Monday, May 10, 2010

Honey Honey, ah, Sugar, Sugar

This was a song by the Archies we were singing because of our big find. I was also singing "Honeycomb's BIG, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's not small, no, no, no." Can you guess what we found?


A tree fell down in the park and inside we found it was chock-full of honeycomb and wild honey.

It was delish!!! I was a happy camper until Miranda mentioned the botulism risk and then I was a bit freaked out. There is botulism spores found in wild honey, but it is only a risk to infants. We looked this up and found out adult stomachs can take care of the spores. Whew!!! Potential death averted!
Here is a closeup of the honeycomb. Truly amazing! To think that they made this with their mouth and no rulers or protractors were involved. I can't even make cookies uniform and I use my hands for that.
The honeycomb is made out of wax. The wax is formed from special glands on the bees abdomen. Bees consume honey and the sugars from the honey are converted to the wax. The wax is produced in thin, transparent flakes that are chewed to form the pliable wax that makes up the combs. It takes 6-8 pounds of honey to make one pound of wax!

Truly amazing little architects. :)
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