Honey is sometimes described as liquid gold. Aside from its delicious sweet taste and capturing smell it is also full of health benefits. Honey helps with improving gut health, building up our immune system and can also be used to help heal wounds. Did you realise that you can even use honey on plant cuttings you are trying to strike? Dip the end in before putting it in the soil and the honey will protect the cut whilst the plant is striking roots.
Keeping bees is so much more than the benefit of having your own onsite honey production. Most of the plants in our garden are pollinated by bees and insects, so along with insect hotels and Native stingless beehives, having your own European beehive will help maximise your garden’s productivity.
Bees also produce more than just honey. Beeswax can be used in homemade cleaning products (as a polish), candles or even to make your own food wraps. Some beekeepers will also make use of propolis – a sticky sap like substance that the bees use as a protective layer in their hives.
There is also simply the joy of interacting with the bees. Whether it be from sitting and watching them leaving and returning to their hive with the pollen tucked up under their hind legs, sitting and listening to the gentle hum of activity and smelling the sweat fragrance that fills your yard, or opening up the hive for an inspection and admiring the complex work of the colony.
