Understanding Honey Industry Terminology
Honey terminology is important in the honey industry to facilitate understanding and insight among producers and consumers world-wide.
Honey has been a popular natural sweetener and healing agent for centuries.
From beekeeping to the final product on shelves, the honey industry encompasses various stages including farming, manufacturing, and marketing.
In this guide, we will explore the key terms and concepts that define the honey industry.
This knowledge is not only fascinating but also crucial for anyone looking to explore the honey industry, whether for educational, professional, or personal reasons.
Beekeeping and Farming Terms
- Apiary: A location where beehives are kept; also known as a bee yard.
- Beekeeper: An individual who maintains bee colonies, typically in hives, for the purposes of securing commodities such as honey, beeswax, pollen, and royal jelly.
- Brood: The eggs, larvae, and pupae of honey bees within the hive. This is the future generation of bees.
- Colony Collapse Disorder (CCD): A phenomenon where the majority of worker bees in a colony disappear, leaving behind a queen, food, and a few nurse bees to care for the remaining immature bees.
- Nectar: A sweet fluid secreted by flowers that bees collect and convert into honey.
- Pollen: Fine powdery particles, typically yellow, transported from flower to flower by bees or other insects, crucial for the fertilization of plants.
- Propolis: A resinous mixture that honey bees produce by mixing saliva and beeswax with exudate gathered from tree buds, sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted open spaces in the hive.
- Queen Bee: The adult, mated female in a honey bee colony or hive; she is the mother of all bees in the colony.
- Swarming: The natural means of reproduction of honey bee colonies, where the queen bee leaves the colony with a large group of worker bees to form a new colony.
- Varroa Mite: A significant pest of honey bees, contributing to colony collapse disorder by attacking both adult honey bees and brood.
Manufacturing Terms
- Centrifuge Extraction: A method of extracting honey from the honeycomb by using centrifugal force.
- Comb Honey: Honey that is still inside the original hexagonal wax honeycombs.
- Decapping: The process of removing the thin beeswax covering off the honeycomb cells to extract honey.
- Filtering: The process of removing impurities and particles such as pollen, beeswax, and parts of dead bees from honey.
- Honeydew Honey: A type of honey made not from nectar but from honeydew excreted by plant-sucking insects.
- Raw Honey: Honey as it exists in the beehive or as obtained by extraction, settling, or straining, without adding heat.
- Uncapping Knife: A heated knife used to slice the wax caps off the honeycomb to release honey.
Marketing and Sales Terms
- Bulk Honey: Honey that is sold in large quantities, typically to other businesses for repackaging or use in food products.
- Local Honey: Honey that is produced, processed, and sold directly within a certain region, often marketed for its freshness and regional characteristics.
- Monofloral Honey: Honey that predominantly comes from the nectar of one type of flower, known for distinct flavors and colors.
- Polyfloral Honey: Also known as wildflower honey, it is derived from the nectar of many types of flowers.
- Traceability: The ability to trace the history, application, or location of honey, which is important for quality control and marketing.
- UMF (Unique Manuka Factor): A grading system for the antibacterial strength of Manuka honey.
Honey Terminology and Management Organisations
The South African Bee Industry Federation (SABIO)
Honey Judges Guild
Types of honey in South Africa
Understanding these terms provides a solid foundation for anyone interested in the honey industry, whether you’re a budding beekeeper, a consumer wanting to make informed choices, or a business person looking to enter the market.
The fascinating journey from bee to bottle involves intricate processes and a rich vocabulary that reflects the industry’s complexity and beauty.