Detailed Explanation of Key Production Techniques for Specialty Honey

Honey has always been regarded by people as a pure natural nutritional and health-promoting product. If @#@255@#@ collects nectar from several flower species to make separated honey, it is called mixed honey, or polyfloral honey; if it comes from a single flower species, it is called single-flower honey; if certain nutrients are artificially added and fed to bees, and the honey is made through the bees' processing, it is called biofortified honey. The so-called "specialty honey" refers to the production of single-flower honey or biofortified honey with a certain nutritional and health value.

1. Production of single-flower specialty honey. The nectar that bees collect from different nectar-source plants produces honey that differs in color, composition, taste and nutritional value. If a single flower species with special medicinal effects is selected, the honey produced has certain special health benefits. For example, pure loquat honey has the effect of relieving cough and moistening the lungs; codonopsis honey has tonic effects; motherwort honey has a certain therapeutic effect on gynecological diseases; Sophora viciifolia honey has a heat-clearing effect; coptis honey has the effect of clearing heat and detoxifying, and so on. In addition, pure honey from Chinese milk vetch, vetch, black locust, Eurya, linden, lychee, longan and others has good color and a fragrant aroma, and is called first-grade honey. If nectar-source sites are selected in a planned way and specialty honey from a single flower species is collected purposefully, it is very popular with consumers.

To produce specialty honey of a single variety, one must first organize a strong honey-collecting bee colony, choose a place where that nectar source is relatively concentrated, and place the bees there for foraging. Bees can also be trained to collect exclusively from that flower species, by feeding the bees daily a fragrant sugar syrup of that plant's flowers (made by first soaking fresh flowers in clean water, then adding honey or sugar water). When the bees go out to forage, they will specifically collect that kind of nectar. In producing single-flower specialty honey, it must be noted that the first extraction of honey is relatively mixed because the comb still contains honey from the previous flowering period, so it should be stored separately; only the second extraction is truly pure single-flower specialty honey.

2. Production of biofortified honey. Using artificial methods to produce biofortified specialty medicinal honey and establishing therapeutic-type apiaries also gives very good results. The method is to prepare, in a certain proportion and according to the needs of treating different diseases, medicated sugar syrup, feed it to the bees daily, and use the bees to make medicinal specialty honey with relatively high therapeutic efficacy. For example, decocting Panax notoginseng and combining the juice with sugar water to feed the bees, then after processing within the bees' bodies, storing it in the comb, and once mature taking it out with a honey extractor, packaging and storing it separately, this is the "Panax notoginseng honey" with relatively high medicinal value. Others such as "codonopsis honey", "hawthorn honey", "Polygonum multiflorum honey" and so on can also be produced by the same method.

If trace elements essential to the human body are added to the honey and fed to bees, specialty honey can also be produced, such as calcium honey, iodine honey, zinc honey, selenium honey and so on, which can prevent and treat many diseases and have relatively high value.

To produce biofortified specialty honey, the following points must be noted: ① The colony strength must be strong (it should be above 8 frames of full bees). ② After the main nectar flow period of the external nectar-source plants has ended, the biofortified honey produced is relatively pure. ③ The sugar syrup fed must be abundant, sufficient for the bees' life and reproduction needs, and there should also be a sufficient surplus. ④ According to different needs, add a certain proportion of the corresponding drug. ⑤ After adding the drug, an experiment must be carried out to see whether the bees are willing to accept this drug. Only if the bees are willing to consume this medicated sugar syrup can production be carried out.