By Wirsiy Emmanuel Binyuy
Apiculture and Nature Conservation Campaigner
HOW TO KNOW GOOD BROWN OR WHITE HONEYHOW TO KNOW GOOD BROWN OR WHITE HONEY
• Keeping honey open outside should attract bees. Any expose honey that do not attract bees should be questionable
• A stick of match should still light fire after deeping in honey
• Honey dropped in water should not dissolve immediately. It should move and settle below water because honey is heavier or denser than water. It will dissolve slowly when stirred
• Good honey should crystalize or develop granules like sugar after some months of harvesting. Remember honey is fructose which is natural sugar
• The type of container that honey is stored or package in can tell you whether honey is good or not. If you see honey put in pesticide containers or engine oil container can that be good honey?
• Honey should not wet a normal exercise book paper or A4 paper when dropped into it
• Good honey should not ferment (behaving like corn beer or “sha”) after some months of harvesting. This will show that the water content is high in honey. This could result from honey harvesting when it is rainy or that storage or packaging containers were not dried before using.
• Honey should always be in a sealed container because honey absorb water from the atmosphere and this increases honey water content
• Good honey should be pure and free from particles. There should be no dead bees in honey because dead bees get rotten and contaminate honey
• Good honey should have the flavor, taste and colour of the flowers/plant that the bees collected nectar and pollen from it. Honey from bitterleaf is sweetish bitter with black colour, Honey from Eucalyptus is easily recognize likewise that from coffee which has the coffee taste
• Good honey should respect all hygienic and sanitation norms from harvesting through transportation, storage, packaging and marketing. Honey is food
HOW TO TASTE GOOD STINGLESS BEE HONEY
• Stingless bee honey is harvested from the wild and our source is from the Kilum-Ijim forest
• Stingless bee honey should not change taste harvesting, storage or packaging
• Good stingless bee honey should respect all hygienic and sanitation norms from harvesting through transportation, storage, packaging and marketing. Honey is food
All honey produce by bees is pure and starts being contaminated when poorly harvested, transported, stored, packaged or marketed.