Bohol Bee Farm
I got an approval for my 4 days paid time off. Weee... and today was the first day. So happy and excited to come home for our family reunion. We headed off to Bohol Bee Farm Resort and Restaurant for lunch.
The Bohol Bee farm all began from a simple family rest house at the beach front to breeding bees at their farm. Eventually, as more tourists and locals alike come to visit the farm, the Wallace family finally decided to enhance the place and develop a resort and restaurant.
Today, Bohol Bee Farm has become one of the must-see resorts at the Panglao Island.
Owner and Chef Vicky Wallace prepares delicious organic and healthy foods. My favorite is the spare ribs menu served with indigenous flower with honey and mustard salad dressing. It tastes very good.
You can also eat some veggies, soups, meat, fish, pasta, pizza and sandwiches too. For more info on Bohol Bee Farm's menu, click on this link: http://www.boholbeefarm.com/menu
Right below the restaurant is also a small native hut with beds and chairs for resting ...
... and it's in front of an overlooking view of the sea and the Pamilacan Island.
On the inside view of the resort , a swimming pool is also provided for in house guests.
For those who are into native bags, Bohol Bee Farm is best for you as they sell abaca bags at an affordable prices. The Bohol bee farm also offers farm tour which tackles more about the bees, how they produce honey, and their importance to organic farming. I was able to witness this together with my sister and her husband and few friends way back 2 years ago. Unfortunately, I lost all the pics so bear with me as I share what I have learned during the tour.
The making of honey....
Bohol Bee Farm created a synthetic "beehive" on a simple man made box for bees to live and make honey. The honey making process starts by sending off the honeybees to visit about hundreds of flowers to suck the nectar and store it in their stomachs which can hold almost 70 mg of nectar. During this time, the enzymes break down the complex sugars of the nectar into simpler sugars, which are less prone to crystallization.
When full, they return to the beehive and deliver it to the other worker bees by letting them suck their stomach and chew it until its moisture content is reduced from about 70% to 20%. This changes the nectar into honey. The bees then spread it throughout the honeycombs where water evaporates from it. So it dries faster, the bees fan it with their wings until a thicker syrup is produced. Once the honey is gooey enough, the bees seal off the cell of the honeycomb with a plug of bee wax. The honey is then stored until it's eaten. Working cooperatively, thousands of worker bees can produce over 200 pounds of honey for the colony within a year.
The Queen bee
Most of us have heard of the queen bee, but not all of us know exactly what a queen bee is and her importance in the bee hive. Thanks to the farm tour, I have learned more about the queen bees =)
A Queen bee is the leader on a bee hive. What's more amazing is that she is the only bee with completely developed reproductive organs and is responsible for mating and laying eggs.
Let me introduce first how a queen bee is chosen...
As the population of a hive increases, a new hive is often needed and for it to function, a new queen is needed to populate it. To maximize the survival of a new hive, often a number of queen cells will be constructed. When the newly hatched queens emerge they will fight to death. The winner will then destroy any unhatched queen cells.
As the population of a hive increases, a new hive is often needed and for it to function, a new queen is needed to populate it. To maximize the survival of a new hive, often a number of queen cells will be constructed. When the newly hatched queens emerge they will fight to death. The winner will then destroy any unhatched queen cells.
Basically, the queen bee's major job is to lay eggs. She can lay as many as 2,000 eggs a day.
Early in a queen bee's life, she takes at least one mating flight during which she mates with as many as 40 drone/male bees. She is able to store the semen from these drones and use it to lay eggs for the rest of her life. Mind you, whenever a queen bee is unable to mate within a few days, it will spell the end of colony as she won't be able to lay eggs.
Interestingly, when a queen bee dies or is no longer productive, the other bees in the hive choose a young larva and condition her to become queen. They essentially "create" a new queen bee by feeding her with royal jelly, which allows her to grow to one-and-a-half times the size of a regular bee.
Amazing isn't it?
Whenever I get a chance to get back to Bohol Bee Farm, I'll take the farm tour again and take pictures so I can post it here in my blog. Experience it on your own as well. you will surely love the place and everything about the Bee farm.
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