Where Honey Comes From

Honey is made by bees. They gather nectar and other sugary substances from plants in their environment. These substances go through enzymatic changes in the bee’s gut and then the bees regurgitate it into honey cells inside the hive. The bees then fan the honey to allow it to thicken to their preferred consistency through evaporation- aided by fanning it with their wings. Then the bees cap the cells with wax to protect the honey for long term storage. Honey is stored in the hive to keep it going when food is scarce in the environment. In the winter, when it is cold, bees need the high sugar content to keep their metabolism powered up to keep the hive warm.

Although they aren’t the only bees that make honey, honeybees are specifically raised and bred by humans to gather their honey. Through selective breeding, these bees produce more honey than they need for the year and their human keepers take a portion for their own use. Beekeepers must carefully manage the hives, protecting the bees from predators, parasites and other infections, providing insulation or shade to help regulate the hive’s temperature, monitoring reproductive rates to ensure the health of the queen and calculating how much honey is safe to take to allow the hive to remain healthy and keep producing.

Wild honeybee hives do exist, though they are more appropriately called feral in the US as all honeybees here are imported, domesticated varieties of Apis spp. These hives are formed when members of domestic hives form a swarm around a queen. There are a number of stresses that can cause this to happen. Perhaps the old queen died and the bees fed up more than one new queen so the “extra” queen is forced out. Or perhaps the hive got too crowded or was otherwise no longer suitable for the hive. The swarm leaves the hive, escorting the queen. You may see these in various places looking for all the world like a single entity made of so many bees just draped over or flowing through some object. The swarm is rarely dangerous, though it is unnerving to many. Their main focus is to find a suitable hive. A beekeeper may trap a wild swarm in an appropriately sized container and set it up somewhere if they are in the right place at the right time. Otherwise, the swarm will find a hollow somewhere, in a tree, an attic, a wall, and set up a new hive there.

Wild honey is much the same as domestic honey. While apiarists can attempt some control over the flowers the bees have access to, by moving hives or planting flowers, and thus have some control over the flavor of the honey, a bee is going to bee where it wants to bee. And wild bees are just as likely to be harvesting from domesticated plants as wildflowers- which are escaped domesticated plants as often as not these days anyway.

Mostly here I have been talking about the domestic honeybee. There are other bee species that produce honey. South American native stingless bees (Meliponini spp) have been raised and their honey harvested by Mayans  and Aztecs for thousands of years; from pre-Colonial times to the modern day. This honey is often called pot honey or sugarbag honey. It is more acidic and not as thick as honeybee honey. Because of its high water content, it is not stable enough for mass commercialization, though it is very popular in its local area.

Bumble bees also have the ability to produce honey¹https://beekeepercorner.com/unlocking-bumble-bee-honey-secrets/, but their colonies are much smaller and short lived. Only the queen overwinters, and she hibernates, so they don’t need to store honey long term. They do make “honeypots” their brood. Their hives, if you catch them at the right time in the height of summer, do smell like honey. I know this from experience. And also they will sting you. They may be sweet fuzzy teddybees when they are out and about but they will come at you if you stick your nose in their nest.

But this site is not for apiarists or honey hunters. I am just  We are kitchen witches. Let us talk about honey in cooking, healing and magick.

Honey in the Kitchen

Honey for Healing

Honey has been used for healing forever. It is still recommended today for healing certain types of wounds and for coughs.

Honey Infusions

Infusing herbs in honey is a great way to get herbal goodness into someone who might not like the taste of the herbs in question. Honey draws into itself phenols and flavonoids as well as many minerals stored within the herbs²https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13197-024-06019-8 ³https://besthoneyandherbs.com/blogs/the-honey-journal/the-sweet-science-what-actually-happens-when-you-infuse-herbs-into-honey

It is an easy enough operation. Get the best honey you can (I buy mine at the local feed store) and the best herbs you can. Ensure the herbs are dried, as fresh herbs contain too much moisture and can encourage fermentation, spoilage and botulism. Put your herbs in a jar, pour over the honey, mix it up, store it for two to four weeks, strain it. Enjoy.

Oxymels

For a real flavor punch, combine honey infusion with vinegar infusion to make a delicious oxymel. These make great mocktails (and cocktails). Sometimes that which the honey doesn’t draw out, the vinegar does, and vice versa.  Vinegar draws out minerals and vitamins as well as well as some alkaloids⁴https://thepublicherbarium.org/making-infused-herbal-vinegars-the-deep-dive-guide/

Honey in for Magick

Element: Water

Plant: Sun, Venus

Honey can be used for magick in sweetening spells- though I prefer to use sugar. Honey is slow. Sugar is fast. I am impatient. Also honey is expensive. Sugar is cheap. I am … frugal? However, honey is also sticky so if that spell needs some extra stickiness, I might choose honey over sugar.

Likewise, honey is a good addition to binding spells, when you need some added sweetness. It is also good for binding your money to you.

If you work with spirit beings, honey is a wonderful offering. I like to mix honey and milk and soak some bread in it for my particular house spirits. The ones who hide my stuff. After I make my offering and ask them nicely to return my thing, there it is, in the last place I looked, without fail.

Honey cakes is also a wonderful special treat to make for passing at rituals, simple feast and offerings- especially for summertime festivals.

A spoonful of honey makes any libation extra-special.

I also like to add a spoonful of honey to teas I make for myself or to share with someone for divination, dreaming, grieving, friendship, fertility, love and sex magick.

Adding a bit of honey to homemade cosmetics helps you glow and attract positive people.

Honey is liquid joy. Add it to any working to bring in the smiles.

Saying No to Honey?

Yes, honey is an animal sourced product. Bees do die in the harvesting of honey, even at the hands of the most careful beekeeper. Honey is not vegan. It may even give the vegetarians a pause. In fact, environmentalists might even find honey questionable, as honeybees do usurp the role of many native pollinators in some places. Or maybe you’re grossed out by the fact that honey is regurgitated by multiple bees before it is honey. In short, there are many reasons to avoid buying and using honey for any reason.

Thus, you may need to replace honey in a spell or recipe. Here’s a quick guide.

For sweetening- white sugar, brown sugar, any syrup, molasses. (remember molasses is sloooow)

For stickiness- syrup, molasses, tree sap

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