Learn About Honey

Why do bees make honey?

Bees produce honey to sustain their hive, and of course their queen, over winter. When the temperature drops, it’s not only that the weather is too inhospitable for bees to fly, there are drastically less flowering plants, and therefore reduced food sources. So throughout the warmer months, they spend their days diligently collecting nectar and stockpiling honey for those chilly days ahead.

 

How do bees make honey?

Bees make honey from nectar produced in the nectaries of plants usually deep down inside the flowers. Bees collect nectar to transform into honey as their carbohydrate source. Nectar is a rich carbohydrate composed of fructose, glucose and sucrose plus many other nutrients from the plant.

During the gathering process, the nectar is mixed with the saliva of the bee. Once inside the hive, the forager passes the contents to other bees within the hive. This passing of the nectar between bees forms an integral part of the processing of the nectar into honey. It is where the bees add their own enzymes to the nectar from the flowers. The bees then store the unripened honey in the cells of the honeycomb. Over time, the honey will ripen and concentrate, and will eventually become the liquid gold that is shared by the bees and the beekeepers.

What does a beekeeper do?

Did you know beekeeping is in fact a type of agricultural work? That’s right, a beekeeper is a farmer of Australia’s some mighty hardworking livestock, the honeybee. A beekeeper cares for and manages a colony of bees and the production of their products, honey and beeswax. A beekeeper’s primary focus is to ensure their hives are healthy and productive. The reward for this hard work is the extraction and collection of delicious Australian honey, which is taken only after the needs of the hive are met.

Pollination

Beekeepers also keep bees for vital pollination services across Australia’s agricultural food sector. The value of pollination services provided by Australian honeybees is $14.2 billion*. Through buying Australian honey you are making an investment in pollination and fresh food; one that will keep the cost of our fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds affordable into the future. This will ultimately prevent the need for mass importation of the delicious foods that Australia currently grows and enjoys.