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Marieke Mutsaers

Trichilia ABC - Marieke Mutsaers

Bee Products and Apitherapy

The honeybee colony

A colony of honeybees consists of one queen or mother, the egg-laying female, and dependant on season and colony development, ten thousand to 75,000 worker bees, infertile females. Seasonally, male bees or drones, are present, particularly in a season of abundance and colony growth. The three different types of bees are called castes. They each have their own role in the colony and reproduction. For the production of hive products the worker bees are most important.

Wax

Worker bees excrete or sweat wax from glands at the underside of the abdomen. The raw material for beeswax is honey. Beeswax is used by the bees for the building of combs. In the cells of the comb pollen and honey are stored. When the honey is ripe, it is sealed with a thin wax layer. Also the bee brood is raised in the comb. The queen lays eggs in the cells of the comb, which develop into larvae. These are sealed with a wax layer, after which the larvae develop into pupae. This is called brood. The imago emerges from the cell after biting through the wax capping. A dark brown membrane is left behind in the cell. Empty brood comb can be used for new brood or for storage of pollen or honey.

Honey

Honeybees collect nectar from flowers. It consists of a watery solution of different sugars and other components, varying in composition dependant on plant species. A foraging bee carries the nectar in her honey sac to the hive, and then regurgitates it to be sucked up again by another bee. The house bees manufacture the nectar into honey and store it in the cells of a comb. It will there be ripened further and it sealed with a wax layer.

Pollen and royal jelly

Honeybees forage on nectar, but also pollen is collected from the anthers of flowers. Pollen sticks on the body hairs of the bee and is brushed off with the front legs and then rolled into a ball, with addition of saliva, and put into pollen baskets on the hind leggs. The pollen loads are carried home and stamped into cells by the house bees. This so-called bee bread is used later by the young bees to make pap, bee milk or jelly for the larvae. The quality and quantity of jelly given to a queen larva is higher than for other bees like workers and drones. It is called royal jelly or gelée royale.

Bee brood

Like bee milk, bee brood has its own nutritional and health value. It is eaten and prepared into recipes in different parts of the world.

Propolis

Bees collect resins, botanical waxes and gums of trees. They mix them with beeswax and saliva. This brown, sticky bee product is called bee glue or propolis. Composition and scent vary for botanical origin and geographical area. The bees polish the cells for the brood with propolis and use it as putty to fill up holes in the walls of the hive. The entrance of a natural nesting place, like a hole in a tree, may be closed off with a shield of propolis. Small holes of about 15 mm are left open to be used as bee exit and entrance.

Venom

Female bees possess an ovipositor which can be used for the laying of eggs, but also for stinging, to defend themselves against intruders. The stinger is composed of two shafts with hooks. Once it has penetrated the human skin, it will go deeper and it cannot be withdrawn by the bee. Trying to withdraw the stinger, the bee tears it out of her own body. The bee will thereafter die. When a bee stings, venom from a venom sac at the base of the stinger, is injected into the attacked animal. A stung insect will die of the venom, but humans normally just develop a red swelling. In case of allergy to bee fluid, a human may faint or even die. Cases are rare, but it occurs. A person who is not allergic may die after a higher number of stings, like a hundred or a thousand. Animals like chicken, donkey and horse may die after five to ten stings. (See also www.beevenom.com)

Apitherapy

All bee products are harvested and consumed for their nutritional and health value. The therapeutic use of bee products is called apitherapy, after the scientific name of the honeybee: Apis. For internal use they may be called food supplements, for external use cosmetics, health care or care products. The legal status of bee products varies per product and per country. Several apitherapy products are registered as medicine. (See also www.apitherapy.com)