1.1 Introduction
Apis mellifera (honey bee) is an insect of great economic and ecologic importance. Pollinator insects are quite important for plants and, among them, honey bee is a well-known general pollinator which also helps to improve quantity and quality of crops production. Honey is a very important energy food and is used as an ingredient in hundreds of manufactured foods, mainly in cereal based products, for its sweetness, color, flavor, caramelization and viscosity (Rodriguez et al., 2004).
Honey bees not only produce honey, but also other products of great importance to humans. These products are beeswax, pollen, propolis and royal jelly. Worker bees secrete beeswax to form the combs and to seal cells when honey is stored. They can also store the pollen they collect from plants in order to feed brood. Besides, workers produce royal jelly, which is a substance they use to feed newborn larvae and especially the queen. Propolis is made of different substances including resin and it is used to keep the hive free of pathogens. Honey bee colonies are considered superorganisms due to their social life, so reproduction means to produce more colonies. This process is called swarming and usually takes place in spring, where there is plenty of food for them (Mortensen, 2013).
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Research hypothesis and questions, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
Honey is as old as written history dating back to 2100 BC where it was mentioned Sumerian and Babylonian cuneiform writings, the Hittie code and then sacred writings of India and Egypt it is presumably even older than that. In ancient days, honey has been used not only in food and beverages, but also to make cement in furniture polishes and varnishes and for medicinal purposes. And of course, bees perform vital senlice of pollinating fruits, legumes and other types of food producing plants in the course of their business of honey production. Honey was pronounced in English (hnni) is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees i.e. (GenusApis) is the most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by bee keepers and consumed by human.
Honey produced by other bees and insects has distinctly different properties. Honey bees transform nectar into honey by a process of regurgitation, and store it as a primary food source wax honey combs inside the beehive. Beekeeping practices encourage over production of honey so the excess can be taken from the colony. Honey acts its sweetness from the monosaccharides fructose and glucose and has approximately the same relative sweetness as that of granulated sugar. It has attractive chemical properties for baking and distinctive flavours that leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweetness.
Most microorganisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity (9w) of 0.6. However, honey sometimes contains dormant endospores of the bacterium clostridium botulinum which can be dangerous to infants, as the endospores can transform into toxin producing bact Honey has a long history of human consumption, and is used in various foods and beverages as a sweetener and flavouring. It also has a role in religion and symbolism, flavours of honey varies based on the available. It is also used in various medicinal traditions to treat ailments. The study of pollens and spores in raw honey (mellissopalynology) can determine the floral source of honey. Because bees carry an Electrostatic charge and can attract other particles, the same techniques of melissopalynology can be used in area environmental studies of radioactive particles dust or particulate pollution. Honey is produced by bees as a food source. In cold weather or when fresh food source are scarce, bees use their stored honey as their source of energy. By controlling for bee swarms to nest in artificial hives, people have been able to semi-domesticate the insects and harvest excess honey.
The bees work together as a group with the regurgitation and digestion until the product reaches a desired quality. It is then store honeycomb cells affer the final regurgitation the honeycomb is le unsealed. However, the nectar is still high in both water content and natural yeast which unchecked would cause the sugars in the nectar to ferment. The process continues as bees inside the hive fan their wings creating a strong across the honeycomb, which enhances evaporation of much of the water from the nectar.
Honey is collected from wild bee colonies or from domesticated beehives. Wild bee nest are sometime located by following a honey, guide bird. Collecting honey is typically achieved by using smoke from a bee smoker to pacify the bees, this causes the bees to attempt to save resource of the hive from a possible forest fire, and makes than far less aggressive. The honeywomb is removed from the hive and the honey is extracted from that using a honey extractor. Then the honey is laxer filtered. The effect honey has on light is useful for determining the type and quality variations in the water content alter the refractive index of honey. Water content can easily be measured with a refractometer.
Typically the refractive index for honey will range from 1.504 at 13% humidity,to 1.474 at 25%. Honey also has an effect on polarized light in that it will rotate the polarization plane. The fructose will give a negative rotation while the glucose will give a positive one. The overall can rotation be used to measure the ratio of the mixture. Moreso, honey has the ability to absorb moisture directly from the air, a phenomenon called hygroscopy. The amount of water the honey will absorb is dependent on the relative humidity of the air. This hygroscopic nature requires that honey be stored in sealed containers to prevent fermentation. Honey will tend to absorb more water in this manner than the individual sugars would allow on their own which may be due to other ingredients it contains.
Therefore, in Nigeria where the research was carried out, the activities that was conducted is to know the Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera) and their Economic Importance.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation revealed the problems of the Physicochemical Properties of Honey research work which entails that, Honey is replaced with a sugar substitute when it’s removed from the hive. This sugar substitute is not good for bees’ health as it lacks the essential nutrients that honey contains, Selective breeding of honey bees narrows the gene pool and increases the possibility of disease and large-scale die-offs, and Diseases are also caused by importing different species of bees for use in hives (Greenecofriend, 2021).
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to assess the Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera) and their Economic Importance. In achieving this aim, the following specific objectives were laid out as follows:
- To assess the economic importance of honey bees with international standards; and
- To determine the quality of honey bees in terms of physicochemical properties.
1.5 Research Questions
The study came up with research questions so as to be able to ascertain the above stated objectives. The specific research questions for the study are stated below as follows:
- What is the quality of honey bees in terms of physicochemical properties?
- What is the economic importance compliance of honey bees with international standards?
1.6 Significance of Study
This study will be of immense benefit to researchers who intend to know more on this study and can also be used by non-researchers to build more on their research work. This study contributes to knowledge and could serve as a guide for other study.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The scope of the research is focused on the Honey Bees (Apis Mellifera) and their Economic Importance.
1.8 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet).
