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All About the Honey Bee

Some quick number facts about bees

Did you know that bees are the only insects that we take food from?

Honey bees are one of the most highly organised of all insect groups.  Thousands live in one hive and work together to keep the hive going.  Honey bees are known as social insects.  Each hive has:

q  A Queen – a female specially developed for egg-laying (as many as 2000 in one day);

q  Workers – females bees that do the essential work of the hive like food gathering and nursing;

q  Drones – male bees whose sole duty it is to mate with the queen.  In autumn, the drones are driven out of the colony to die.

The nectar that the bees gather is made into honey in the bee’s “honey stomach”.  Back in the hive it is stored in six-sided cells made of wax secreted from certain glands in the bee’s body.  Pollen is stored in the hive for food over the autumn and winter.  Beekeepers sometimes have to supply extra pollen to keep the hive going over the colder months.  Bees also need water.

Not all flowers produce nectar; in fact the range of flowers attractive to bees is quite small.  New Zealand’s main honey producing plant is white clover, but some of the native plants are also important.

Pollen is collected from most nectar producing plants, but good pollen sources are willows, gum trees, gorse, broom, flax and fruit trees.  Some of the native forest trees are also visited by bees for pollen, include Kauri, Miro, Totara, Rimu and Kahikatea.

Why are bees important?

Bees are one of the most useful of all insects because they pollinate many of the plants we depend on.  Bees are not the only pollinators, but they are the most important.

Varroa Mite

The varroa mite (varroa jacobsoni) is an external mite parasite of the common honey bee (apis mellifera) although its natural host is the Asian hive bee (apis cerana).  New Zealand discovered the mite in 2000 near Auckland, and the mite is now throughout the North Island.  In June 2006, the varroa mite was discovered near Nelson in the South Island. 

The mite causes serious levels of colony mortality and beekeepers must control the mite numbers with a pesticide, applied before and after honey collection.  It has added significant costs to the beekeeping industry with the extra maintenance now required and honey prices have risen as a result.

Honey

Over 88% of NZers eat honey! 

71% of NZers believe honey is nutritionally better than sugar. 

84% of NZers believe honey is one of the most natural foods available.

What is Honey?

Ancient cave drawings show that honey has been used as a food by man for at least 20,000 years.  To many people, honey is just a sweet substance collected by bees.  Honey is, however, a complex substance that varies appreciably in its composition.

Honey starts out as a very thin, watery sugary fluid, known as nectar.  Nectar is found in the nectaries of plants, which are usually located in the base of the flowers.  Nectar varies considerably in its sugar, protein, mineral and water content from one kind of plant to another.

In a honey bee's quest for a single load of honey, she may visit anything from 500 to 1100 blossoms of a particular species of plant.  In her lifetime the honey bee will fly approximately 800 kilometres and produce just half a teaspoon of honey; it takes approximately 2.5 million kilometres of flying by the bees in a hive to produce one litre of honey.

Inside the bee, the nectar is stored in a tiny compartment, known as the honey sac.  This sac is like a little plastic bag fitted with a one way valve.  Stored enzymes and juices in the sac convert the sucrose (disaccharide) to more simple sugars (mono-saccharides).  It is upon this conversion that nectar becomes known as honey, consisting mainly of two simple sugars, dextrose and levulose.

The enzymes which play the main part in converting the nectar are:

        Invertase - which brings about the change in the sucrose to dextrose and levulose

        Diastase - which converts starch to the dextrines

        Catalose - which decomposes hydrogen peroxide

        Phosphates - which decompose aglycerophaste

The “unripe honey”, as the honey in the honey bee’s sac is called, is passed by the honey bee to a worker bee at the hive.  The “unripe honey” is dried by bees exposing it as a thin film to the warm dry currents in the hive.  When no more than 18-20% of water remains, the now “ripened honey” is sealed in a cell with a wax cap; where it is left to mature and finish its ripening process.

At this stage it can be harvested by the beekeeper or eaten by the bee colony as food.

