Really, I was not longing for first-hand observation, especially not if it entailed an intimate encounter with aggressively busy creatures which, from childhood on, I had been taught to hastily dodge whenever accidentally met at close range. I tried to suggest that I could write about bees without actually seeing them, then convinced myself that I did not wish to write about them at all. Still, the idea kept buzzing in my head. Finally, one sunny morning last week, having been solemnly promised that I would be provided with the proper protective equipment, I gallantly rose to the occasion and we headed towards Nubariya and its delicately scented honey. Wahdan owns 25 beehives, which he moves to different areas according to the season.
Honey is taken in the summer months.
The first harvest, which produces the finest honey, is gathered when the bees have had a chance to finish the nectar flow from the first flowering seasons. Nectar attracts insects whose feet become laden with pollen as they work and they are then instrumental in pollinating the surrounding plants for fertilisation and, subsequently, the bearing of fruit. Bees fill their honey sacs with nectar, in which change occurs on the way back to the hive, caused by the enzymes in the insect saliva and gastric juices. In the hive, the bee regurgitates the liquid and deposits it in the wax cells of the comb. To concentrate it further, the worker bees ingest and regurgitate the liquid again, beating their wings to ventilate the hive.