SWEET HOLIDAYS, HONEY

It’s magical.

Once upon a time, millions of years ago, lived tiny critters. Their colonies were large – as many as 60,000 residents. It was a powerful monarchy led by a Queen. Everyone worked for her. Each critter had its job; teamwork was essential. The Queen lived much longer than her subjects.

If you were a worker – the largest population in the colony – your main job was to forage for food. Scouts located the best source of nectar and did a “waggle dance” to lead the rest of the colony. You followed, feasting on flowers, filling your “second” stomach with nectar and pollen, then bringing it home. You passed it to younger house critters who fanned it with their wings to remove excess water. Every worker was female, living for six weeks.

The life of a male drone was very different. It had one job – to mate with the queen. There were far fewer drones than workers. The workers took care of them until the active season was over.  If they survived mating – fertilizing the Queen’s eggs – they were kicked out of the colony at the end of the season. They lived 30-60 days.

In the colony, nectar was put into tiny hexagon-shaped cells. When enough water was removed, the cells were sealed with wax, stockpiling food for hard times. It was preserved indefinitely – there was always a surplus.

If the colony became overcrowded, the old Queen left with half her workers and created a swarm to start a new colony. A new Queen took over.

Get it?

Honey. It’s been part of human civilization since the Old Stone Age, over 2.5 million years ago. Early humans lived in caves, simple huts, or tepees. They were hunter-gathers, had basic tools, and created art (cave paintings).

Imagine you’re a cave dweller. You’re foraging for food when you discover an abandoned bee hive. Curious, you take a stick and dip it in leftover golden liquid. Then you taste it . . .

Some say it was the world’s first lollipop.

Inevitably, humans developed bee-keeping or apiculture. Archeologists discovered the first apiary (bee-keeping hives) in Biblical times in Israel’s Beth Shean Valley (Tel Rehov). According to researchers from Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Institute of Archeology, it was “proof of the Biblical description of Israel as ‘the land of milk and honey’ dating back over 3,000 years.”

Records of honey production were also found in Ancient Egypt, Greece, Rome, Georgia, China, and Mesopotamia. Was the knowledge spread, shared, or developed independently? After all, honey bees are native to Africa, the Middle East, and Southern Europe but can live just about anywhere.

Customs evolved. According to archeologists Gil Stein and Lydialyle Gibson, “honey was considered an almost magical substance in the ancient Near East. People used it for everything: as a food and as a raw material to make alcoholic beverages like mead and honey wine.”

Egyptians included honey in their tombs – food for the afterlife. Some mummies were embalmed in honey. When King Tutankhamun’s tomb (death mask below) was excavated in 1922, they found a pot of honey. Brave (crazy?) archeologists tasted it and after 3,000 years it was still good!

Ancient Greeks gave honey to Olympic champions while the Romans used it as gifts to the Gods. Alexander the Great, King of ancient Greek Macedonia, died in 323 B.C.E. He was “preserved in honey and placed in an enormous golden sarcophagus drawn by 64 mules.”

During Medieval times, honey was often used as currency. Bee keeping was popular as a sweetener and medicine; beeswax was used for candle making and sealing documents.

Honey was also loved by famous Americans like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and more recently, Morgan Freeman and Michelle Obama. In 2009, Charlie Brandts became the official White House Beekeeper after he installed a hive of nearly 70,000 bees. It produced 340 pounds of honey that were given as gifts or used in daily and formal meals.

Today honey is loved globally, with a market value over $9.4 billion. According to the World Wildlife Magazine, it’s healthy for both people and the planet. However, honeybees are in decline. In 2015, Barack Obama issued a Presidential Memorandum to create a federal strategy promoting the health of honey bees and other pollinators.

In 2024, Sara Zaske warned in WSU News and Media, that “honey bees are at risk for colony collapse from longer, warmer fall seasons.” Museum of the Earth reported that “pressing threats to long-term bee survival include climate change, habitat loss, invasive plants and bees, low genetic diversity, pathogens, and pesticides.”

The world is fighting to maintain one of the sweetest and most magical critters on the planet.

Enjoy your sweet holidays, honey – now and throughout the year. Keep our bees buzzing!