The honey is a delicious natural product made by bees from the nectar of the flowers. The bees produce honey as a way of storing food for use during the winter period, a period when very little floral nectar is available.
The bees, Apis Mellifera, characterize themselves by having a
honey production superior to which the colony requires to feed itself, which allows it to be harvested.
The composition of the honey is varied, being composed of water, fructose and glucose, in addition to other substances in very small amounts, such as, acids, minerals, amino acids, proteins and enzymes.
The colour and flavour of the honey varies according to the source from which the bee collects the nectar.
The honey has its qualities recognized and used by human beings since ancient times, as a food and a natural sweetener, a natural sweetener twice that of cane sugar.
Diverse historical references to this substance exist. In addition to those referred to in the bible, many other civilizations, such as the ancient Egyptians or the Greeks, for example, talked about honey as a sacred product, even using it as a way of paying taxes. In Egyptian excavations, dating back more than 3,000 years, samples of honey, still perfectly conserved, in lightly covered urns were found. Also
prehistoric records regarding the use of the honey exist in cave paintings.
Many diverse varieties of honey are known, depending on the flower used as the source of nectar and also the type of bee that produced it. However as these make nearly three times the amount they need to survive, it has always been possible, firstly, to take the excess made for human consumption then later to produce bees for the specific aim to obtain the honey, which is known as beekeeping.