Average Composition                                              Average Amount in
of Honey                                                                 100 grams Honey      
                                                                                               

Energy                                                                     312 kilocalories           

Fructose                                                                   38.50gm    

Glucose                                                                    31.00gm    

Water                                                                       17.10gm    

Maltose                                                                    7.20gm      

Sucrose                                                                    1.50gm      

Thiamin                                                                    < 0.006mg 

Riboflavin                                                                 < 0.06mg   

Niacin                                                                      < 0.36mg   

Pantothenic acid                                                        < 0.11mg   

Pyridoxine                                                                 < 0.32mg   

Ascorbic acid                                                            2.2 - 2.4mg

Enzymes                                                                  Invertase, Diastase, Glucose oxidase

Calcium                                                                    4.40 - 9.20mg              Copper      0.003 - 0.10mg           Iron           0.06 - 1.50mg             Magnesium                1.20 - 3.50mg                                                                     Manganese 0.02 - 0.40mg             Phosphorus                1.90 - 6.30mg             Potassium 13.20 - 168.00mg Sodium                                                                    0.00 - 7.60mg              Zinc          0.03 - 0.40mg            

Trace elements, Nitrogen, Acids:  Present

What is the difference between creamed and liquid honey?

Creamed honey is a controlled crystallisation process that is used extensively in New Zealand due to our cooler climate.  The honey is still exactly the same as liquid honey; just the crystals are different (a bit like water and ice).  If you were to heat the creamed honey to above 25oC, it would become liquid honey again.  Nothing is added to the honey to make it creamy; many overseas customers assume there is icing sugar in it – maybe in their countries honey is not so pure. 

Bee Pollen

What is Bee Pollen?

Pollen is the sole food of the bee larvae (young bees) and because of this nutritious diet, they grow to over 1000 times their original size within a few days.  Pollen is collected by the worker bee as she visits flowers and she manipulates the pollen into "pollen baskets" on her back legs.  Bees normally work one type of flower at a time, which fulfills the plant-life's need to receive pollen from other plants of the same species.  Pollen will also stick to the bee’s body and will be scraped off on each subsequent flower they visit.

How can it benefit the customer?

“Pollen is a completely natural and extremely nutritional food.  Many of our customers have found it beneficial in treating tiredness, lowered resistance to illness, loss of appetite, weakness and depression, even premature aging and disturbances of the digestive system.”

Many customers are familiar with bee pollen, due mainly to the well advertised product called Potentiated Bee Pollen.  This is a marketing term that a company uses to describe the process used to “break down” the hard outer core of the pollen, thereby making it more potent as the body can absorb all nutrients of bee pollen.  Whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess – their process is obviously “secret”.  Still, lots of people are hooked and use potentiated bee pollen over normal pollen because of this so-called added-value.  After all, pollen is pollen; collected by the honey bee for food for the bee larvae.  Clever, because it sets their pollen apart from all the other pollen and they can then charge their higher prices because of this perceived greater value of their “potentiated” bee pollen. 

“Did you know that pollen granules have been used by the first ever Olympic athletes for extra energy and vitality, and has been known for its amazing properties in ancient Egypt, China, India and Persia.  Back then people collected bee pollen from the hive just as we do today – so you don’t need to pay the inflated prices of potentiated bee pollen to get the benefits of bee pollen.”

Our bee pollen is fresh; collected within the last honey season so our bee pollen contains all of its nutritional values.  Bee pollen can help people with allergies to “wind-borne” bee pollen from flowers because it works on building up your body’s natural immunity.”    

We recommend our customers use the granules over the capsules, simply because it is better value for money and they really should take at least a tablespoon of bee pollen to be beneficial. 

Bee Pollen Smoothie

                Blend the following until smooth

One banana (with additional fruit if available)

Five almonds (optional)

                One tablespoon of bee pollen

                One tablespoon of manuka honey (or active manuka honey)

                ½ cup of natural unsweetened yoghurt

                ½ cup of natural juice (like orange) or ½ cup of low fat milk

                Five ice cubes           

Warning:  There is always the small possibility of an allergic reaction.  Because bee pollen has almost every single nutrient known to man, some people are allergic, especially people suffering from asthma.  We recommend customers start off by using a very small amount of pollen (just a few granules) and build up over time to about a tablespoon.

Allergic reactions to bee pollen can be upset stomach (we recommend people take bee pollen with food), wheezing, or rash. 

Propolis

Propolis is not as well known as bee pollen.  It is better known in countries like Japan where many people use it to treat ailments.  So what is propolis? 

