From the Raw Material to the Finished Product: Honey

Abstract

This article is based on the paper read by Dr. Anna Maurizio at the Bee Research Association Conference on ‘Flower-bee relationships’, held at the Kent Farm and Horticultural Institute at Sittingbourne on 27–29th July 1962. For over thirty years Dr. Maurizio has been engaged in research work on various problems in this field, including pollen analysis of honey, and also bee nutrition in relation to pollen consumption. For her lecture she chose a subject she is at present working on—the effects on honey of the various processes the raw material undergoes: in the plant itself, in the bodies of the foraging bees and the house bees, in the cells of the comb, and in the vessel in which the honey is finally stored. Much of this work is so new that it is not yet widely known, and the publication of this paper will bring it within the reach of many more prople than those who were fortunate enough to hear Dr. Maurizio's lecture.