7 Super Beneficial Hive Products and Their Uses

Honeybees are one of the most useful insects for human beings. Besides honey, which is a nutrient-rich elixir for life, bees produce several other products that are equally, if not more, useful for humans. The bee by-products like beeswax, bee pollen, royal jelly, propolis, bee venom, bee bread, and honeycomb are all produced by bees for various purposes. Since ancient times, people all over the world have been using these products to treat illnesses, and they continue to be the go-to options for boosting immunity the natural way during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Apitherapy or alternative therapy using products derived from honeybees was practiced by ancient Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and Chinese, among others. Conditions like arthritis, allergies, immune or neurologic diseases, thyroid, gingivitis, etc., were commonly cured using bee products.

Over the years, various pieces of research have proved the medicinal and healing properties of these products. Let’s take a detailed look at each of them and their varied benefits.

Worker bees secrete wax from their abdominal glands from a young age for building the walls of the honeycomb and sealing the cells filled with honey to preserve it. Freshly prepared beeswax is white, but it turns yellow with time due to the presence of pollen and propolis colorants in it. Beeswax contains various compounds like hydrocarbons, esters, and free acids. Over the years, this bee by-product has proved to be a beneficial component for medicines, cosmetics, and haircare products.

Nurse bees secrete royal jelly from their hypopharynx glands to feed the larvae and the adult queens. It is white, brown, or gray to yellow and has a sour taste due to low pH. The gelatinous and viscous substance that becomes compact over time contains various minerals, vitamins, carbohydrates, amino acids, fatty acids as well as sugars like glucose and fructose.

One of the most popular bee products, propolis, is a mixture of resins collected from flowers and leaf buds and beeswax. Bees use it to line the insides of the nest cavities and brood combs as well as to seal cracks within the hive. They also use propolis to seal dead animals that they cannot remove and mix it with beeswax to shut the brood cells. A significant product for the bees, its antifungal and antibacterial properties help protect the colonies from diseases and infections and restrain the growth of decomposing bacteria. The color, composition, odor, and medicinal properties of propolis may vary as per the regions, seasons, and plant species around the hives. It boasts a variety of vitamins, minerals, flavonoids, fatty acids, polysaccharides, and polyphenols, among other things.

Honeybees tend to collect pollen from the flowers and bring them back to their hives, which is then enriched with their hormones and digestive enzymes. Bee pollen is basically a mixture of various substances like nectar, pollen, wax, honey, enzymes, and other bee secretions. The final product is used as food for the bee colony. This highly nutritious bee by-product stored in the form of tiny balls contains various active substances as well as nutrients, amino acids, lipids, and vitamins.

Bee bread is a source of protein produced by honeybees for the larvae and young ones. A mixture of pollen, lactic ferments, and honey is prepared and sealed within the cells of the honeycomb that turns into bee bread roughly after three months of fermentation. Like most other bee products, this by-product, too, contains vitamins, minerals, enzymes, lactic acid, and amino acids, among other things. Bee bread stored carefully at room temperature tends to retain its beneficial properties for a very long time.

Bee venom has been used for thousands of years as a traditional medicine in various parts of the world. This colorless substance is acidic in nature and is excreted through the bee stingers. It contains enzymes, sugars, amino acids, and minerals, along with inflammatory and anti-inflammatory compounds. The peptides found in the bee venom do act like toxins, but they also possess pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory properties. Some of the enzymes in this by-product also show immune-protective properties.

Honeycomb is the home that honeybees build to store their honey, bee products, and their young ones. Constructed using propolis and beeswax, it features hexagonal cells that are filled with honey, bee pollen, bee bread, or royal jelly. This hive product is edible, including its waxy cells. Rich in carbohydrates and antioxidants, the honeycomb features pure, unfiltered honey intact with all the natural goodness, enzymes, and antioxidants. Considering that it contains all the beneficial bee products, it is quite a healthy product to eat.

To sum it up, it is quite evident that whatever bees create is highly beneficial to human beings in some form or the other. While it is acceptable to use these products to treat various conditions, we need to be sure that the bees or their larvae are not harmed in the process of procuring them. Wholesale honey suppliers like BeeHively Group follow sustainable practices for harvesting honey and other bee by-products. Along with adopting only ethical means of beekeeping, the company is also committed to uplifting the beekeepers in countries like India, Bhutan, and Nepal, and delivering only raw, unprocessed honey around the world. BeeHively is doing its bit towards attaining the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals by promoting only bee-friendly techniques.