Bees gather the gums and resins secreted from wounds on plants and use it to protect the beehive and its contents.  We call this propolis.  These gums and resins came into being to protect plant wounds but they also give this same protection to the inside of a beehive.  More important, we know that the protection these gums and resins give is not only physical but also chemical.  Propolis dries, giving a hard, waterproof finish to the inside of a beehive.  Propolis is used to fill cracks and crevices where microbes may hide and grow.  Propolis provides no food for microbes but contains chemicals that are toxic to them.

Propolis works by encapsulating the bacteria or unwanted object so that the bacteria cannot escape.  For example, bees will totally surround a trapped dead mouse in a hive with propolis and this will prevent any bacteria from escaping as the mouse decomposes. 

Propolis has been found to be anti-bacterial, antiseptic, anti-fungal, anti-viral, and anti-inflammatory.”

Propolis is available in tincture form, which is useful to use on wounds, in a tonic or mouth spray.  The most common way to take propolis in New Zealand is in capsule or tablet form.  By taking a regular amount of propolis each day, your body will build up its own natural defences against infections and disease.

Royal Jelly

Royal Jelly is a milky-white substance secreted from glands located in the heads of young adult female nurse bees.  Just as milk fed to a human baby is a glandular secretion, so is Royal Jelly, and by analogy may be considered the milk colostrum of honey bees.  Royal Jelly is fed exclusively to developing bees for the first three days of their lives.  Thereafter it is fed only to the queen bee.  Queen bees are usually 2 - 3 times larger than other bees, live up to five to six years (the worker live for only 40 - 60 days in summer) and are capable of laying twice her body-weight in eggs every day.  The only difference between a worker and a queen bee is their nutrition.

Historically the Chinese have used Royal Jelly to help retard the ageing process as well as many problems associated with old age. Scientific studies have shown that:

q  The main component of Royal Jelly is protein, accounting for 40% of it’s bulk, with the ratio of albumin and globulin at 2 - 1, similar to that of the human body.

q  Amino acids found in Royal Jelly and utilised by the honeybee are also necessary in humans.  Glutamic acid regulates brain function and lysine promotes growth.

q  Royal Jelly is also a rich source of the B vitamins. 

Royal Jelly contains:

                Proteins and carbohydrates

Minerals:  copper, calcium, iron, silica, manganese, sodium, chromium, nickel, potassium, phosphorus, aluminum, magnesium, sulphur, gold, bismuth, zinc

All 30 naturally existing amino acids including the eight “essential” amino acids

Vitamins, including the B group, A, C, D, E, H, K & M

Peptides, esters and hormones

q  Pantothenic acid plays an important role in delaying senility and keeping fit. 

q  Vitamin B1 eases physical fatigue and frayed nerves

q  Vitamin B2 promotes the growth of healthy tissue

q  Vitamin B6 is needed for the proper activity of the nervous system

q  Vitamin B12 and folic acid are required for the manufacture of healthy blood cells, nicotinic acid maintains skin normality, and inositol promotes the metabolism of fat.

Scientific studies show that Royal Jelly can aid healing in the digestive system, cardiovascular and circulatory systems, neuro-psychological system and dermatology:

q          Royal Jelly is the richest form of pantothenic acid yet discovered (an aid to sleep and stress resistance).

q          Stimulates the appetite and growth patterns with leucinine and lysine helping those with poor appetites (there are no reported weight gains through supplementing with Royal Jelly).

q          The potency of Royal Jelly is determined by its freshness.  A special fatty acid that occurs naturally in Royal Jelly is 10-HDA and this is used as a measure of the freshness and therefore potency.  Where freshly harvested, the finest quality Royal Jelly has a 10-HDA level of 2%.

q          Royal Jelly is rich in nutrients that delay senility, regulate the function of immunity and boosts the output of lymphatic and adrenal glands.  It can be used as an auxiliary treatment for malnutrition, chronic hepatitis, arthritis, hypertension and diabetes.

Royal Jelly has been taken by man for hundreds of years because it has been found to be beneficial for many different ailments and uses.  Quite simply, it is an extremely nutritional natural food that assists in maintaining a healthy mind and body.  Today people are busy, stressed, tired, and cannot afford to get ill.  Royal Jelly has the richest form of pantothenic acid yet discovered - an aid to sleep and stress resistance – so we believe it is extremely beneficial for our modern living.

