Chicken Wings With Honey Yogurt Sauce by chrisinanifong

Tags

chicken wings, food, gameday, honey, honey recipe, recipe

Just in time for game day!

Wings are fun, festive, quick to make and delicious. Perfect as apps before your holiday party or as a simple dinner paired with mashed potatoes and salad. When my family last bought a batch of local chicken, we picked up six fresh whole chickens and cut them into parts before we froze them — ziplock baggies of breasts, thighs, wings, legs and leftover bones/parts — each destined for different dinners. It was a fun shakeup from the whole chickens we typically make. And it gave us enough wings to pull off this dish. Whether you’re getting your wings locally or no, the honey, spice and yogurt combo make these hard to resist. Feel free to double the recipe for twice as much goodness.

Read fully recipe here: Chicken Wings With Honey Yogurt Sauce — christinanifong.com

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Bee Queen’s Honey Tomato Sauce by The Honey Cottage

Tags

food, honey recipe, recipe, sauces, spagetti sauce, tomatoe

Mmmmm…there is nothing more amazing then the smell of good food. Going through school one of my favorite classes was soups, sauces, and consumes. I could really put my personality, passion, and love into anything I made. It was like signing my signature through food and showing people what I was really made of. This special honey spaghetti sauce has been one that I have been trying to make versatile for many years. I think I have accomplished that because I like to use it as spaghetti sauce, on meatball subs, for chili, on pizza, and for Frito pies. I hope you enjoy this sauce as much as we do at The Honey Cottage.

Read full article and get the recipe at: Bee Queen’s Honey Tomato Sauce — The Honey Cottage

Swarm Preparations – Fitness by Jack Lalanne

Tags

honey bee swarms, Jack Lalanne, swarms

I know, you really just want another piece of fruitcake and another glass of egg nog. But you also need to start getting ready for swarm season. So while you’re chillin’ inside on this cold day, here’s Jack Lalanne to help you prepare physically for this coming swarm season. If you’re like me, in just a couple months, you’ll be looking in the trees every time you visit the bee yard. I’m not going to get a sore neck this swarm season by walking around looking for swarms everywhere and thinking I hear one anytime I’m outside. What am I going to do? I’m going to get started with Jack Lalanne now! Fast forward to the 40 second mark for swarm fitness!

 

Equipment Requirements for the First-Time Beekeeper

Tags

beekeeping

It really is not that complicated -James E. Tew

A beehive is not very complicated. Handy craftsmen frequently build their own in their home shop. Essentially, the common hive requires an outer cover – or simply a roof. Directly beneath that rooftop is an inner cover that is primarily used to prevent bees from soundly gluing the roof to the top edges of the hive box immediately beneath it.  An inner cover is not absolutely necessary, but it is a very useful piece of equipment. Beneath the inner cover is an assemblage of supers and hive bodies that is determined by the annual season.  Some beekeepers use a queen excluding device to restrict the queen to the brood chamber(s). During the spring season, something like two supers and two hive bodies would be common in a typical hive.  Beneath all the various boxes that are being used, a bottom board provides the landing platform for bees and gives a bottom for the hive. Generally a hive stand supports the entire beehive infrastructure. (Hive Diagram from Skinner, Parkman, Studer, and Williams. 20041)

via Equipment Requirements for the First-Time Beekeeper — BEEKeeping: Your First Three Years

You’re a Bee. This Is What It Feels Like. by Joanna Klein

Tags

beekeeping

Set your meetings, phone calls and emails aside, at least for the next several minutes. That’s because today you’re a bee.

It’s time to leave your hive, or your underground burrow, and forage for pollen. Pollen is the stuff that flowers use to reproduce. But it’s also essential grub for you, other bees in your hive and your larvae. Once you’ve gathered pollen to take home, you or another bee will mix it with water and flower nectar that other bees have gathered and stored in the hive. But how do you decide which flowers to approach? What draws you in?

In a review published last week in The Journal of Functional Ecology, researchers asked: What is a flower like from a bee’s perspective, and what does the pollinator experience as it gathers pollen? And that’s why we’re talking to you in the second person: to help you understand how bees like you, while hunting for pollen, use all of your senses — taste, touch, smell and more — to decide what to pick up and bring home.

