With the flowers blooming and the bees a buzzing, it’s a great time to talk about bees and their importance to us humans. While you may be thinking to yourself, why would I ever care about bees? They lurk around just to sting me. On that note, think about how when a bee does sting you, they die shortly after. So in a way, take it as a compliment that through their life’s work, they ended it with you. 

Bees are more important than most realize. They are in charge of pollinating our plants so that they can make seeds and fruits. Without a range of plants in our garden, we wouldn’t have a good ecosystem. A wide variety of plants helps build the number of wildlife in the area. Bees also make what is called beeswax. 

According to the British Beekeepers Association, “… beeswax is the purest and most natural of all waxes.” 

“Wax-producing glands under their abdomens slowly secrete slivers of wax about the size of a pinhead,” said the British Beekeeper Association. 

Ed DiNello, local beekeeper owns the Bee’s Knees Honey. It’s an apiary located just 10 minutes away from Georgia Southern’s campus, in Brooklet, Ga. There with his business partner Carie Olsen, they make not only honey, but they also make candles as well.

“The only problem with making the wax candles, is it is very work extensive and time consuming,” said DiNello

Now that it’s mentioned, most know that bees are known for one thing, and that’s honey.

What is honey good for?

Honey, just like it’s producer has many qualities. For starters, it has that sweet taste. You can thank your beekeepers for contributing to just one part of a balanced breakfast. Yes, I am referring to Honey Nut Cheerios.

While honey does have that sweet taste, it’s not just good to you, it’s good for you. It has been general knowledge that honey is good for the following medical remedies:

• Cough: helps as much as an over the counter medicine 
•  Wounds: fights infection usually in cuts or burns
• Sore Throat: Mixed with lemon and water, reduces the inflammation in the throat
• Allergies: While the outside is covered in pollen, honey helps desensitize the body from it
• Skin Conditions: Honey is known to help with acne, eczema, and psoriasis, due to its antibacterial and anti-inflammatory properties
• Digestive Issues: Long story short, it helps alleviate some issues.
• Cold: Honey mixed with ginger or cinnamon can be used to relieve symptoms of colds and flu.

While I was conducting my interviews with local beekeepers, I was approached by a bee. I stupidly thought it was just flying by to say hello. That was until it sunk its stinger in me. The beekeeper quickly pulled the stinger out of my nose. He then grabbed a jar of honey and told me to apply it to where I was stung and it should get better fast. Within the next hour, the sting didn’t hurt. 

The swelling was so small, you couldn’t tell that I was stung. The only reason my nose was red is because I had already been blowing my nose all day. Luckily for me, the honey also cleared that up too. 

What is the difference between raw honey and store bought honey?

Like other topics thus far in this article, raw honey has many qualities/reasons to why it is better than store bought honey:

• The Nutritional Value: Raw honey is loaded with a variety of vitamins, minerals, enzymes, and antioxidants that are often destroyed during the pasteurization process used in commercial honey production.
• Enzymes: Raw honey contains natural enzymes that help digestion and various health benefits. The enzymes are often destroyed when honey is processed and heated.
• Flavor: Raw honey is often preferred because of its unique and rich flavor, which can vary depending on the types of flowers the bees visit.
• No Additives: Raw honey is unprocessed and doesn’t contain any additives, such as sugar or corn syrup, which are sometimes added to commercial honey.

Did you know what different flavored honey came from the plants the bees pollinate?

“If they’re in a patch of gallberry where the trees are blooming, then they will hit that source until it is done blooming,” said Carie Olsen. “That’s how you can have gallberry honey,”

With the Bee’s Knees, when they say they don’t infuse anything into their honey to have flavor, they mean there is nothing extra added into the making process. 

“When we sell flavors like the ghost pepper honey, nothing is infused,” said DiNello. “We quite literally just throw the ghost pepper into the raw honey, that’s how it gets its flavor,”