Honey: benefits and harms

they feed for the winter, because honey crystallizes and in winter bees can simply starve to death.

It's true! My husband's parents have been fond of beekeeping for many years. Bees must be fed sugar syrup for the winter.

Our friend, a beekeeper with great experience, a person already in his 8th decade, is simply "obsessed" with healthy and natural, he does not sell honey, only for himself and his friends. I know from him that crystallized honey is very highly valued and he also gives sugar to his bees for the winter.

So we have different traditions

I also know about feeding honey for the winter. My father has a beekeeper friend, and he himself also wanted to study for himself, but so far it has not been possible.

In an amicable way, a bee in its life should not taste sugar at all. Sugar feeding primarily occurs to increase the timing and volume of honey collection. I know beekeepers who only collect May honey. The rest is left to the bees.

I don’t know how it is now, with modern beekeepers, but earlier bees were left with honey in frames, in which it does not crystallize. Sugar was fed by unscrupulous beekeepers. But that was before ...

I don’t know how it is now, with modern beekeepers, but earlier bees were left with honey in frames, in which it does not crystallize. Sugar was fed by unscrupulous beekeepers. But that was before ...

My grandfather never gave. I took honey only from the "store". Moreover, the grandfather was perplexed and considered him a "city beekeeper" to his neighbor, who scooped out more honey, taking it from the uterine compartment, and then poured sugar syrup there.

[Konstantin]

Konstantin, correct grandfather
In addition to the violation of the quality of the product, when feeding with sugar, the bees become lazy, and the number of drones increases.

Yeah, there are already three of us ...

Why and how
does honey crystallize ("shrinks", "sugar")?



Crystallization of honey is a natural process characteristic of almost all types of natural! honey. Even honey in combs, during long-term storage, also crystallizes.



"Shrunken" honey does not lose its properties as a result of crystallization.



"Shrunken" honey is formed naturally from liquid honey. Honey of different varieties "shrinks" in different ways: within 1-6 months after pumping out of the honeycomb. Honey from sunflower and buckwheat shrinks quickly, usually within a month after pumping.



Crystallization is a process: first, honey, as they say, becomes cloudy, or rather, individual crystals appear in it, then there are more and more of them, and, in the end, all honey is transformed into a homogeneous crystallized mass.



"Shrunken" honey can be very hard, and it can be soft. In both cases, this has no effect on either the quality or the beneficial properties of honey.



Crystallized honey may resemble butter, or it may look like sugar has been added to it, although this is certainly not the case. It all depends on the size of the crystals formed:
large crystals - or a coarse-grained cage, when the aggregates of honey crystals are more than 0.5 mm in diameter, they dissolve easily when consumed, but people often resemble sugar, this is confusing, and it may seem that honey is not real
medium crystals - or fine-grained cage, while the aggregates of honey crystals are less than 0.5 mm, but are still visible to the naked eye
small crystals - resemble butter, therefore such a cage is often called oily, since the crystals are very small, invisible to the naked eye.



If you prefer liquid honey, we recommend purchasing honey immediately after pumping it out and then storing it in a warm place.In this case, honey can remain liquid for a long time. In any case, real honey will definitely crystallize. If you store it in a warm place, the honey will remain in a liquid state for a long time, and crystallization, as a rule, will be large. If you want the honey to crystallize quickly and in a shallow setting, put the honey in a cool place (at a plus temperature of 5-8º).





The following statements are not true:



1.if honey is liquid in October, then it is fake or warmed honey

2.Honey must necessarily crystallize within 1-3 months after pumping out

Comment: If honey is stored at a warm temperature, it can remain liquid for a long time. This option is also possible - it is only pumped out of the honeycomb.



3. Fresh honey in August cannot yet be "shrunken", which means that this is honey from last year

comment: if honey is stored in a cool place, it crystallizes quickly, in apiaries, especially in the mountains, even in the summer in the evening and at night it is cool enough, which contributes to faster crystallization of honey.



Unfortunately, many buyers take information on the crystallization of honey, heard on television, read on the Internet, only as unambiguous.

We have been engaged in beekeeping for a very long time, many times have seen exceptions to the "laws" on honey, being surprised until in the end we realized that HONEY IS A LIVING PRODUCT. Therefore, trust those who live with honey! and not just retelling someone's error statements.
from here 🔗

Crystallization of winter forage stocks of honey often causes the death of a family. Bees, finding themselves on a frame with crystallized honey, select its liquid part, and the crystals are thrown to the bottom of the hive. This leads to overspending of honey. They cannot always go to other frames and, it would seem, with an excess of feed, they die of hunger. Fluctuations in temperature both in the hive and in the winter house contribute to the crystallization of honey within the frames.
If the honey within the frame crystallizes for some reason, the uterus begins to lay eggs earlier, probably to preserve the family. The emerging brood requires heating and keeps the club from moving. As a result, the family dies, having consumed all the reserves of liquid honey.

they are fed for the winter, because honey crystallizes and in winter bees can simply starve to death. I myself am not engaged in bees, but I also read books and magazines on beekeeping, and all this is written there.

