Written by Kira Peterson, President & CEO, Verikira Naturals

Honey has been delighting us for more then 40 centuries. It is one of the oldest foods in existence. It was found in the tomb of King Tut and was still edible since honey never spoils. Honey was the most-used medicine in ancient Egypt. Of the more than 900 medical remedies we know about for that time, more than 500 were honey based. Ancient Egyptian citizens paid taxes with it, while in early Greece and Rome honey symbolized fertility, love and beauty. In the Bible, this sublime nectar is dubbed “the heavenly food.” To the ancients, honey was a source of health, a sign of purity and a symbol of strength and virility.

Honey has been used as part of a natural beauty regime by the ancient Greeks as far back as Cleopatra. Regularly applied to the face, a mixture of honey and milk was used to keep skin looking young and smooth. Science today has proven that honey has effective and amazing qualities to help skin remain healthy. Here’s why…

Honey is a natural “humectant” which means it attracts and retains moisture. When used in skin treatments, honey’s humectant qualities keep your skin moist, soft, and elastic — helping it stay younger looking. Since honey is all natural, it does not irritate the skin and is ideal for beauty products for sensitive skin. Honey’s natural antioxidant properties help to protect the skin from the damage of the sun’s rays and also help support the skin’s ability to rejuvenate when damage occurs.

Honey also has been documented as an effective “anti-microbial” agent. This means that honey restricts the growth of certain bacteria. As such, honey can help with cases of minor acne by attacking the bacteria that cause the breakouts while moisturizing the skin to aid rejuvenation. Honey attracts the dirt from skin pores and dead skin cells from the surface of the skin. So, it is said to be a natural skin cleanser and softener.

Honeybees — Early man considered bees mysterious and magical creatures because their amazing organized labor produced honey — “nectar for the gods.” Bees have been producing honey for at least 150 million years. Honeybees are a great mystery of science because they have remained unchanged for 20 million years, even though the world changed around them.

The beehive is a delicate colony where each sector of the community must play out its well-defined role in order for the community to survive. There are 3 types of honeybees: the worker, the drone, and the queen — none of which can live on their own. They are completely interdependent. Each of these three honeybees has a highly specialized function within the community. The queen’s primary function is to lay eggs and lots of them! The drone’s sole function is to mate and the worker bee takes on all other tasks necessary to the colony, including the collection of nectar and the production of honey. Sizes of colonies can vary significantly, but on average a hive at peak population may have 30,000 to 40,000 worker bees, one queen and 500-1,000 drones. In winter, in mild climates, these numbers will be reduced to just the queen and 500-12,000 worker bees.

How do they do it? Both field bees and house bees, types of worker bees, are needed to make honey. The field bees gather the nectar, a sweet substance secreted by flowers, and hand it off to the house bees that convert the nectar into honey. The field bee stores the nectar in their honey sacs. During the flight back to the hive the sugars in nectar are simplified so that they can be changed into honey. At the hive the nectar is transferred tongue-to-tongue from the field bee to the house bee. Honey is created when bees mix plant nectar with their own bee enzymes. The house bee then spreads a drop of the nectar in a honey cell where it begins drying. Over the next few days house bees fan their four wings over the comb to evaporate moisture from the nectar. Nectar is 80% water, while honey contains only 19% water. The honeybee's wings stroke 11,400 times per minute, thus making their distinctive buzz. House bees then cap the cell with wax and inside the thickened nectar ages to become honey.

Amazing Facts…

• Honey never spoils. No need to refrigerate it. It can be stored unopened, indefinitely, at room temperature in a dry cupboard.
• Honey contains vitamins and antioxidants, and is fat free, cholesterol free and sodium free!
• Honey is the only food that includes all the substances necessary to sustain life, including water.
• Honey is nature’s energy booster! It provides a concentrated energy source that helps prevent fatigue and can boost athletic performance.
• Due to the high level of fructose, honey is 25% sweeter than table sugar.
• Honey has the ability to attract and absorb moisture, which makes it remarkably soothing for minor burns and helps to prevent scarring.
• Honey speeds the healing of open wounds and also combats infection.
• In order to produce 1 pound of honey, 2 million flowers must be visited.
• A hive of bees must fly 55,000 miles to produce a pound of honey.
• One bee colony can produce 60 to 100 pounds of honey per year.
• An average worker bee makes only about 1/12 teaspoon of honey in its lifetime.
• At the peak of the honey-gathering season, a strong, healthy hive will have a population of approximately 50,000 bees.
• A Cornell University paper released in 2000 concluded that the direct value of honeybee pollination to U.S. agriculture is $14.6 billion annually.
• We should appreciate honeybees for their honey and pollination services. 80% of the pollination of the fruits, vegetables, and seed crops in the U.S. is accomplished by honeybees.