One of nature’s great creations, honey has been prized for thousands of years. But with bee populations under threat, it’s time to celebrate the world’s oldest sweetener and find out how to help protect its busy, buzzing creators

RECIPES SAMANTHA COUTTS & SOPHIE AUSTEN-SMITH PHOTOGRAPHS CHRIS COURT & NASSIMA ROTHAKER FOOD STYLING KIRSTEN JENKINS & SOPHIE AUSTEN-SMITH STYLING SARAH BIRKS

The honeybee is in trouble. Along with other pollinators, its habitats are being lost to agriculture, urbanisation and deforestation. There are other threats, too: pollutants and pesticides, climate change, diseases and invasive species. It’s not a pretty picture.

A study published last year surveyed beekeepers in 36 countries, including the UK, and found that of over half a million honeybee colonies, 16 per cent were lost during the winter of 2017-2018. Northern Ireland and England reported losses above 25 per cent. In the USA, 50 billion honeybees died last winter - that’s a shocking one third of all commercial bees. We should be worried. As Simon Potts, professor of Biodiversity and Ecosystem Science at Reading University, says, “Pollinators such as honeybees are essential for our food production and food security. About three quarters of all our food crops benefit from pollination.” It’s time to create a buzz about honey and its creators, so we’ve put together three fabulous recipes that make honey the hero. We also got on the buzzer to an urban beekeeper and gathered the facts you need to know to be a clued-up shopper, canny cook and all-round bee lover.

3STICKY ISSUES: THE HONEY FACTS

WHY IS SOME HONEY RUNNY AND SOME SET? It’s down to the balance of fructose and glucose, the sugars that make up 70 per cent of honey. Highfructose wildflower honey is clear and liquid, while glucose-rich honey from oilseed rape, for example, has a harder set. Commercial runny honey is refined to make it fluid.