Article From SubmitYOURArticle.com: Beekeeping and Honey Bees

If you're going to become a beekeeper, either as
a business or are just as a hobby, you need to
know how the honey bee makes honey. This job
requires a lot of work from the honey bee and
they work extremely hard each morning to complete
it. They do however, get rain days off.

The Process of How Bees Make Honey

The process of making honey starts with the
flower. Plants use nectar to lure the honey bees
to them. The honey bee gathers nectar from the
flower by using its straw-like proboscis to
"drink" the nectar and store it in its "honey
stomach." In return, the honey bee will transfer
pollen grains from one flower to another, which
pollinates the flower.

Making honey from nectar requires more than one
be. Normally, the older worker bees are the bees
to go out and collect the nectar. The younger
worker bees finished the honey conversion back at
the hive.

Nectar is largely made up of water and it also
contains a small amount of complex sugars. Bees
convert nectar into honey because honey contains
less than 20% water and is more efficient than
nectar both in terms of an energy supply and for
storage.

Once the nectar gets into the stomach, enzymes
begin to break down the complex sugars into
simple sugars. This break down is called
inversion. Once the worker bee gets back to the
hive, it will regurgitate the nectar that has
been broken down. It will then regurgitate this
inverted nectar into a cell of the honeycomb.

At this point the younger worker bees take over.
They continually fan the nectar/pre-honey with
their wings. This helps dry up any extra water.
Once this is complete, the younger worker bees
complete the process by capping the honeycomb
cell which seals in the honey for long-term
storage.

Harvesting the Honey

Okay, the bees have done all the hard work - now
it's your turn. Collecting honey is actually a
fairly easy process. Once the frames are full of
honeycombs and all of honeycombs are capped, you
can start harvesting by pulling out the
honeycombs. Before you do that however you need
to put on your beekeeping protective equipment.
Then you can start removing bees from the hive.

To do this you can try applying products like
Bee-Go or Fishers Bee Quick. Bees find either
one of these products very offensive and will
abandon the super once they smell them. Because
no damage to the bees and the bees will return,
they just give you enough time to collect honey.

Once the bees are gone, you can extract the
honeycomb. Most beekeepers recommend using a warm
knife - one that's been placed in hot water to
cut off the wax caps. Others say a sharp knife
works just as well. Once the wax caps have been
removed you can place the combs on the
cheesecloth and simply let the honey drain into a
large pot or container.

Honey Selling Tips

If you have made the decision to sell your high
quality honey for a profit, then you need to
learn how to market your honey. You also need to
understand what kind of honey will sell and who
your target audience is.

Two kinds of honey, liquid and comb, are usually
sold. The honey is placed in a jar is liquid
honey is used for cooking and baking. Comb honey
is more solid and is purchased for eating. You
need to know this because you're going to be
offering each type to a different type of buyer.

If you're running a small operation, and only
have a little bit of honey, then you can likely
find enough buyers from neighbors, family and
friends. If, however, you have a large operation,
you'll likely need to put together a marketing
plan which may include building a website and
some Internet marketing.

The honey bee is an amazing insect and creates
great tasting honey. You can reap the benefits
by harvesting high quality honey by either eating
or selling honey. Either way, the honey will be
tasty for someone!

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http://www.beekeepingstarterguide.com/honey-bees-b
eekeeping/ is where you'll find more information
on honey bees and beekeeping. Get or free
10-lesson beekeeping course.

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