Harvesting honey

Common honey processing treatments are heat-assisted filtration and centrifugation. Some honey products might be mislabeled such as "harvested in the cold," as honey is naturally harvested between 25 and 35 °C,... 

The composition and properties of honey are dependent on floral origins utilized by the bees and the climatic conditions of the area from which honey is harvested /i, 2], Honey is a complex mixture, mainly composed of water, sugars (glucose, fmctose,... 

The storage temperature of honey should be carefully controlled to preserve its quality. At its best, honey should be consumed within six months following its harvesting. 

We were able to detect sulfathiazole in the brood nest honey, but not in the surplus honey (honey stored above the brood nest and available for harvest). The limit of sensitivity was 0.2 ppm. In 1983, Barry and MacEachern (20), using reverse phase HPLC, reported that of nineteen commercial honeys collected by Agriculture Canada inspectors, 8 samples contained sulfathiazole residue at levels ranging from 0.10 to 0.56 ppm. 

Present Label Implicitly Applies to Harvested Pollen. For beekeepers who use oxytetracycline for medication, the present label (Table I) is explicit in defining the proper use and precautions that need to be followed when honey is to be harvested and marketed for human consumption. Presumably the label implicitly applies to pollen collected for human consumption as well. This does, however, pose an interesting question - if fresh pollens were collected in pollen traps placed at the hive entrance of medicated colonies before the 4 week restriction elapsed, as stated on the use label for collecting marketable honey, would the oxytetracycline be transferred by the honey bee to the pollen. To answer the question field colonies were medicated by feeding freshly prepared solutions of medicated sugar syrup for several weeks at recommended and twice recommended levels. Immediately at the end of medication, and every 3 to 4 days thereafter, pollen traps were sampled and emptied to trap samples of pollen freshly collected by the foraging bees. 

Honey is not only just a natural sugar substitute, but also certain strains of honey can actually help to heal wounds and kill bacteria. Honey has been used to prevent and cure illness for centuries. The Chinese used it to neutralize toxins and relieve pain, treat stomach ulcers, high blood pressure, and constipation. It is also perfect for dabbing onto bums and wounds to help heal the tissue Not all honeys are equal in their goodness. New Zealand Manuka honey is one of the best, as it is harvested from native tea trees, a natural antibacterial agent in itself. 

The main difference between botrytized wines and other nonfortified sweet wines, for example, late-harvest wines, icewines (eiswein), or straw wines, is the extreme range and richness of the aroma compounds produced by Botrytis. Marked differences also exist in some other components (e.g., glycerol, acid composition), due to the microbial activity. According to the descriptors most often applied to these wines, they are characterized by peach, apricot, pear, quince, raisin, and honey flavors, combined with distinctive "botrytis or roti aspects. Another typical feature of botrytized wines is their high acid contents. These prevent them from appearing cloying, even if the sugar content is commonly over 200 g/1. 

Sugars, such as fructose and glucose from honey, have been harvested and processed by humans since the Stone Age [23], The use of sucrose as a sweetener dates back to the eighth century BC and could only be afforded by royalty and the very wealthy [24], More recently, these natural products become critical in a variety of industries focused on the production of paper, pulp, textiles, and pharmaceuticals. As often is the case, industrial applications ultimately provided the economic impetus for investigations into carbohydrate synthesis, purification, and characterization in the late nineteenth century. 

Beeswax. White [8012-89-3] and yellow [8006 0 ] beeswax has been known for over 2000 years, especially through its use in the fine arts (2). References to wax prior to the nineteenth century are probably to beeswax. Beeswax is secreted by bees and is used to construct the combs in which bees store their honey. The wax is harvested by removing the honey and melting the comb in boiling water the melted product is then filtered and cast into cakes. The yellow beeswax cakes can be bleached with oxidizing agents to white beeswax, a product much favored in the cosmetic industry. Imports of beeswax into the United States for the years 1990—1995 are Hsted in Table 1. Historically, Brazil had long supplied the majority of beeswax to the United States, but now (ca 1997) other countries such as China, Thailand, and Canada supply the majority of the material imported into the United States (3). 

Bees are an important part of an organic ecosystem, but you don t need to own a rural retreat in order to keep bees and harvest their honey a small yard, or even a rooftop terrace, is a perfect place for a beehive—all you need is a flat outdoor space. 

Fall The bees are past swarming by this time, and the beekeeper can begin to relax and harvest the honey. Once you have removed the honey store and effectively taken away the bees winter food store, feed them with sugar syrup. It s also important to protect your hive from the Varroa mite, which carries a virus remove the supers and suspend two medicated plastic strips in the brood frame. The strips contain chemicals that are slowly released into the hive and kill the mites. Remove the strips after six weeks if you do detect an infection, treatment is possible, so seek professional advice. 

Smoke the hive and remove the roof and crown board underneath. Remove the supers to a safe place where the bees can t access them. A hive will need 20-30 lb (10-14 kg) of honey to survive the winter, so don t take all the harvest. Slow, deliberate movements won t disturb the bees as much as quick movements will (bees can sense uncertainty or panic and won t respond positively). You can estimate how much honey there is as you lift each frame if it doesn t weigh much, it s better left for the bees. Lightly brush off any bees down into the hive. 

The concentrations listed in Table 9.1 have to be interpreted with care. Most of the honeys analyzed by the CRIIRAD after the Chernobyl accident were spontaneously provided by beekeepers or individuals who wanted to have information on the level of contamination of their honey. Consequently, no standardized protocol was used to collect the honey samples. However, there is no doubt that all the samples have been harvested after the Chernobyl accident even if it is necessary, for interpreting the data, to account for the date of the analyses, especially for Cs which presents a half-life of 2.06 years. In addition, the geographical origin and floral source of each honey sample are not in doubt. Consequently, we assert that interesting and useful (eco)toxicological information can be extracted from an analysis of Table 9.1. 

In order to determine the change in radioactive contamination in the French honeys, we measured the concentrations of " Cs and Cs in 14 honeys collected and analyzed in 1999/2000 (Table 9.2). The Ardeche department (07) was principally selected to gather the samples because, first, it was highly contaminated after the Chernobyl accident the Cs concentration in the surface soil layer of this department ranged from 2065 to 12260Bq/m [3]. Second, in this department it was also possible to find various types of honeys, especially those obtained from xerophytes and aromatic plants which are known to accumulate radionuclides. The last sample in Table 9.2 was selected because it was obtained from an apicultural center of research (Bures-sur-Yvette, INRA) and because this honey was harvested in a rainy department for which, in 1986, no measurement of radioactivity was made, but for which measurements on pollens were available [4]. 

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