Bumblebee honey: do insects make nectar, composition and benefits, contraindications

Bumblebees are insects from the bee family. They are also very important pollinators. During pollination, individuals collect nectar, which they transform into honey to feed their small family. The amount of harvested product is usually small. However, bumblebee honey is characterized by many features. This product contains many valuable components and brings great he alth benefits.

Do bumblebees make honey?

Bumblebees are no less efficient than bees, and also produce useful honey. To obtain this product, you can even make an apiary on the principle of a bee. However, its productivity will be significantly lower.

Bumblebees, like bees, are characterized by a clear hierarchy. Each insect performs certain duties. Also in the bumblebee family there is a main female who is responsible for the offspring. At the same time, most of the remaining females are workers. They collect nectar, which will later be processed into honey.

The life of a bumblebee family depends on the productivity of insects. On average, workers collect nectar from 30 flowers in 1 minute. This parameter is considered quite high, since the bees are able to fly around 2 times less flowers in the same period of time.

Although bumblebees work more efficiently, they have much less honey. This is due to the fact that the bee family is very numerous. Therefore, for feeding it, large reserves are needed. In addition, bees live more than one season. Thanks to good supplies, they can easily winter.

The bumblebee family includes 400-500 individuals. They only live for 1 season. Therefore, insects make reserves of honey only for feeding growing individuals. If you put bumblebees in a hive, then from one such house you can get a maximum of 200 milliliters of nectar.

Under natural conditions, insects create nests in hollows, grass and rodent burrows. It is quite difficult to get a useful product from such a shelter. To do this, you first need to put on a protective suit. This is recommended even if bumblebee nectar needs to be removed from the hive.

Then you need to try to carefully pull out the honeycomb. After that, it is recommended to take a syringe and gradually draw liquid from the cells with it. When extracting a product from a hive, it is also worth working with a syringe. However, in this case, you do not need to get the honeycomb.

Since bumblebees produce too little of a useful product, it is unprofitable to breed them like bees. Because few people know that bumblebees bring honey, which is as useful as bee honey.

Composition and appearance

Bumblebee honey is considered a unique product. It is characterized by a number of features:

looks like liquid jam;
composition has a low density;
substance includes a variety of pollen collection.

This composition contains many minerals and amino acids. Their number in the bumblebee product is twice as much as in the bee product. Ingredients include:

proteins;
carbs;
precious metals.

100 grams of bumblebee honey contains 324 kilocalories. There are 38.7 kilocalories in 1 teaspoon of the product, and 96.3 kilocalories in 1 tablespoon.

Differences from bee

Bumblebee nectar is characterized by a number of features. It differs in a more liquid consistency than the bee product, and more closely resembles sugar syrup. To taste, the composition is not as sweet and fragrant than bee. It also contains many proteins and minerals. In terms of the content of valuable components, bumblebee honey is significantly superior to bee honey.

Benefits and contraindications

The product has a number of useful properties. With its help, it is possible to cope with various pathologies:

bronchial asthma;
bronchitis;
diseases of the digestive organs;
liver pathology;
diseases of the urinary organs.

With the help of bumblebee honey it is possible to get rid of dry cough. To do this, warm milk needs to be mixed with 1 small spoonful of nectar and a small amount of butter.

The product is capable of provoking allergic reactions, so this fact should definitely be taken into account. With an increase in blood sugar, it is also better to refuse bumblebee honey.

So, the main contraindications to the use of this substance include the following:

allergy;
diabetes mellitus;
individual intolerance.

The product has practically no side effects. Their appearance is possible only if a person does not take into account information about contraindications.

How to spot a fake

To distinguish natural bumblebee honey from a fake, it is recommended to carefully look at its appearance. The composition differs in the consistency of liquid honey. In appearance, it is more like sugar syrup. At the same time, the composition turns out to be less sweet and fragrant than bee honey.

Terms and rules of storage

It is believed that the shelf life of the product is 1 year, after which it loses its healing properties and even accumulates harmful components. However, this opinion is considered erroneous. Subject to optimal parameters and storage conditions, the composition can be stored for an unlimited period of time.

Storage of bumblebee honey is recommended at a temperature of 0 … +3 degrees. If the specified indicators are exceeded, the substance will begin to oxidize. As for the container, honey should be kept in a glass container. This material does not react with honey components. At the same time, glassware does not make it possible to protect the product from sunlight. Therefore, it must be kept in a dark place.

Bumblebee honey is a unique product that contains many vitamins, minerals and amino acids. When used correctly, the composition brings great benefits to the body. At the same time, it is very important to take into account contraindications to its use. Otherwise, the substance will only bring harm.