaporated, somewhere between 12 and 14%. This prevents the yeasts and sugars from fermenting.
No one know how the bees know to get it to that stage or why the bees eat and regurgitate over and over again until the desired quality is attained, or how they all know what the desired quality is. They just do.
Finished yummy product
Just remember, anything you get in honey, little specks of things....is always pollen or wax and can't hurt you. Put it in your mouth, eat it! Enjoy it. Its nutritious AND delicious!
next post: honeycomb
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