About bees
The best source of energy, the best construction material, and the best defense - these certainly can be said about the main beekeeping products: honey, bee bread, and propolis. It is important that they all are of plant origin, which means that the proteins consist of short, easily digestible amino acid chains and do not burden the immune system.
In ancient times, people considered bees a gift from God, but in ancient Greece, honey was considered the food of the Gods. A mixture of honey and bee bread was often used by the inhabitants of Olympus. In ancient Egypt, it was known that honey extends life span and helps maintain youth for longer. It was Cleopatra's elixir of youth. Some recipes used by Cleopatra have survived to this day. They include olive, almond, and rose oil mixed with honey. The skin became soft and smooth after such facial massages. Honey in this combination serves as a microcirculation enhancer.
What is the best honey? This is the most frequently asked question to beekeepers. Unfortunately, confusion among consumers is increasing. Honey producers often operate in regions with conventional agriculture and mainly obtain monofloral honey, that is, honey from a single type of flower, such as rapeseed, sunflower, citrus, etc. The production must be sold, and the advertising machinery does its job - promoting it while omitting the lesser value of such honey, including residues of insecticides and herbicides in it.
What is the most valuable honey, bee bread, and propolis? The answer here is unequivocal. The less the soil is depleted by conventional agriculture and the greater the biodiversity in the surroundings, the more valuable the product is. Bee colonies also develop better and are stronger with greater plant diversity, and the more diverse the flowers in the honey composition, the more valuable it is, similarly with bee bread and propolis. There is an explanation for this. In nature, there are very complex symbiotic relationships between plants, fungi, and microorganisms. These are thousands of synergistic interactions that are beyond human comprehension and cannot be replicated in any laboratory. If humans do not interfere, nature can deal with all diseases and prepare the highest quality products for us. Problems start when humans begin to regulate this balance according to their own understanding.
For example, what do humans and bees have in common? The connective tissues that hold together both humans and bees function similarly. The main component of connective tissue is collagen. For it to form, various raw materials are required. The formation algorithm involves amino acids, minerals, enzymes, vitamins, etc. The collagen synthesis process is a 50-step biochemical reaction. Different components are used for each type, of which there are 30 in total. The connective tissues will be weak if any of the components are missing. This means that none of the macro and microelements can be lacking.
In Latvia, as in the rest of the world, the main economic benefit of beekeeping comes from pollinating plants (about 80% of plants are entomophilous, meaning they require pollination by insects). Honey and other beekeeping products account for only 10% or even less of the economic benefit that bees provide to humans. These 10% represent the direct income shared by beekeepers and traders. It's not a large number, but if you consider the total investment in the financial gain for society provided by bees, it is huge.
