About our honey
Terra Orchard’s honey bees are of the species Apis mellifera, or commonly known as the Italian bee, which is non native to Malaysia but has been cultured here for a few decades. There are a few species of bees in Malaysia, such as the common Tualang bee, local Asian bee and Kelulut (or Stingless bee). Each of the bee species has different behavior, size and foraging preference. Thus, their honey production also varies.
Do you know that ….
Italian bee is the most popular honey bees that has long history with human. Italian bee keeping has long been practiced in Europe, and now throughout the world. Majority of the honey in this world are the product of Italian bees.
How honey is made?
The worker bees forage for nectar from flowers, and upon returning to the hive, they store nectar in the honeycombs. They then fan their wings at the combs to remove the moisture from the nectar and finally cap the honeycomb with a layer of wax. These liquid in the capped honeycomb is the honey you are looking at now. Depending on the weather, flower source and other environmental factors, the taste (slightly bitter, sour or sweet), colour (darker and lighter) and viscosity (slightly watery or slightly sticky) of the honey can vary. Some of the honey we found in supermarket shelves are pasteurized (heated at 70 degrees Celsius or more, followed by rapid cooling) for commercial and transport purpose. Thus, they look clean, or sometimes more sticky. Our honey is 100% pure, raw and real. We harvest our honey straight out from the bee hives, and pour them into the jar through a sieve to filter the unwanted honeycomb debris. Sometimes you may even find some debris in our jar but they are totally safe for consumption.
Storage
With very little moisture content, honey can be stored for a very period of time. There is no need to store honey in refrigerator. In fact, by doing so honey will crystalize – which is a natural process. To liquefy crystalized honey, simple place the honey jar in warm water and they will return to its liquid state.
But be careful …
Although honey has many heath benefits, such as antibacterial activity, antioxidant activity, good at treatment of ulcers and skin infections resulting from burns and wound, it is not suitable for everyone. Many people believe honey is good for diabetes, but this is not true as honey will affect blood sugar level. Also refrained from feeding honey to children below 12 months because of the risk of botulism. Honey can harbour the bacteria Clostridium botulinum that can cause infant botulism.