Bee farming and its cultivation

- Tasmania in Australia created the first bee nature reserve in the world
- the honey produced there is tops in the world
- leatherwood honey, which is found in Singapore, comes from there

- leatherwood honey comes from gum trees (eucryphia lucida)
- it flowers abundantly each year beginning in early January till March
- leatherwood tree is evergreen tree, occurs as part of the cool temperate rainforest on the western side of the island
- the little pretty white flowers have a major nectar flow and is an important nectar plant

- leatherwood honey was first produced in the mid 19th century around Queenstown on the central West coast
- a bee flies to a flower to collect nectar and then swallow it
- after some preparations, it'll regurgitate the nectar to be stored in the beehive

- to keep the bees calm instead of buzzing around in panic, the bee keeper has to first wear protective covers, and light up some dried grass for smoke
- the yellow Italian bees take 1-2 weeks to fill up a box of honey (which is about 100kg)
- nature takes care of it, as no special care is needed for bee farming
- the bees are simply put into the forest when the leatherwood trees are flowering

- for proper storage in the beehives, the bees must flap their wings to dry out the moisture in the honey
- the honey from the beehives is then being extracted and processed in the factory
- once the beehive structures are complete, they are brought to the factory
- honey can be made into numerous products, and is in great demand worldwide
- extraction of honey must be quick and sharp and wastage is minimised

- first step is to put the beehive in a specially-made machine
- there're 2 heated blades which will scrap off the beewax
- the beehives are then put into the machine which is kept heated at 60 deg C
- a spinning method is used to extract the honey

- extracted honey is then funnelled out and the honey produced are silky and smooth like butter
- the factory uses low heat to process honey as high heat could damage honey
- low heat also preserves the aroma of leatherwood
- moisture makes or breaks top-quality honey and more than 19% of moisture causes honey to ferment and loses its freshness

- a factory produces about 6 tonnes of honey daily
- once packed, they are ready for wholesale

- natural honey has survived through the ages because it's sweet-tasting and highly nourishing
- it contains glucose and fructose which can be directly absorbed by our bodies
- many people are probably into honey because it improves skin complexion
- leatherwood honey has spicy fragrance, and not as sweet as other honey, and you can savour a woody aroma in it

- the earth and climate are critical to the production of great honey
- top quality honey production requires such concerted effort and the little bees definitely deserve more credit than anyone
- to make S$2 of honey, we need to mobilise 556 bees to fly 90,000 miles
- such massive contribution to mankind :)