Why do bears like Winnie the Pooh love honey?

Well firstly bears are predominantly woodland creatures and so too for that matter are bees. A bee hive can contain as much as 40 kilograms of pure raw honey and honey comb. 

Imagine that lot if it was manuka honey! Now a bear will often see a bee hive as a substantial treat. Honey has a very low glycemic index which means the body release it in steady stages. This would suit a bear as a big batch of honey such as this would provide energy for many days to come!

In fact there are many tales of bears and bee hives and the raw honey contained within – from Winnie The Pooh to a Russian equivalent Vinnie Puqh, from traditional folk tales of old, to even modern literature like Stephen Kings Dark Tower – honey and bears go together like the moon and sun!

In fact because bears and bees go together so well in the forest everyday bee-keepers use a little trick to fool the bees. By smoking out bees with a smoke burner, the modern beekeeper is basically emulating the natural conditions of the forest. Fires in forest are regular occurrences that date back to the beginning of time – these fires act as both creators of new fertilization and destroyers of old. When a bee hive senses smoke all of the bee’s natural survival instincts begin to kick in and they gather their most prized possession – Honey!

All of the bees start to eat the honey within the hive – this causes them to become drowsy and less prone to acts of aggression. Imagine if you just ate the biggest meal you had ever seen with loads of extra toppings and cakes- how would you feel after this? So would a bear ever use this technique? Well no, bears and bees have lived together for many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of years of years – a modern beekeeper though is a relative newbie when it comes to controlling and exploiting the nature of the world’s greatest honey producers – the honey bee.