But how can they not die in nature without sugar? something is not right here! And I also heard that those who keep the hive for themselves do not feed bees with sugar.

[Ilona]

Ilona, and in nature, no one takes honey from them

[Ilona]

But how can they not die in nature without sugar? something is not right here!

Ilona, and in nature, no one takes honey from them

yanimagu

[Ilona]

Ilona, and in nature, no one takes honey from them

And the bears?

And bears do not take away in the first place

[love-apple]

Bees must be fed sugar syrup for the winter.

My father-in-law (a man in his 8th decade) has been engaged in beekeeping all his life and always fed the bees only with honey. (!)
And sugar, he said, is fed only to the greedy.

love-apple, why do you write messages and then delete them? Then don't write at all.

[Zhivchik]

Zhivchik I will not write anything more. And about greed, sugar we have 7-8 UAH. Amed take 8-10 UAH. What is the benefit?

And about greed, sugar we have 7-8 UAH. Amed take 8-10 UAH.

For the price of sugar I agree. On the market 3 liters. jar of honey is sold 180 UAH.
Beekeepers, who are engaged in honey for themselves, sold 3 liters. bank (for their own) 120 UAH.

So what kind of price is this 8-10 UAH? Melted sugar, yes ... I believe. But not honey.
Moreover, I understand that you are selling honey, and therefore you feed the bees with sugar.

Don't write something you don't know. Do you know how buyers accept milk or vegetables?

Do you know how buyers accept milk or vegetables?

I know that many (not all) add any byaka for the fat content of milk. And vegetables (just for sale) with a bunch of chemicals.
So feeding the bees with sugar is from the same area.

Girls and boys - you will not fight.
Honey is accepted WHOLESALE by dealers and shops, really at 8-10 UAH per liter, and then resold.
This is the price of honey wholesale across Ukraine.

The retail price ranges from 35-70 UAH per liter.
Yes, such a big difference.

I do not know about wholesale ... It seems to me that decent beekeepers with a reputation, honey understands, so to speak, on the vine. I know that a friend of my father and a distant relative of my father always warn their regular customers when they will pump out honey and do not contact wholesalers. So the question of a low selling price is not an issue for them. I myself take honey from trusted people and recommend them. Somehow the neighbors took it and decided to give it for verification themselves. I was delighted with the received conclusion and continue to buy from them. Long life for them and hardworking bees.

On the market 3 liters. jar of honey is sold 180 UAH.

Let me go to that market !!!

We have a three-ruble note of honey costing 1200 rubles, though in the fall I took 900 ...

It seems to me that decent beekeepers with a reputation, honey understands, so to speak, on the vine.

That's it. And people know that this beekeeper is conscientious and will not feed the bees with sugar. If he saves on them, then what can we say about people who, like ... sells in bulk.
Here is profit, and this is not comparable with decency (for the majority). Of course, there are exceptions to the rule (in any case, I want to believe it).

We have a three-ruble note of honey costing 1200 rubles, though in the fall I took 900 ...

And we now offer (familiar from their apiary) a 3-liter balloon for 1400 rubles, and a flower one, which is liquid - 1700 rubles
On the market, I think you can find it cheaper, but there is no longer honey ...

And we have, in recalculation, approximately the same prices. It's cheaper on the market, but I don't buy there.

We have a three-ruble note of honey costing 1200 rubles, though in the fall I took 900 ...

In a three-liter jar, 4-4.5 kg of honey. That is, you have honey 270-300 rubles / kg - it's not at all expensive. Especially if the honey is from friends and decent people. We have everything that is more or less edible and looks like honey starts from 300-350 rubles / kg. And at honey fairs, prices for rare varieties sometimes reach 1,500 rubles per kg. As a spoiled person (my grandfather was a beekeeper, I helped him in the apiary, I know the taste of real honey) I try to take honey only in certain proven places. Because in my youth I heard all the possible stories from my grandfather about how unscrupulous beekeepers fake honey.

And we now offer (familiar from their apiary) a 3-liter balloon for 1400 rubles, and a flower one, which is liquid - 1700 rubles
On the market, I think you can find it cheaper, but there is no longer honey ...

about 320 rubles per kilo ... must be taken! especially if you know and trusted people ...

