FAQs
Isle of Wight Bees FAQs
Why does natural local honey always taste different?
Local honey vs commercially produced supermarket honey is like comparing Ready Meals to good old Home Cooking. Commercial honey producers are aiming to provide honey that always looks and tastes the same and they have to pasteurise the honey to give it a long shelf life.
However, for natural local honey, the flavour is determined by a combination of things – weather, season and available nectar sources. In spring Bees may collect pollen and nectar from fruit trees but later in the summer, they may collect from lavender. Each different source will change the flavour. The weather affects which plants are pollinating at what times and local honey flavour, colour and consistency can change month to month, year to year.
Why has my honey crystallised?
Honey is a super-saturated solution of natural sugars and water. Crystallisation (or granulation) is caused by the glucose sugar particles gradually separating to form crystals causing the honey to change to a thicker, cloudy semi-liquid.
If your honey crystallises it is a sign that it is natural and not heavily processed. Cold temperatures can speed up crystallisation.
If you prefer your honey runny, simply put your jar into a bowl of warm water and stir until it returns to a liquid state. (Do not overheat it as you will lose all the benefits of the natural product.)
What is soft set honey?
Soft set honey (or creamed honey) is made by controlling the granulation of a liquid honey to produce tiny sugar crystals. This is often done by using a seed honey that has already set with very small crystals. With soft set honey, the sugar crystals are so fine that the honey feels creamy on the tongue and is easy to spread.
How much honey can a bee produce?
It takes 12 worker honeybees their entire life to produce one teaspoon of honey. During the summer months, the life span of a worker bee is only 6 weeks.
For each pound (approx. 450g) of honey, bees will need to visit around 2 million flowers.
Why is honey good for you?
Honey contains all the substances needed to sustain life including enzymes, water and vitamins. It also contains small amounts of minerals such as phosphorus, magnesium and potassium.
It has antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-bacterial properties which is why it is often used to soothe sore throats.
Natural honey is rich in health-promoting flavonoids (antioxidants) and polyphenols which can help to prevent cell damage in your body.
How far can bees fly?
Bees will usually forage for nectar within a 3 mile (4.8km) radius of their hive.
Other honey bee facts
In a single colony, there is typically only one queen.
At the height of the summer, there can be around 70,000 bees in a healthy hive, mainly consisting of female worker bees.
There are only about 300 drones (males) in one hive. The drones will only live for one season.
In one day a worker bee can visit 1,500 flowers to collect .05g of nectar and will visit about 100 flowers in each trip from the hive.
Honeybees can reach speeds of 15 mph when they fly.
A honeybee would need to fly 55,000 miles to create one pound of honey.
Why are Asian Hornets a threat to honeybees?
Yellow legged Asian hornets were accidentally introduced into France in 2004 and since then they have rapidly spread across Europe. Asian hornets are an invasive species and are a threat to UK wildlife which includes all pollinators including honeybees.
To find out more about Asian hornets, how to identify them, and what to do if you spot one, visit: nationalbeeunit.com/diseases-and-pests/asian-hornet