Our royal jelly has been freezed-dried so not to deplete the nutritional value of royal jelly.  This is the easiest and most economical way to take royal jelly – you just need one tablet a day; and a year’s supply is very economical.  The only better way to take royal jelly is fresh – but you would have to live next door to a beekeeper who regularly collected it – and that is rare and very expensive.

Bee Venom

Bee venom is a complex combination of chemical substances produced by the worker and queen honeys bees.  The venom is used together with parts of the bee’s anatomy (called the “sting apparatus”) to sting intruders in defence of the honey bee colony.  Drone (male) honey bees do not produce venom and do not have a sting apparatus.

Bee venom is produced in the venom (or acid) gland of the bee, and is stored in an adjacent sac in the bee’s abdomen.  The amount of venom a bee has depends on its age.  Newly hatched bees don’t have any venom at all, but the amount increases rapidly for the first two weeks of a worker bee’s life, reaching a plateau of about 0.3mg (dry weight).

When we get stung by a bee, the stinger sticks in our skin.  The stinger has two sides, and along the outside edges there are a series of barbs that look a bit like the ends of fish hooks.  These barbs hold the stinger into the skin.  At the same time, the venom sac begins to pump the venom down the centre of the stinger and out the end under the skin.  The pumping action of the sac also moves the two sides of the stinger back and forth, causing the barbs to catch in the skin and pull the end of the stinger even deeper.

If a bee stings tough skin (eg a human’s) the whole apparatus pulls out the abdomen of the bee.  The venom sac is pulled out with it and it keeps pumping venom until it runs out.  Because the removal of the sting apparatus ruptures the bee’s abdomen, the bee dies within a short period of time.  If a bee stings you, you can’t do anything to save the bee’s life, but you can reduce the amount of venom that gets into your body by scratching the stinger out of your skin with your finger nail as soon as possible.  Remember to scratch away from the direction the stinger is going into your skin, and make sure not to squeeze the venom sac (which will inject even more venom into you).

Beekeepers have invented a collection device for venom that doesn’t kill the bees.  The device consists of a glass sheet that is put on the bottom of the beehive.  The glass sheet conducts a gentle electric current.  When the current is turned on, bees that are on the sheet automatically stick out their stingers, and the action of the muscles pushing the stinger also pumps a small amount of venom out the end of the sting.  This venom falls on the glass where it is collected by the beekeeper, he then freeze-dries it to ensure the venom’s bioactive materials don’t oxidise and decompose.  It takes one million sting deposits on a collector board to make 1g of dry venom.

Approximately 88% of liquid venom straight from the bee is actually water, so dry venom is a much more concentrated form of the product.  There are a number of other components in bee venom, and 18 have so far been found to have pharmacological activity.  The main groups of compounds are enzymes, peptides, amines, sugars, phospholipids and volatiles.  The volatiles are known collectively are alarm pheromones, and when a bee carries out a stinging attack, the pheromones released tell the rest of the bees in the hive that an intruder is present.  The pheromones smell very much like bananas.

The enzymes are the major allergic components in venom.  Enzymes are proteins that cause biological changes, and a major enzyme in bee venom is hysluronidase.  Hyaluronidase breaks down the fluid holding cells together, and is thought to allow the venom to spread more quickly in the body.  The other important enzyme in venom is phospholipase, which destroys phospholipids, a jajor component of cell membranes.

The major therapeutic components of venom are the peptides.  There are two major groups of peptides in bee venom:  melltin/apamin, and MCD-peptide.  The mellitn/apamin group is known to stimulate the pituitary gland in animals, which in turn releases a hormone that stimulates the adrenal gland to produce cortisol.

Cortisol is a hormone that is one of the body’s major anti-inflammatory steroids.  When cortisol levels are adequate in the body, they help repress the inflammatory response and reduce the pain and irritation caused by damaged tissue.  Cortisol is also able to reduce the immune response.  Reduced cortisol levels are thought to be linked to inflammatory diseases like arthritis.

MCD-peptide also produces a strong anti-inflammatory effect, but in this case the effect is directly on body tissues, rather than through the adrenal gland producing cortisol.  Studies on MCD-peptide show it is 100 times stronger than the common anti-inflammatory drug hydrocortisone.

