Bees love hemp – real potential for hemp honey

The HANAFSAN founder & managing director Dr. Daniel Feurstein was able to see for himself during his meeting with his agricultural partner Wälderkrut. The hemp field there was in full bloom, and it was buzzing and humming with busy bees! When the beekeeper happened to stop by, everyone was excited to see that the bees clearly love the hemp and can surely create a wonderfully authentic hemp honey from the nectar of countless flowers - a brilliant idea that should definitely be tried out! And not only could we humans enjoy another facet of this versatile plant with a hemp honey creation, but it would also help our bees, who have a hard time these days. We owe them not only the fine honey, but without these diligent pollinators, we would have very little to harvest. A lush blooming hemp field provides bees with a rich and reliable food source, especially in a season when other flowering plants become rather scarce. The spring and fruit bloom is over, fruits are growing on trees and shrubs, and the colorful flower meadows, as far as they still exist, have already been mowed. While most plants often bloom for only a few days, hemp does so for a long period of several weeks. This makes it a true alternative food resource for our bees and the beekeepers who must feed their colonies with sugar water depending on the weather and season.

Project "Lusatia Sativa": Hemp in the Lusatian Brown Coal Mining Region

With the project "Lusatia Sativa" (Latin for Lusatia and hemp), LEAG, Germany's second-largest electricity producer, is looking for new business ideas in the region after the end of brown coal mining and is involving the cultivation of industrial hemp along with the Lusatian farmers. And there too, they are wondering whether the bees will be attracted to Lusatian hemp? Even experienced beekeepers are entering uncharted territory with hemp honey - there is neither real literature nor experiences because the cultivation of hemp has only been possible again since 1996 after its long strict prohibition. It is high time to explore new paths! Where coal was once mined, hemp is now growing on various plots for the second year. Whether the experiment with the bees will succeed remains to be seen - when the hemp has flowered and the bees have made something from its nectar... hopefully a fine hemp flower honey. So, it remains exciting for the Lusatian hemp honey pioneers!

Bee Training for Cannabis Honey in France

The French beekeeper and self-proclaimed cannabis activist Nicolas Trainer has a different goal. His bees fly in fields of medical cannabis, and to combine the valuable components of honey with the medicinal properties of cannabis, he trains his bees to collect the resin from hemp flowers and make honey from it. It took several years for him to be successful, and to take the wind out of the critics' sails, he further researched whether collecting cannabinoids harms the bees. It does not, because insects do not possess an endogenous endocannabinoid system like we humans and other mammals, so cannabinoids from the hemp plant have no effect on them - and perhaps some bees would enjoy a "relaxed evening" in the hive after a truly labor-intensive day! Thus, the creamy golden-green cannabis honey, if it can overcome all legal hurdles, remains reserved for us humans and is intended to enhance the effects of medical cannabis strains, likely as the world's first edible based purely on cannabis! Additionally, the hemp honey range is also to be complemented with honey from hemp varieties with high CBD content.

The Long History of Honey and Its Importance to Us Humans

For us, honey is a matter of course, on the breakfast table and as a healthy alternative for sweetening many dishes and drinks.
However, this was quite different in the past. For centuries, honey was a precious commodity as the only available sweetener and due to its high nutritional value - "liquid gold" in the truest sense of the word! No wonder it also served as an offering and burial gift, goods were paid for with honey, and it was one of the most important trade goods. The ancient Egyptians saw it as the "food of the gods," and a pot full of honey was worth a donkey!
Even the people in the Stone Age appreciated it, and its use is impressively documented with over 9,000-year-old cave paintings of "honey hunters." Back then, bears' sweet tooth was their downfall because honey was also used as a tempting bait in hunting!
It is believed that in Anatolia, people began to keep bees in the 7th century to obtain the precious honey, and to this day, they are the only insects officially recognized as pets.
When the first alternative sweeteners appeared in the Middle Ages, honey fell into the background. Cane sugar was still very expensive at that time and for a long time only affordable for the wealthy nobility. It was only with the industrial production of beet sugar in the 19th century that honey finally lost its significance as the most important sweetener.

Superfood Honey: Vitamins, Enzymes & Trace Elements

Because honey is a true superfood. It is full of valuable ingredients, from different types of sugars and natural flavors to enzymes and vitamins, depending on which flowers the bees visited during which season.
Hippocrates, the most famous physician of antiquity, was already convinced of the medicinal and performance-enhancing effects of honey as early as 400 BC. He prescribed fever-reducing honey ointments and "doped" the participants in the ancient Olympic Games with honey-water! And as "natural cosmetics," it was popular in face masks and as a bath additive not only with Cleopatra, who was admired by all for her flawlessly beautiful appearance.
Today, honey is affordable for everyone, and for most of us, it is no longer something special. It does not hurt to remind ourselves of the high performance the bees put into our beloved sweet enjoyment. For a 500g jar of honey, the foraging bees fly out of the hive approximately 40,000 times, and if you add up the distances they have traveled, they have circled the Earth about three times!

Image source: © HANAFSAN

Sources:
www.kommunikationpur.com
www.honig-und-bienen.de
www.leag.de