I used to take honey only for sweet pastries and for rye bread. I love honey very much, but according to honey. According to the testimony, I could not eat it for quite a long time. But five years ago, at our small honey fair, I once again took honey for bread from beekeepers, who did not have much honey, and the assortment was small. Since then, I only take from them. Honey, exactly the same as from my grandfather's apiary from childhood. And bans on eating honey have been lifted. They always call and say when they arrive. I have already brought all my friends-medal lovers to them. Someone was the most skeptical and did the analyzes. The result is.

We have everything that is more or less edible and looks like honey starts from 300-350 rubles / kg. And at honey fairs, prices for rare varieties sometimes reach 1,500 rubles per kg.

Anya, we even have it for 1500 rubles. burnt honey is sold at the big central fair. And the cheapest 550-600 rubles. and then, often or with sugar or something else, bodyazhivat. And the assortment of honey from each seller, like in a supermarket of sausages.
But on a very small area, they put up tents for the honey fair and there honey at completely reasonable prices, the assortment is much smaller, and the beekeepers do not have much honey. Mostly people are waiting for this fair. There each beekeeper gives his phone number and address. They invite them to come to them for honey.

And for two years in a row, the All-Russian Honey Fair came here. Suppliers from all over the country ... In the first year, they just bought honey from the first woman they liked because it was mint (delicious!). I buy baked goods from my locals. The whole year they ate it (mint, that is ..) after issuing, but by the summer, alas, it was over)))) As soon as they heard the announcements that the fair had come to us again, they immediately rushed with my husband .... They began to ask everyone in a row for mint honey ... Found only in one place, at the same woman. And we recognized her, and she us)))). She ended up from the North Caucasian nature reserve, they sow mint and lemon balm there, and that's where mint honey comes from. My husband just broke off the chain, so he doesn't eat ordinary flower honey, and at the fair this woman got different varieties of exotic for us: eleutherococcus, heather, etc. now a spoonful of honey is obligatory for tea! And the honey is really high quality. This time they exchanged phones. to know exactly when to get honey next time!

And the assortment of honey from each seller, like in a supermarket of sausages.

that's for sure !!!! We have the same on the market !!! Moreover, they just slowed down from behind the counters and jumped out and grabbed by the arms and legs!

I found a firm here, they sell products for a healthy diet in small wholesale markets .. Only from them in our city you can buy malt, bran, whole grain flour (Divinka, Belovodye) All sorts of dietary supplements with linseed oil and they also have inexpensive honey 300-350 rubles / kg from Primorye and the Amur Region. Here I take it for baking. Last time I took bird cherry - also very tasty. Fragrant and slightly bitter ...
And not a foot on the market !!! And at one time we generally had honey in our apartments, selling dubious personalities, and after all there were people buying ...

And the assortment of honey from each seller, like in a supermarket of sausages.

Yeah, and there are so many names that you are amazed. I still always think when they have time to wander from one place to another in order to capture so many different things. After all, there cannot be so many plants on one territory at the same time and not mix and in sufficient quantities for the bees to take so much honey. By the way, Russian hereditary beekeepers have arrived at our fair now. I haven't, but judging by the advertising, there are many varieties. You buy kg of flowers as a gift. What is the trick I do not understand. The point is then to go and can sell at home at the same price.

[Anya]

I have already brought all my friends-medal lovers to them.

I envy your friends for the good, Anya !!!

By the way, Russian hereditary beekeepers have arrived at our fair now. You buy kg of flowers as a gift. What is the trick I do not understand. The point is then to go and can sell at home at the same price.

We have a specialized store in the city that sells honey and bee products. Until we got acquainted with the apiary, we bought honey there. There are always buyers in this store, regular ones come for a certain, liked and tested honey. But I am somehow distrustful of honey from the fair ... Perhaps because this honey is exclusively for sale: I came, sold it and left. Claims, if anything, there is no one to present ...

Now my father-in-law graduated from a special school (it is considered as a higher beekeeping education, with an official diploma), a couple of years ago he set up the production of all kinds of equipment for beekeepers with his cousin (they sell it to all countries of the former USSR and there are already supplies to Israel and Germany) , so I was lucky - there are specialists in honey in the family, therefore, I also get the best and highest quality. Father-in-law loves linden - he says that the most useful honey (buckwheat is also useful, but it is heavy), I like acacia and herbs more.

Girls, all of a sudden, someone else did not know, and in the old fashioned way puts honey in tea - this is absolutely impossible to do.
If you put honey in a liquid with a temperature of more than 40 degrees (and this is only 3-4 degrees warmer than the temperature of your body), harmful substances are formed during the connection (there are special works on this topic, I will not go deeper). For the same reason, honey is not recommended to be put in baked goods.