There are two main types:  rheumatoid arthritis and osteo-arthritis.  Rheumatoid arthritis is an inflammatory disease that causes pain, restricted movement and disfigurement.  The disease can also result in reduced oxygen supply to tissues and impairment of the lymph system, resulting in restricted blood flow and calicified over-growth of joints.  Osteo-arthritis is a degenerative disease of the cartilage in joints.  In both cases, the immune system is thought to mistakenly perceive joint tissue as foreign, provoking an immune response that causes chronic inflammation.  In the US, 12% of the population suffers from arthritis, and similar figures can be expected for many other countries.  Treatment generally involves the use of drugs and other methods to a) reduce tissue inflammation around the joints, and b) suppress the immune response causing the inflammation.

Animal studies have shown that bee venom increases the production of cortisol in the body, with cortisol levels remaining higher in the blood for some time after the venom has been given.  Studies of MCD-peptide have shown that it reduces inflammation better than four popular non-steriod anti-inflammatory (NSAID) drugs, and twice as well as the common steroid dexamethasone.  Melittin/apamin has also been shown to have an immuno-suppressive effect, suggesting it can possibly work on the causes of arthritis.  A number of animal and human clinical trials have shown the beneficial effects of bee venom on arthritis.  The trials generally shown a significant effect compared to placebos.  Placebos (inactive substances used as a control) are a significant issue in arthritis studies because of psychological factors affect a person’s pain threshold).

There are a number of anecdotal reports showing the bee venom deuces the symptoms of multiple sclerosis, and associations have been set up in a number of countries to provide bee venom treatment to sufferers of the disease.  It is unclear why bee venom is effective, although venom is known to block potassium channels in nerves, which could improve nerve condition.  Bee venom also reduces inflammation.  Multiple sclerosis results from the destruction of nerve insulation caused by inflammation.

There is no doubt that bee venom causes allergic reactions, and deaths do occur every year as a result of insect stings.  However, the chances of death are very low.  In the US the chances of death are 1 in 12 million.  According to the same statistics, you have a three times greater change of being struck by lightening than dying from a bee sting.

Although many people believe they are severely allergic to bee stings because they have been prescribed in venom allergy injection kits (adrenaline and anthistamine), studies in the US show that actually only 1-2% of the population has a life-threatening reaction to insect stings.  Localised redness and swelling, as well as pain and itching after a bee sting, are considered by allergy specialists to be a normal reaction to bee stings, and do not mean that a person is truly allergic.  People can even experience localised massive swelling (angiodema) and not be at risk of death unless the sting is situated close to the airways.

A true allergic reaction is a systemic reason (ie the reaction occurs throughout the body, not just at the site of the sting).  Symptoms include nausea, dizziness, the urge to use the toilet, and itchiness on the palms, soles and around the eyes and throat.  A person can experience difficulty breathing, a massive swelling of the throat, shock and even unconsciousness.  If breathing problems occur, it is important to call a doctor immediately.  The patient should be made confortable, with the heat lifted and chin raised to increase the flow of air to the lungs.

A large-scale survey of people in the US showed there is no linkage between bee sting allergy and respiratory allergies, food allergies, or asthma.

If someone is allergic to wasp stings, will they be allergic to bee venom?  Not necessarily.  There is little cross-over between allergy to bee stings and paper wasp stings (the wasps that build small nests in shrubs).  However, about 15-20% of people who are allergic to bee stings are also allergic to stings of ground-nesting wasps.

Honey and bee venom products were first developed in New Zealand.  Many anecdotal reports suggest they are effective in reducing the inflammation associated with arthritis.  For best effect, the bee venom must be absorbed by the mucous membranes, since the active components are easily destroyed in the stomach.  Bee venom and honey should therefore be kept under the tongue for as long as possible, and not put on bread or in a hot drink.  It is also best to start with a low dose (1/4 tspn) to test for allergic reaction.  If the tongue begins to swell, cease use.

Bee venom products are not recommended for people with true (systemic) allergic reactions to bee venom.  People using non-steriod anti-inflammatory drugs or ACE inhibitors should also not use venom products, since both drugs have been shown in rare cases to cause increased sensitivity to bee venom.

Active Manuka Honey (Active – unique manuka factor)

Why Active is more beneficial than hydrogen peroxide (available in all honeys)?

