Honey is a sweet, thick liquid produced by bees and other insects of the same genus. The working bees gather the nectar from the nectaries of flowers, and also sweets from other sources when nectar is scarce, which they carry home to the hive in the crop or honey-bag. Here it appears to undergo a transformation, by which it becomes honey before it is disgorged into the cells of the comb. Yet the change is such that many of the distinctive characteristics of the various materials can be traced in the manufactured honey. Thus we find clover and heather honey easily distinguishable, the clover-honey being a clear white—almost greenish-white—fluid liquid; while that obtained from the heather has a rich amber colour, and is much more viscid, so that it cannot be slung from the combs without destroying them. The flavour and colour of other flowers can also be distinctly traced in various honeys, such as that made from the flowers of the ivy and that from honey-dew, the produce of the Aphides, which may be seen in summer in the form of a sticky liquid on the leaves of the lime and other trees. In default of better food bees sometimes resort to this honey-dew. But it imparts a blackish hue to the honey and a disagreeable flavour.
Honey contains dextro-glucose and lævo-glucose, cane-sugar, as also gummy, waxy, colouring matter, and essential odorous oils, along with water and a minute quantity of mineral matter and pollen. The proportion of crystallisable sugar increases with the age of the honey, so that in time it acquires a granular consistency. Exposure to light and cold increases this tendency, which is stronger in some kinds of pure honey than in others.
As an article of commerce and for human consumption honey is presented both in the comb and as run honey. The run honey is separated from the wax of which the storing cells are composed, by the centrifugal extractor, or by the more tedious and less perfect method of cutting the comb in pieces and running the honey through a bag placed near a fire. The best form of comb-honey is that which is termed virgin honey. It is contained in pure white cells of very thin wax. These cells have never been used by the bees for any other purpose than the storage of honey. When the cells have been previously used for the incubation of eggs and the development of bees through the larva stage they become discoloured and much thicker in the walls, and after repeated use in breeding they become quite black. Comb-honey in dark-coloured cells is of very inferior quality.
From the remotest times honey has been employed as an article of food. And to the ancients, who were unacquainted with sugar, it was of more importance than it now is. 'A land flowing with milk and honey' offered the highest conceivable advantages to the eastern mind. The honey of Hymettus, a mountain in Attica, and of Hybla, a mountain in Sicily, were of old held in high repute, doubtless in consequence of the wild thyme and other fragrant herbs growing upon them. The honeys of Narbonne and of Chamonix for similar reasons are now held in high estimation, as also the heather-honey of Scotland. Taken in moderate quantity, honey is nutritive and mildly laxative. Some few kinds possess poisonous properties, such as that of the Brazilian wasp and the honey of Trebizond gathered from the Azalea pontica. Much adulterated honey is sold: see ADULTERATION.
As a demulcent and flavouring agent honey is used in many preparations of medicine. It is also used in the preparation of several popular sweetmeats and in the manufacture of some kinds of ale. Mead is a fermented liquor made from the washings of the combs from which honey has been extracted. Large quantities of honey are annually imported into Great Britain from America, especially from California, where many large bee-farms exist. See BEE; and for the Honey Ant, see ANT.