Therefore, it is ideal to eat honey like this - from a spoon, or with nuts, or wash it down with warm water, or chop it in warm water (you can use lemon), but do not put it in tea, and even more so - in hot tea!

For the same reason, honey is not recommended to be put in baked goods.

But what about the gingerbread?

[CurlySue]

Therefore, it is ideal to eat honey like this - from a spoon, or with nuts, or wash it down with warm water, or chop it in warm water (you can use lemon), but do not put it in tea, and even more so - in hot tea!

And I just love tea just like that, and have a snack with a spoon and nuts It turns out that I'm doing everything right!
CurlySue, thanks for the information!

But what about the gingerbread?

But I don’t know how. Alas, not always what has been prepared for centuries is right for nutrition and digestion.
For example, dumplings and dumplings - the favorite dishes of the Slavs - are very heavy on the stomach, since fresh and hot dough, crumpled in the process of chewing into a cake, is very difficult for the stomach to digest afterwards ... And if it is also with meat ...

For me, after undergoing an operation on the gastrointestinal tract, neither one nor the other is categorically impossible. I strongly suspect that it was eating dry dumplings at work that aggravated the situation and brought me to the operation.
So my job is to share information. And yours is to apply it, or not to apply.

And at one time we generally had honey in our apartments, selling dubious personalities, and after all there were people buying.

Aaaaaaaaa !!!! My mom is one of them
A young girl came. She cried that she had to sell good home honey, since there was nothing to pay for studying at the institute. My mother felt sorry for her. And she liked the honey. And she never learned how to check the quality of honey
I bought ten liters! 700 rubles each! That discount gave the old grandmother "THOUGHT" rubles

I used to offer her something brought from the village for 350 rubles. And then she was glad that they brought it home. Yes, so aromatic!
She shared a large jar with me. Transparent honey, tea color (medium brewed). It smells like honey and caramel.
And on the light .... Fine-fine suspension. I don't understand from what
I didn't eat. I put it aside. I’m watching. I am waiting for this dregs to settle. It was in June. Month after month pass. Nothing happens ... And since December, a suspicious plump film has formed from above. After another month, I notice that all the suspension gradually descends in thick flakes. Very slowly, but settling ... And still not sugared
I don't know what will happen with this honey ... I'm even afraid to use it for baking

Smart people, advise

Irina! And rightly so that they did not eat. This "honey" would hardly bring harm to you, but there is definitely no benefit! Of the best known to me at least "tricks" are:
1 - sugar syrup is poured directly into jars and slightly seasoned with honey, for flavor)))
2 - right at the apiary "bad uncle-beekeepers" put baths with sugar syrup, bees honestly drag it into the honeycomb, unscrupulous beekeepers pump it out, some share of honey is also present there .. and for sale!
Maybe there are some other options for scams, but that's all that I remember from my grandfather's stories ...

honey is ideal to eat like this - with a spoon, or with nuts

Honey, mixed with nuts ground in a coffee grinder and lemon cut into small cubes (including the peel), is eaten instantly, repeatedly checked

Honey mixed with nuts, ground in a coffee grinder and lemon, cut into small cubes (including the skin)

Everything is fine, only lemons are rubbed with any chemistry right now to extend the shelf life, therefore, it is better still without the peel, or wash thoroughly with soap and water before cutting the lemon.

[MomMaxa]

MomMaxa, thank you, Anya
The fact that it will be harmless is already a big plus
If only it does not turn out to be harmful
Maybe take it to the laboratory? The one on the market?
But they can only check their sellers and ask who I took

According to the rules established in some 2000 overwritten year, citrus fruits for export, and in particular for deliveries to Russia, are prohibited from processing and waxing. But sometimes on the counter there are just such with wax. They just need to be washed with a brush and then pour over the zest with boiling water. Better ayamo in the store to see if there is a wax coating. Rub over the zest with a fingernail. If a whitish film appears, just do not take it.

[Irina]

people advise

Irina, I also had such a situation, many years ago. My Bubushka bought "honey", which they sold, delivering to apartments. So I just took this balloon, along with its contents, to the trash can. She didn't open it, let alone try! True, they didn’t tell my grandmother. Why grieve an old man? She was given good, proven honey in return.

And it seems to me that it could be checked and used at least in baking. Now, if you loosen up with sugar syrup, it's not fatal.

I think it's best to throw it away. Who knows what this "honey" was used for. From what swamp they took water, what chalk from what heaps they stuffed. Health is more expensive.