The 4 Treasures of the Hive

You don't know the origin of each hive product? We enlighten you!

01. HONEY

Bee energy

THE WORK OF BEES

When foraging, the bee fills its crop with floral nectar, a mixture of 80% water and 20% sugar secreted by flowers to attract pollinating insects. Once back at the hive, the precious liquid is taken care of by the other workers who enrich it with enzymes, and by the fans who lower its humidity level by constantly flapping their wings. They store the last drop in a cell where the future honey continues to mature. When it contains only 20% water, the bees close the cell with a thin film of wax: this is capping. The bees thus build up their food reserve for the entire winter.

THE WORK OF THE BEEEKEEPER

When the frames are full and the combs are well capped, the beekeeper brings them back to the honey house to uncapped them and extract the honey by centrifugal force. He then filters the honey to rid it of impurities and leaves it to mature for a few days.

The beekeeper never touches the honey contained in the cells surrounding the brood, because it is essential for feeding the larvae.

02. THE POLLEN

Bee protein

THE WORK OF BEES

During foraging, the microscopic grains of pollen from the stamens of the flowers, the male reproductive structure, stick to the hairs of the bee, from where they are deposited on the pistil of other flowers during subsequent visits: it is pollination.

For the bee, pollen has another purpose: it is its source of protein. She makes balls of them with her saliva and stores them in the baskets of her hind legs to bring them back to the hive.

THE WORK OF THE BEEEKEEPER

The beekeeper equips his hives with pollen traps, grids through which the bees will pass when returning, which retain part of the pellets attached to the rear legs of the forager. The pollen falls into a drawer, emptied every 2 days by the beekeeper and immediately frozen, the only method allowing all the nutritional benefits of pollen to be preserved.

Only 10% of the 30 to 40 kg of pellets produced by the hive are recovered by the beekeeper so as not to harm the colony.

03. PROPOLIS

Bee antiseptic

THE WORK OF BEES

During their foraging flight, bees collect a fine resin present on the buds of certain trees. They cut small pieces using their mendibles and transport them, like pollen, in the baskets located on their hind legs. Back at the hive, the bees mix this resin with their salivary secretions and wax to transform it into propolis. They coat all of the cells with it to sanitize them. They also use it to plug cracks, reduce theft hole or to mummify the corpses of small animals killed inside the hive in order to avoid putrefaction problems.

THE WORK OF THE BEEEKEEPER

Propolis is a lot of work for beekeepers because it creates a sticky substance surrounding the frames and joints of the supers. The most common technique for extracting propolis is to scrape it in cold weather. However, this technique does not make it possible to obtain quality propolis. APICIA's partner beekeepers use harvesting methods on grids or strips, placed above the frames and made up of numerous holes that the bees will rush to plug with propolis. Once the grid or strip is full, the beekeeper removes it and places it in the freezer. Then simply twist the grid or strip to make the pieces of propolis fall out.

04. ROYAL JELLY

The Queen's Food

THE WORK OF BEES

Royal jelly is a substance directly secreted by the pharyngeal and mandibular glands of nurses. It is used to feed bee larvae at the beginning of their development, and the queen, until the end of her life.

THE WORK OF THE BEEEKEEPER

Using a queen excluder, the beekeeper isolates the queen from the rest of the colony, which encourages the nurses to raise royal cells, previously installed by the beekeeper, and to deposit royal jelly there.