Honey Uses, Storage Tips, Royal Jelly, and Beeswax Products

You have harvested your honey. You have some beeswax. Now what do you actually do with all of it?

Chapter 9 of Backyard Farming: Keeping Honey Bees by Kim Pezza covers the uses of honey, how to store it properly, the deal with royal jelly, and what you can make with beeswax. Turns out, the stuff coming out of your hive is useful in ways that go way beyond toast toppings.

Honey as Medicine

Using honey for healing is not some trendy wellness thing. It goes back thousands of years.

The ancient Egyptians used honey on wounds. Aristotle recommended it for various ailments. Hippocrates, the father of modern medicine, used honey for treating wounds and sore throats. These were not people guessing. They observed that it worked, and modern science has confirmed a lot of what they figured out.

Today, honey is still effective for sore throats and coughs. But the medical benefits go further than that.

What Honey Can Do

Here is what makes honey genuinely useful as a treatment:

• Speeds up healing for cuts and wounds
• Fights infection by inhibiting bacterial growth
• Stimulates skin regrowth around wounds
• Reduces scarring when used during the healing process
• Helps with stomach discomfort
• Cleans existing infections when applied to wounds
• Reduces pain, inflammation, and swelling
• Prevents bandages from sticking to wounds
• Protects burns during recovery

That is a real list of practical benefits, not just folk wisdom.

One interesting detail from the book: darker honey tends to have better antioxidant and antibacterial properties. Buckwheat honey in particular is high in antioxidants. So if you are choosing honey for health reasons, go dark.

There is also some controversial research suggesting that certain diabetics may be able to use honey as a sweetener. Kim Pezza is careful to note that anyone with diabetes should consult their doctor before trying this. It is not a blanket recommendation.

How to Store Honey

Storing honey is one of the easiest things about beekeeping. It basically stores itself.

Here are the key points:

• Honey can be stored indefinitely. It does not expire.
• Keep it in a cool area at room temperature, around 65 to 75 degrees Fahrenheit.
• No refrigeration needed. In fact, refrigerating honey makes it crystallize faster.
• Keep the container tightly capped. Honey absorbs moisture from the air, which you do not want.
• Store it away from heat and direct sunlight.

If your honey crystallizes, do not throw it out. Place the jar in a pot of water and gently heat it while stirring. It will go back to liquid form. Just do not overheat it, because that will caramelize the sugars and change the flavor.

Royal Jelly

Royal jelly is a bee by-product that does not get as much attention as honey, but it is fascinating.

It is produced by worker bees and is incredibly rich in protein, vitamins, fats, and minerals. It cannot be made synthetically. This is one of those things that only bees can produce.

Royal jelly has a long history of use. Ancient Chinese cultures used it as an aphrodisiac. The pharaohs believed it kept their bodies young and used it in mummification processes. Whether those claims hold up is debatable, but the interest has never really gone away.

Today, royal jelly is used to treat a range of conditions including asthma, insomnia, hay fever, menopause symptoms, and various skin problems. You can find it sold as tablets, capsules, powder, or frozen.

There are some catches though. Royal jelly is expensive because it is extremely time-consuming to harvest. It is also perishable and needs to be refrigerated. And some people are allergic to it, so you want to be careful if you are trying it for the first time.

Processing Beeswax

Getting clean, usable beeswax from your harvest takes a few steps, but it is straightforward.

The basic process: melt the raw wax in a pot at low temperature. The honey will sink to the bottom and the wax will rise to the top. You can also boil the wax in water to separate it.

For cleaner results, re-melt the wax using a double boiler method. Strain it through cheesecloth or a fine mesh to remove debris. Then pour it into a mold and let it harden.

Important safety note: Beeswax will not boil, but it can catch fire. Always use a double boiler when melting beeswax. Never put it over direct high heat.

What You Can Make With Beeswax

Once you have clean beeswax, the list of things you can do with it is surprisingly long:

• Cosmetics like lip balms, lotions, and skin creams
• Crafts and ornaments
• Batik fabric dyeing
• Candles (beeswax candles burn cleaner and smell better than paraffin)
• Thread strengthening for sewing and leatherwork

Beeswax is one of those materials that people have been using for centuries, and for good reason. It is natural, it smells great, and it works well for a wide range of applications.

The Full Picture

Between honey, royal jelly, and beeswax, a single hive produces an impressive range of useful products. Honey handles your kitchen and medicine cabinet. Royal jelly covers the health supplement angle. Beeswax takes care of everything from candles to cosmetics.

And all of it comes from bees doing what they have been doing for millions of years. You are just collecting the results.

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