If you’re a beekeeper, there’s nothing more terrifying than the thought of what would happen to your hives if all bees died out. It’s not just that honeybees are important for pollination and agriculture – they also produce honey! If you want to learn how to make honey without bees, then this blog post will show you how.
If you’re looking for an alternative way to make your own food (or find some interesting new recipes), then I’m here to help with my blog about making things at home!
The Best Tips For Making Honey Without Bees
1. You can use flowers in place of honeybees when making your own nectar into honey
Since plants will still be around after bees die out, this means you could collect flower nectar and ferment it into a sweet syrup that’s very similar in taste and consistency to actual bee-made honey! You’ll need a container filled with water and whatever kind of plant matter is available – the greener, the better! Then just leave it to ferment slightly, and hey presto – you’ve got yourself some plant juice that’s ready to be turned into honey!
2. You can use alternative bee species in place of bees
You might remember the news stories last year about the first swarm of bees being brought back from extinction using frozen specimens. This means there are spore samples that could produce other kinds of bees, so if the worst should come to pass, then there will still be a way for us to make our own honey without bees!
3. Use artificial sweeteners instead of nectar based on sugar
As far as I’m aware, synthetic sweeteners like Splenda aren’t made by bees either (or at least they weren’t when I last checked), so this would be a good alternative for anyone who isn’t keen on bees and doesn’t want to keep their own hive just yet. There are some interesting ways you can cook with Splenda, too – it’d be cool if we could somehow blend the ‘fake’ sweetness of Splenda with real plant nectar!
4. Use sugar instead of honey
Another popular substitute for nectar-based honey is plain old sugar syrup (made using white cane sugar or brown in different ratios). You can use this in place of any other kind of sweetener and add your own fruit and herb flavorings to make your treat suitable for any diabetic friend, relative or patient when they’re not feeling up to eating much!
5. Make raw honey when no bees mean no more store-bought honey!
I found out about raw honey by accident when I decided to try and make some myself. It’s the kind of honey that hasn’t been treated with high heat or had chemicals added to stop it fermenting, which makes it taste slightly different than what you’re probably used to, but this has a number of benefits too. YouTubers like Mountain Mikes swear by their raw honey for making all kinds of drinks and desserts, so I’m sure you’ll find plenty of inspiration in his channel’s recipe collection!
Can honey be human-made?
The short answer to this question is yes, but the long answer takes a bit more explaining! Honey can be made by bees and humans alike, but in order for it to be considered ‘true’ honey (and not some kind of inverted sugar syrup) then it has to meet certain criteria, which include:
1. A high water content – most kinds of honey contain 70-80% water, so they’re easy on your throat when you consume them.
2. Melting point – this is how quickly honey will dissolve in your mouth without heating up or losing its natural flavor.
3. Viscosity – the stickiness of the honey can help you gauge whether it’s pure honey or just plain ol’ sugar syrup.
4. Natural sweetness – good honey should have a natural sweetness, so it doesn’t need to be mixed with sugar or artificial sweeteners.
(In case you didn’t already know, pure honey is also naturally anti-bacterial, so it can help heal wounds and improve your skin – this makes it great as a beauty treatment!)
How do you make honey step by step?
The methods for making honey used by different bee species will all depend on the materials they have available to them, but there are a few common practices I’ve noticed.
1. Bees collect nectar from flowers – this is taken back to the hive in ‘honey stomachs’ where it’s mixed with enzymes inside their bodies that convert its sugars into fructose and glucose
2. The bees then pass the mixture into other worker bees, which add more enzymes along with yeasts that help ferment it into honey
3. Water is evaporated off by placing the mix in combs in a hot room while being constantly cooled in order to avoid it boiling over when it gets too dry! It will take around 1-3 days to make raw honey this way
4. Using a centrifuge machine, they can make their own version of ‘store-bought’ honey in less than an hour – the final product contains very little water and is around 80% fructose and glucose sugars!
So, there you have it!
How do you make raw honey?
Some of you may have been wondering whether or not it’s possible to make raw honey without bees. Well, the good news is that it’s actually easier than you probably think! All you need to do is:
1. Harvest some nectar from flowers in your garden and add some yeast and enzymes (if possible) when mixing it with water in a blender – this is usually enough to ferment it into honey after around 1-3 days, depending on how hot your room gets
2. Place the mixture in a plastic bottle and leave it in direct sunlight for around 10 hours – this can be done using a solar cooker if necessary, but I just use my oven with the door open! The ultraviolet rays will kill any bacteria left behind when they evaporate the water from the nectar.
3. You can then test to see if it’s done fermenting by putting a dab on some plate that you’ve left out in your garden overnight – if it leaves a big sticky patch like this:
4. If it isn’t, leave it out for another 10 hours and try again (it may take up to 36 hours total). Check back every 12-24 hours and give it a stir if necessary – eventually, you’ll end up with raw honey that tastes great!
What is the difference between raw honey and pure honey?
Well, I suppose it would be fair to say that there isn’t much difference – after all, the only thing that really makes them different is their water content. So if you’re looking to buy honey, then just make sure that it’s labeled as raw and not pure!
But what does this word ‘pure’ even mean? Well, it actually means ‘not raw,’ so I’m guessing that many of you may have been thinking about buying honey labeled as such because you’ve heard how good it is for your health (which is great, by the way!). But in order for honey to be considered ‘pure,’ its producers will need to heat it for around 15-20 minutes at approximately 113°C before adding an anti-bacterial agent (usually hydrogen peroxide) and then cooling it down.
This process is all in an effort to make sure that the honey doesn’t contain any harmful bacteria, but I’ve heard people refer to pure honey as ‘pasteurized’ on many occasions – does anyone know why this is? Couldn’t they just call it raw instead if that’s what they’re trying to say? Oh well, I suppose all that really matters is that you know how to get hold of the good stuff!
Does honey go bad?
Well, its natural properties mean that honey is incredibly good for you, and it will never rot if you store it in a cool place to avoid any bacteria from growing. So unless you’re eating a whole jar every few days, I wouldn’t worry about wasting your money by throwing out bad batches!
Besides, raw honey actually contains beneficial enzymes and yeasts, which make it even better for your health – so if there are some bits floating around inside the jar, then don’t let them put you off because they’ll be very much alive when you get down to them!
What’s the difference between light and dark honey?
The main difference is that dark honey has been known to contain more antioxidants than its lighter counterparts, but this really just depends on what flowers it’s been collected from.
Some people believe that light honey is more absorbable for your body, but I’m not sure if this is true or not – it would make sense, though, since darker honey like buckwheat and manuka also contain a lot of minerals and trace elements. Either way, you’re still getting a great product no matter which one you choose because all types of honey will do the same things for your health!
How can you tell fake honey?
Even reputable health food shops have been caught selling honey that has been blended with high fructose corn syrup – so it can be hard to know what you’re getting because a lot of these places don’t actually label their jars as pure.
But if you do some research first and find a place where they sell raw honey, then it should be simple enough to tell the difference since the synthetic stuff doesn’t crystallize when it is cooled down and instead stays runny like corn syrup!
I hope these tips will prove useful for anyone who’s really worried about the slow decline of bees worldwide. I’m sure there are more ways we could discover to make our own honey in an emergency situation (since even having just one hive of bees can take up lots of space) but until then, let’s keep spreading the word about how important these insects are to all of us! We wouldn’t want to lose them forever, would we?