Maybe you’re ready to go find some pollen. But do you even know where to look?

Read full article here: You’re a Bee. This Is What It Feels Like. by By JOANNA KLEIN 

The Secrets of Royal Jelly – Roald Dahl’s version by wiggledanceforme

Tags

biology, book review, fiction

I have always thought this story is an unsettling mix between fact and fiction. Is the crazy beekeeper Albert Taylor for real? Is he serious about feeding his malnourished daughter tons and tons of royal jelly to make her nice and plump?

Eccentric character Albert Tayler refers to beekeeping magazines and scientific research discussing the great benefits of the magical royal substance. He tries to convince his wife with the “scientific facts”. For a long time I have wondered whether these scientific articles were real, or whether the amazing imagination of Roald Dahl had exceeded to the next level. Today, I want to find out.

Read the full article at: The Secrets of Royal Jelly – Roald Dahl’s version. — wiggledanceforme

And if this bit of fiction spurs an interest in science:

Secret of royal jelly’s super-sizing effect on queen bees appears to be special protein royalactin. 27 April 2011, by Bob Yirka. (PhysOrg.com) — In a paper published in Nature,. Japanese researcher Masaki Kamakura describes a process he used to determine that the protein royalactin, is at least one of the components. of fiction spurs an interest in science: [PDF] Secret of royal jelly’s super-sizing effect on queen bees … – Phys.org 

and

in royal jelly that enables the larvae to develop into queens, but rather the optimally balanced composition of the diet – and the fact that the nurse bees feed the queen bee larvae up to 10 times more frequently. The secret of the caste system in honeybee colonies evidently lies in specific genetic programming of the larva … [PDF]Jelly Fit for a Queen – Max-Planck-Gesellschaft

Comb Honey Appetizer Dish

Tags

appetizer, honey, honey recipe, honeycomb, recipe

Appetizer platter made for the Mid-State Beekeepers annual holiday potluck.

 

This year my contribution to the local beekeeping holiday dinner was an appetizer platter featuring this year’s comb honey. The honey was from my yard here and made using the Ross Rounds system. It seemed well received and was cleaned up by the end of dinner.

As pictured, Comb honey sitting atop cream cheese, green seedless grapes, blackberries, blueberries, Townhouse Focaccia Tuscan cheese crackers, Triscuit Fig and Honey crackers.

Winter Solstice and Honey Bees by settlingforbees

Tags

beekeeping, honey bee behavior, management, seasons, solstice

The winter solstice signals more than the first official day of winter.  In the natural world, animals use the changes in available daylight to signal their actions.   Eventually, longer daylight hours will signal song birds to sing more to attract mates and begin laying eggs and dormant plants to emerge and begin anew.  Remarkably, the winter solstice signals honey bees to begin spring preparations now.

Read the full article here: Winter Solstice and Honey Bees — settlingforbees

Spelling Bees with Uncommon Names by Bad Beekeeping Blog

Tags

beekeeping, nomenclature

I’m not a grammarian, I don’t have the most hugest vocabulary, and I have been known to produce some pretty bad spells of whetther – but even I appreciate the right word, used and spelt correctly. Without rules, confusion reigns (and rains and rains).  I’m glad when someone points out errors I’ve made – it gives me a chance to learn.

I’m coming back to something I’ve written about before and then I’m moving on to something I’ve never written about.  Honey bee – it really should be two words, not one. I think the single word honeybee is just plain wrong. But I notice that some dictionaries disagree with me. Webster’s, for example.  Webster’s has also allowed yellow jacket instead of yellowjacket, which is just plain ridiculous. But then, Wikipedia also has an entry for ‘yellow jacket’ instead of yellowjacket, so maybe the whole world is coming to a spectacular illiterate end.

(cont.)

Read fully article here: Spelling Bees with Uncommon Names — Bad Beekeeping Blog

You Know You’re a Beekeeper when…

Tags

beekeeping, humor

You know you’re a beekeeper when… By John Caldeira, with contributions from many others.

The windshield of your vehicle has at least two yellow dots on it.

You have answers ready for questions about Africanized bees and the value of local honey in preventing allergies.

