lifelong students

Scientific knowledge is one of the most important basis of life, civilization and success. We always pursue scientific developments and field experiences in order to achieve the best in what we do. We enjoy sharing the results of our researches and the outcome of our experiences on our journey of learning.

Knowledge is a garden; if it is not cultivated, it cannot be harvested.

“I’M GOOD HONEY”

THE SIGNS OF NATURAL AND QUALITY HONEY

Raw Honey:

According to the Turkish Food Codex Honey Communiqué, honey that has been heat-treated up to a maximum of 40 degrees is called raw honey. Raw honey preserves its nutritional values and quality as it is not subjected to high heat treatment.

Crystallized Honey:

Crystallization is one of the most natural processes of honey that comes through when the glucose separates from the water and collapses in to small crystals. The crystallization process is related primarily to which flower the bee collects nectar from and can vary depending on nectar source. The crystallization of honey is one of the main proofs that it is a true flower honey and has not been heat-treated.

HMF (Hydroxymethyl Furfural):

It occurs in sweet products such as honey as a result of storage at wrong temperatures or heat treatment applications at unsuitable temperatures. Studies have shown that high HMF value causes toxic effects in the human body. Therefore, low HMF is a measure of rawness, especially in honey.

Proline Value:

Proline, whose name we often hear when talking about honey, is actually one of the 20 essential amino acids that make up the structure of the proteins in our body and one of the main components of collagen that holds the tissues together. The main reason why honey is applied to wounds in wars is that proline amino acid helps wounds heal faster. This amino acid can only be synthesized in honey by bees, and therefore, the high proline value indicates that the honey is additive-free (not fed with sugar or syrup).

Diastase Activity:

It is one of the enzymes added to honey by bees during the nectar collection period from flowers. In addition, when honey is heat treated, the diastase enzyme is inactivated. Therefore, high diastase activity is an indicator of both the freshness and rawness of honey.

THE SWEETEST REMEDY

HEALTH BENEFITS OF HONEY

Honey's anti-oxidant, anti-inflammatory and antimicrobial and immune system-boosting benefits are endless. According to studies, it has been determined that natural honey alleviates heart diseases, expands blood vessels, reduces clot formation, and each of these has supportive effects in reducing heart diseases. On the other hand, it has been determined that it is a very important energy source to support athletes and alleviates the symptoms of fatigue after sports. The feature of increasing the healing rate of wounds, which was frequently used in the past, has also started to attract attention in recent years.

It has been noted that chestnut, cedar and pine honey have anti-cancer effects especially on breast cancer cells. In addition, it has been shown that pine honey is a source of energy and power, has a lot of antioxidant compounds, and it helps to protect the digestive system, has an immune boosting and cholesterol-lowering effect. On the other hand, iron deficiency and anemia

Other studies have shown that honey protects the nervous system, cardiovascular system, respiratory system and digestive system, and attention has been drawn to its high antioxidant, antiviral, anticancer and antimicrobial activities.

HOW DO BEES SEDUCE THE FLOWERS?

FLOWERS CAN HEAR BEES!

As a result of research carried out in recent years, it has been determined that flowers hear the sound of bee buzzing and respond to this sound. According to the first study on this subject and published in the journal Ecology Letters in 2019, it was determined that flowers that detect the frequency of bee humming produce sweeter nectar than normal (that is, the sugar content in the nectar they secrete increases) within 3 minutes. At the same time, it was observed that they did not give the same response to another low or high frequency sound, and it was stated that the response could be a mechanism that plants developed specifically for pollinators in the evolutionary process to increase their pollination chances. Although many studies have been conducted on the plant-pollinator relationship, the fact that plants communicate with pollinators through sounds is very new information. For this reason, these studies have opened the door to a very mysterious world waiting to be discovered.

BEES SEE HUMANS AS WEIRD FLOWERS

BEES CAN RECOGNIZE US

As a result of a study conducted at Cambridge University, it was determined that bees can recognize human faces and distinguish faces they have seen before! Dyer et al., in their scientific study, placed the photos of four different people on the board and taught the bees to fly towards a certain face by rewarding them with a sugar water solution. After the award, the places of the photos on the board were changed and the bees chose the correct face 90% of the time.

In another study published in the journal Nature, images of objects other than human faces were added, and the bees chose the images of other objects correctly, as well as human faces. The researchers added that this recognition mechanism is actually a strategy they use to recognize and distinguish flowers, not to recognize human faces, so bees may describe human faces as "interesting looking flowers". It was emphasized that all bees, including honey bees, have a visual processing mechanism, and it was stated that this mechanism could be examined in more detail and used in the field of technology while developing systems such as automatic face recognition.