Honey has an antibacterial activity, due primarily to hydrogen peroxide formed in a "slow-release" manner by the enzyme glucose oxidase present in honey, which can vary widely in potency. Some honeys are no more antibacterial than sugar, while others can be diluted more than 100-fold and still halt the growth of bacteria. The difference in potency of antibacterial activity found among the different honeys is more than 100-fold.

"Active manuka honey" (and It’s Australian “tea tree” equivalent) is the only honey available for sale that is tested for its antibacterial activity.  It contains an additional antibacterial component found only in honey produced from Leptospermum plants: what has been called the "Unique Manuka Factor" . There is evidence that the two antibacterial components may have an antibacterial synergistic action.

Activity is not affected by the catalase enzyme present in body tissue and serum. This enzyme will break down, to some degree, the hydrogen peroxide which is the major antibacterial factor found in other types of honey.  If a honey without UMF were used to treat an infection, the potency of the honey's antibacterial activity would most likely be reduced because of the action of catalase.

The enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide in honey is destroyed when honey is exposed to heat and light. But UMF is stable, so there is no concern about manuka honey losing its activity in storage.  We pack all of our manuka honey products in amber containers so the effectiveness of the hydrogen peroxide is not affected by light.

The enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide in honey becomes active only when honey is diluted. But UMF is active in full strength honey, which will provide a more potent antibacterial action diffusing into the depth of infected tissues.

The enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide in honey needs oxygen to be available for the reaction, so may not work under wound dressings or in wound cavities. Honey with UMF is active in all situations.

The enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide in honey becomes active only when the acidity of honey is neutralised by body fluids, but then the honey is diluted.

The enzyme that produces hydrogen peroxide in honey could be destroyed by the protein-digesting enzymes that are in wound fluids.

The UMF antibacterial activity diffuses deeper into skin tissues than does the hydrogen peroxide from other types of honey.

Honey with UMF is more effective than that with hydrogen peroxide against some types of bacteria. For example, active manuka honey with UMF is about twice as effective as other honey against Eschericihia coli and Staphylococcus aureus, the most common causes of infected wounds.

Many medical professionals are using active manuka honey - and getting good results in patients with wounds that have not responded to standard treatment. For example, a successful trial of active
manuka honey on unresponsive skin ulcers was recently published in the New Zealand Medical Journal. In addition, staff at a large hospital in Brisbane, Australia, recently used active manuka honey as a wound dressing on a patient for whom honey without UMF had failed. In other hospitals clinicians have likewise
noted improvement in healing rates when changing from other honey to a manuka honey with a good level of UMF.

None of the results being obtained clinically should be considered evidence that active manuka honey is more effective than other honey - a comparative clinical trial will be needed to establish that.  Never-theless, there are good theoretical reasons for choosing to use active manuka honey with a good level of UMF for management of wound infections.

Medical professionals in New Zealand use active manuka honey with a rating of UMF 10 or higher. Although good results may be obtained with lower levels of activity, there is a chance that the lower activity will not be enough to fully clear an infection. In addition, honey with a lower level of activity will not allow as much of the antibacterial elements to diffuse into infected tissue, which could mean that effective control of infection may not be achieved in deeper tissue.

Unlike hydrogen peroxide (which is an antibacterial property found in all honeys), UMF is active in full strength honey and is therefore has a more potent antibacterial effect on infected tissues, UMF is active in all situation and does not rely on oxygen to work so is more effective when applied on wounds, and unlike hydrogen peroxide, UMF is not destroyed by the protein-digesting enzymes that are in wound fluids.

Active Manuka Honey is manuka honey that has been tested and been found to have high levels of antibacterial properties unique to manuka.  The percentage rating informs you of how much of this (UMF) unique manuka factor or antibacterial property is in the honey.  The higher the UMF rating, the higher the antibacterial strength of the honey.  If you were to want a beneficial daily amount of this natural antibacterial honey to help keep your body healthy, we recommend you take 13+.  If you tend to get sick a lot or are convalescing, then 16+ will be more effective for you.  If there is an acute problem, like bedsores, skin ulcers, recurring sore throat etc, then the very strong 20+ would be one of the strongest antibacterial honeys you could get on the market.

Science has identified a honey that has unique antibacterial qualities and how it can benefit us.  NZ Maori always knew it had antibacterial properties but they did not know why – they just used it.  We are extremely lucky that this honey is a New Zealand honey and is available here – overseas demand for this honey is very high; as are the prices people are prepared to pay.”