You eagerly await the phone call from the post office asking you to please come pick up your bees.

You check out all the honey labels and prices at the supermarket.

You’ve gone through the supermarket checkout line buying nothing more than a big load of sugar, and maybe some Crisco.

You’ve estimated just how much money you spent to control mites.

You pick up matches at restaurants, even though you don’t smoke.

Your friends and neighbors think you are the answer to every swarm and bees-in-the-wall problem.

You are keenly aware of the first and last freezes of each winter.

There is propolis on the steering wheel of your vehicle and the bottom of your boots.

There is a bucket of something in your garage that can only be good for smoker fuel.

You are called “the Bee Man,” or “the Bee Lady” by a lot of people who don’t know your name.

You know the bloom period of more local flowers than the state horticulturist.

You welcome a rainy weekend if it will stimulate nectar production.

You don’t mind driving home with a few honey bees inside your vehicle.

Your family and friends know exactly what they’re going to get for Christmas.

You don’t mow the lawn because the bees are working the weeds.

You drive down a road and find yourself evaluating the roadside flowers for their honey-producing potential.

You pull over and check the bees on the wildflowers just to see if they are YOUR bees, AND — you can tell the difference.

You come home smelling like a camp fire, and you haven’t been camping.

You saw Ulee’s Gold and didn’t think there were enough shots of the bees.

You overhear your 9 year old daughter explaining to her friends how to tie a trucker’s hitch.

The school principal calls to ask that you never again let your child take a drone tied with a thread to school for show and tell.

You never stop marveling at these wonderful creatures.

Excerpts from the above list were published in American Bee Journal (December, 1998), which prompted the following responses from readers:

You know you’re married to a beekeeper when…

You spend at least one day a week on your hands and knees with a sharp knife scraping wax and propolis off your kitchen floor.

You’ve ever used bee boxes as furniture in your house, for coffee tables, chairs, night stands, and storage boxes.

You mow around mountains of bee equipment that never seems to make it to the barn.

You plan weddings, child birth, surgery and funerals around honey extracting time.

When buying a new truck, your spouse checks weight loads and measures the bed to see how many hives he can fit in it.

You get stung by the bee that was clinging to your husband’s bee suit when you picked it up to wash it.

and from our local discussion group:

You know you’re a beekeeper when the seat of your car or truck has a hole where the hive tool punched through.

If the smell of bananas at your local farm stand sends you into a momentary panic…

You might be a beekeeper if, while cleaning out the garage, you get excited when you find a couple misplaced SHB traps.

You might be a beekeeper if you visit the SC Surplus Salesroom and the only things that interest you are table saws (for cutting boxes), kettles (for melting wax), deep freezers (for freezing frames), and hot water heaters (for that distant honey house).

You watch Ulee’s Gold just to see the shots of the honey bees.

You might be a beekeeper if you go into a manic state of excitement when your spouse reminds you that you left a 50# bag of cane sugar in her car trunk 2 months ago and she’d like it removed.

You look through beekeeping catalogs for beekeeping equipment you think you can make.

When you have more pictures of your bees than of your kids — and justify it by claiming bees only live six weeks, there are different bees in each picture.

When, after being asked how the bees stay warm overwinter for the eighth time, you’ve joked about knitting them sweaters — and someone believed you.

When you finally said, ‘no, they don’t sting me’ because it was faster to say that than spend the time explaining things to non-beekeepers.

The inside of your clothes dryer has propolis spots.

You have to buy a new freezer for your food because the other is full of frames.

When you buy a second dishwasher to put in the garage to clean plastic frames prior to re-waxing because it’s easier than the pressure washer.

Someone gets in the car with you and ask if you had been smoking!

You might be a beekeeper if you consider using Swarm Commander as an aftershave.

You might be a beekeeper if you use a tractor front loader and deer stands to retrieve swarms.

Napoleon and the Honeybee by Bees on the Roof

Tags

beekeeping, beekeeping history, Coat of Arms, honey bees, Napoleon Bonaparte

Next time you have a reason to check out Napoleon Bonaparte’s coat of arms, look closely at the left hand side. You will see a grouping of honeybees — Napoleon’s choice to represent his imperial rule.