AROUND FOR A 100 MILLION YEARS

DID YOU KNOW THAT BEES EXISTED ON EARTH LONG BEFORE WE DID?

There are bee fossils in many museums of the world and these fossils are exhibited. Most of these fossils, which are millions of years old, have been preserved in amber (also known as amber), where the resin of the trees has been transformed over the years, without any deterioration. The resin secreted by the tree due to damage to the stems of the coniferous leaves can trap some animals due to its sticky texture. According to an article published in the Journal of Science, the bee fossil found in Myanmar, which was found to be about 100 million years old, is the oldest bee fossil ever found. This bee was named Melittosphex burmensis.

BEES HAVE THEIR OWN FUN LANGUAGE

DID YOU KNOW THAT BEES ARE EXCELLENT DANCERS?

Bees can dance admirably when you watch them, and their dance has a purpose: to describe the location of food sources outside the hive or a suitable nest to other bees! Isn't it incredible? Thanks to this dance, they can tell other bees in the hive exactly how far and in which direction the sources are.

Bee dance, first mentioned by Karl Ritter von Frisch in his book Dancing Bees, describes the movements of worker bees who collect pollen and nectar and bring them to the hive to communicate with other bees in the hive. Thanks to this dance, bees not only communicate, but also save energy and time.

As a result of the researches, it was discovered that there are two types of bee dance: the Circle Dance and the Tail Wagging Dance. Bees, who prefer the circle dance when the source is closer, draw circles in clockwise or counterclockwise directions, telling that a source is very close. They prefer the tail wagging dance to describe the location of farther sources and with this dance they describe both the direction (explained by the flight direction and angle) and the distance (explained by the tail wagging time) more clearly. It has also been stated that a one-second tail wagging describes a distance of 750 meters.

BEES’ MEDICAL DESGREES

DID YOU KNOW THAT BEES CAN SELF-HEAL?

Bees have a strong defense strategy against preventive diseases through the antibiotic, antifungal and antiviral compounds of the plant species Apis mellifera. Therefore, honey and pollen contain many compounds that inhibit fungal and bacterial growth and inhibit viral replication. These compounds play a huge role in colony health in the beehive. According to a study conducted in 2014, it was determined that highly infected nurse bees were most likely to prefer sunflower honey (among linden, locust, pine and sunflower honey), which has the highest antibiotic activity and the most reducing effect on this infection each time. It was also stated that this selection ability is very important for the general health of the colony, as nurse bees feed not only the larvae but also other colony members.

In a study on the observation that bees with fungal infection tend to plant resins, it was determined that resin was added to the food of the bees and the fungal infection decreased in the bee colony fed in this way. As a result, it was concluded that bees can self-medicate by shaping their preferences according to their current health status.

For more information on the subject:

STRESS KILLS BEES

BEES GET STRESSED JUST LIKE WE DO

We can define the word stress as an organism's response to environmental stimuli that it may perceive as a threat or danger to its health and life. Like us humans, other living things can also get stressed, and this stress can cause many consequences, from reduced resistance to diseases to death. Because in order for a living being to continue its life in a healthy way, its system must be in balance and the environment must be healthy.

Studies have shown that honey bees are also stressed, and some chemical mechanisms of stress responses have also been revealed. It has been determined that the degree and form of stress responses vary from individual to individual and from colony to colony, depending on the condition and type of stress factor in the environment. At the same time, attention was drawn to the fact that sometimes a condition affecting a single bee can spread to the entire colony.

Factors such as diseases, parasites, pesticide use, especially climate changes and habitat loss, which we have observed with increasing effects in recent years, have caused an increase in the stress levels of bees and a decrease in their resistance. The serious decrease in the number of colonies as a result of bees leaving their hives and not returning is called Colony Collapse Syndrome. It has been stated that the main cause of this syndrome is increased stress levels, and in a study conducted at Harvard University in 2014, it was noted that pesticide use is the leading cause of these stresses.

In a study conducted at the University of Michigan, it was determined that the resistance of bees that can reach sufficient and quality pollen sources increases significantly and they fight against external stress factors such as parasites and diseases more successfully. Many other studies have shown that there is a relationship between nutritional deficiencies and the stress of bees, and the stress levels of bees provided with a healthy feeding environment have decreased and consequently an increase in their resistance to thermal stress due to global warming, recently increasing parasites and other diseases. Therefore, specially transformed areas are of great importance for bees by enriching them with plants rich in nectar and pollen.

