Abstract
With a specific ultrasonic device adapted to small volumes analysis, we carried out a pilotstudy of cell by cell honey ultrasonic velocity in a beehive. In this context, we followed, cellby cell, the evolution of ultrasonic velocity in honey throughout its elaboration, from freshliquid just deposited into cells, to the capping. The results, averaged over the whole honeycombcorrelated rather well with moisture content (in the range 14–64%) even if, for thesame moisture content, the values of velocities significantly varied suggesting differences insugar composition. Concerning cell by cell analysis, data collected showed that ultrasonicvelocity significantly differs from one cell to another, versus time and versus location in thehoneycomb. These first results demonstrate that ultrasonic velocity measured cell by cellcould be precious data if it would be correlated to other physicochemical parameters suchas water activity. Our ultrasonic method is not, in its present form, directly applicable forreal time non-destructive monitoring of the hive. Nevertheless, our first results prove thatultrasonic methods could be interesting for honey evaluation during the ripening process atthe cell level, using volumes inferior to the millilitre and not in a macroscopic way.