The difference between nectar honey and honeydew honey.

Have you ever picked up a jar of honeydew? Have you thought that it was not actual nectar honey or did you take it as such? The industriousness of bees will amaze you when you understand that the two things are distinctly different, yet both are valuable. Honey can be obtained from flower nectar or honeydew, and in both cases there are foraging bees, worker bees, and ventilator bees.

The foraging bees are those that leave the hive and head to flowers and plants to collect nectar. With their small proboscis, they gather from honey-producing flowers substances such as sucrose, glucose, fructose, and water. A particularly liquid solution settles in a part of their small body called the crop or honey sac. When the foraging bee fills it completely, it returns loaded to the hive and regurgitates everything. At this point, the worker bees inside the hive reintroduce the regurgitated nectar and digest it for about thirty minutes. After this phase, where enzymes reduce all complex sugars to fructose and glucose, the worker bees again regurgitate the liquid into the typical hexagonal cells. At this point, dehydration must occur to promote the maturation and preservation of the finished honey. For this phase, ventilator bees come into play, creating air currents with their wings that thicken the product in the cells, making it dense as we know it.

In the case of honeydew honey, the foraging bees no longer feed on flower nectar, but on a secretion from particular insects called homopterans, specifically from the Metcalfa, which, after ingesting their food, transform it into a source of nitrogen, while the remaining water and excess sugars are expelled in the form of droplets that stick to plant structures such as leaves, branches, bark, etc. In this case, the foraging bees collect these sugary droplets and feed on them, in addition to filling their honey sac. The process then continues as in the case of nectar honey. The final product is darker, less sweet than nectar honey, but richer in nutrients and nutraceutical elements. In particular, honeydew honey is particularly rich in iron and, in smaller yet significant quantities, in calcium, magnesium, sodium, and potassium.

The industriousness and organization of bees is astounding. They are small creatures indispensable to our planet. It is truly said that the meaning of our life lies in the little things.

Bernardo Pasquali