PLANTS TRUST THE ‘NEZ’

DID YOU KNOW THAT BEES HAVE A VERY IMPROVED SENSE OF ODOR?

Bees are blessed with a very fine sense of smell, just like a perfumer who are sometimes referred to affectionately as a nose, that is called the ‘nez’ in French.

As a result of a study conducted at the University of Illinois in 2006, it was determined that honey bees have a total of 170 olfactory receptors. This number was determined as 62 in fruit beetles and 79 in mosquitoes, and it was concluded that bees have a much more developed sense of smell compared to other insects. The bees' sense of smell is vital for finding the nutrients they need, detecting chemicals, and detecting pheromones, which are very important in brood care and in-hive social communication. Thanks to these features, bees can sense the nectar and pollen contents of plants from meters away and shape their flight priorities accordingly. This allows them to save both time and energy.

On the other hand, in the same study, it was determined that the number of taste receptors in bees was much less than in other insects, and it was stated that this might be due to the mutually beneficial relationship between bees and plants. Because in this case, plants do not need to protect themselves against bees with toxins and this has created a mutual trust.

SO MUCH TO DO, IN SUCH A SHORT TIME

BEES LIVE ONLY 45 DAYS

Although the lifespan of a worker bee depends on the season and the bee's role in the hive, the lifespan of a worker bee in the active season is approximately 6 weeks, or 45 days. However, later-born worker bees cluster together to keep the hive warm throughout the winter and can live for several months.

However, a study published in the journal Nature in 2022 noted that since 1970, the lifespan of honey bees has decreased from 34.4 days to 17.7 days on average. Water provisioning increases caged worker bee lifespan and caged worker bees are living half as long as observed 50 years ago.

GOLDEN DROP OF A LIFETIME

A BEE CAN ONLY MAKE A TINY AMOUNTS OF HONEY IN ITS LIFETIME

Worker bees make only about 1/12 of a teaspoon of honey during their average 45-day lifespan.

As a result of our calculations based on this information, we would like you to know that a total of 888 worker bees work in 1 jar (370 g) of hive republic honey that you consume.

BEES MAKE THE MEALS MORE COLORFUL

WE NEED BEES FOR 1/3 OF THE FOOD WE CONSUME

Today, bees enable us to easily access many foods that we love to eat. Bees, which are of great importance in the pollination of plants, are a necessity for pollination and yield of some plants, and they increase the productivity of many products significantly. According to the data of FAO, while 75% of the food types consumed in the world are pollinated by bees, 35% of the products produced in agricultural lands in the world are pollinated by bees. The reason for this difference is that the degree of need for bees and other pollinators to pollinate and produce crops varies from plant to plant. For example, maize, wheat, rice or soybeans, which take up the most space in agricultural land, can be pollinated by the wind or by themselves. However, fruits and vegetables that we love to consume, such as kiwi, watermelon, melon, pumpkin, squash, blackberry, blueberry, black mulberry, pear, almond, peach, apple, cherry, avocado, mango, cocoa and coffee, need bees and other pollinators.

BEE MATH

BEES CAN UNDERSTAND THE ZERO CONCEPT

While it is thought that humans are the only creatures who can understand the concept of zero, that is, the absence of a substance numerically, it was discovered that bees can also understand zero as a result of a study conducted in 2018 and published in the journal Science! In the study, the bees were trained to choose a small number of objects by rewarding them with sugar water when they selected pictures containing a small number of objects. That is, the bees were taught only the concept of less and more. Afterwards, the objects in one of the pictures was removed and the bees chose the non-object picture. It is understood from this that bees can grasp the concept of zero without being trained and understand that zero means less than other numbers.

TECHNOLOGY AGAINST BEES

DID YOU KNOW HOW SENSITIVE BEES ARE TO MAGNETIC FIELDS?

Bees are exposed to more and more variable electromagnetic fields every day. It has been determined that these changes in electromagnetic fields have many harmful effects on bees. According to the results of a study published in 2018, it has been determined that very low frequency electromagnetic fields such as radio waves cause a decrease in the cognitive and movement abilities of honey bees. It was determined that the bees that came out to collect food from their hives disappeared, could not find the food and their aggression levels increased. It has been emphasized that this causes a decrease in the feeding, feeding and pollination abilities of bees.