Honey is a remarkable supplement to the human diet and a discussion of its properties could be preceded by a long dissertation on the principles of animal nutrition to establish its uniqueness as a food substance. Let us, however, cut that all short and simply mention that animal nutrients comprise basically of two types - proteins and carbohydrates. Both are composed almost entirely of no more than four chemical elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen and nitrogen, and both are obtained by the consumption of other animals, or plants or their derivatives. Meat, milk, eggs and seeds are sources of protein, while carbohydrates usually take the form of starches and sugars.

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Flowering plants reproduce by seeds and in most cases these seeds are the product of fertilisation of their ova by the transfer and deposit of pollen from the anthers of the same or, preferably, another flower of the same species, onto the stigma. A large number of flowering plants depend on insects to do this pollen transfer for them in their quest for pollen as a food as the pollen itself is also an adequate protein for the food requirement of these insects. As in other animals, however, insect diet also demands a carbohydrate supplement and, to make their flowers completely attractive to pollinators, many flowering plants have evolved nectaries situated below the floral centre which is accessable to insects brushing over the reproductive elements of the flower. The nectar within these floral receptacles is a solution of three types of sugar.Other substances - such as minerals, nitrogen compounds, organic acids,vitamins,pigments and aromatic substances are present but in small amounts.

A colony of bees in a hive will send out workers as scouts each morning. These workers will survey the flora in an area early in the day and on their return they will communicate this information by an incredible series of dances to the other field workers who are able to interpret them and then spread their labour to include visitation of any profitable nectar or pollen source. The hive needs pollen for the development of young larvae and nectar as well as for the production of honey.

Upon returning to the hive the nectar is usually handed over to the house-bees or sometimes deposited directly into the cells. It is then subjected to a large degree of pre-digestion in the honey-sacs and digestive glands of the worker bees in the hive. It must also lose a great deal of its water by evaporation in the cells and hanging droplets (the interior temperature of the hive is kept by bee movement or fanning at a constant 90F).

The house-bees may also be involved in the construction of beeswax and the building of honeycomb for the storage of honey and pollen and the development of larvae hatching from eggs laid in the cells by the queen and cared for by the workers. Beeswax is a hydrocarbon made by the bees from the same elements as the honey. It is not edible but can be formed by the bees into wonderful receptacles for honey or cradles for developing larvae.

Most of the sugars are disaccharides and must be converted by the digestive system into mono-saccharides before they can be taken up by the body. Due to its prior treatment by the bees honey is that wonderful exception and can be absorbed by the digestive system with tremendous rapidity.

The honey one sees in the shops has, by the skill of the beekeeper, been extracted from the wax combs.The bees are induced to build these honeycombs in removable rectangular wooden frames that can be placed in a machine to spin out the honey without damaging the comb. The frames are then returned to the bees for refilling. This extracted honey, which is about a 80% solution of that delectable sugar in water, will eventually crystallise as grains of sugar, in a mildly liquid base which, in that condition, will virtually last for ever. It can be returned to the liquid form by gentle heating in warm water or, preferably, a micro-wave. The constant temperature of 90F at which the bees retain the inside of the hive is nature's way of retaining the honey in liquid form, and at this temperature it lasts longest before crystallisation.

A property of honey which is not generally known is its tremendous efficiency as an anti-biotic as it kills virtually all germs and has been used as a first aid treatment for burns, where it has the virtue of providing a non-stick dressing.

One could go on trumpeting the many virtues of honey in its many capacities, but first and foremost, its tremendous attraction as "the food of the gods" must always be stressed. In its tribute one can perhaps wax lyrical and regard a jar of honey as a jar of "captured sunshine ', with its history associated with the hum of the hives, its existence with the ardour of the bees, and its essence with the aura of the opening blossoms.