The bee apparently sent several different messages to Napoleon’s constituents. It referred back to earlier French kings who chose the bee as a symbol of immortality and resurrection. The bee is also a nod to French industry where it was incorporated into clothing, curtains, carpets and furniture.

Read the entire blog post here: Napoleon and the Honeybee — Bees on the Roof

Featured image of embroidered bee source: The Honey Bee Conservancy

Selecting Honey Bee Stock by deltavalleyapiary

Tags

African Bee, Apis mellifera, beekeeping, Buckfast bee, Cardovan bee, Carniolan, Caucasian Bee, choosing honey bee stock, German Black Bee, honey bee biology, Italian Bees, management, Minnesota Hygienic Bee, Russian bee, Survivor Stock Bees, Varroa sensitive hygienic (VSH) Bee

In my experience, selecting bee stock is the most important decision when starting in Bees. If you choose the wrong type, you can wind up with an aggressive bee or a disease ridden colony. Here is a quick-start guide to help aid you in your search for the perfect strain for you.

Apis Mellifera is the main scientific classification for European Honey Bees. There are several sub-species and hybrid species available.  We will start our journey with the German Bee.

Read more of this at: Lesson 1: Selecting Honey Bee Stock by  deltavalleyapiary  

Happy Birthday Emily Dickinson

Tags

beekeeping history, birthday, Emily Dickinson, The Bee

Happy Birthday Emily Dickinson – Born Dec. 10, 1830

The Bee

By Emily Dickinson

Like trains of cars on tracks of plush
I hear the level bee:
A jar across the flowers goes,
Their velvet masonry
Withstands until the sweet assault
Their chivalry consumes,
While he, victorious, tilts away
To vanquish other blooms.
His feet are shod with gauze,
His helmet is of gold;
His breast, a single onyx
With chrysoprase, inlaid.
His labor is a chant,
His idleness a tune;
Oh, for a bee’s experience
Of clovers and of noon!
…
A team of archaeologists is rediscovering just how extensive Emily Dickinson’s garden was. Historical evidence shows Emily Dickinson’s Garden contained an abundance of blooming flowers. Archaeologists recently uncovered portions of a pathway leading to nineteenth-century flower and vegetable beds.Emily Dickinson – was an American poet born in Amherst, Massachusetts. (December 10, 1830 – May 15, 1886) ~ during her lifetime she “was known more widely as a gardener, perhaps, than as a poet”. Emily Dickinson’s niece, Martha Dickinson Bianchi, remembered “carpets of lily-of-the-valley and pansies, platoons of sweetpeas, hyacinths, enough in May to give all the bees of summer dyspepsia. There were ribbons of peony hedges and drifts of daffodils in season, marigolds to distraction—a butterfly utopia” Archaeology – Remnants of Emily Dickinson’s Gardens Sought

AMHERST, MASSACHUSETTS—Emily Dickinson is known today as one of the greatest poets of the nineteenth century, but in her lifetime she may have been more renowned for her gardening. At her family estate, she helped to tend an orchard, a greenhouse, and an expanse of flower and vegetable gardens. The size of these gardens was dramatically decreased in the decades after Dickinson died in 1886, but now a team of archaeologists is searching for their remnants. Last summer, they uncovered portions of a pathway leading to nineteenth-century flower and vegetable beds. “If we can follow out the historic path to its end, then theoretically we would find the location of past gardens,” Kerry Lynch of Archaeological Services at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, told the New York Times. If they do locate these gardens, the archaeologists hope to find seeds or other botanical evidence dating back to when Dickinson was alive.

Source:
Archaeology – Remnants of Emily Dickinson’s Gardens Sought
http://www.archaeology.org/news/4458-160513-massachusetts-dickinson-gardens

Emily Dickinson
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emily_Dickinson

 

The Gentle Beekeeper of Rushcreek Twp., Bremen, Ohio

An interesting article on beekeeping in an earlier era. Especially a Mr. Abraham Graffis II, beekeeper of Rushcreek Twp.

Diary of a Rural Ohio Nomad

If a picture is truly worth a thousand words, this sepia portrait could easily provide enough material to compose a thesis on the craft of beekeeping circa 1880.  Represented within this tangible reminder of the not so distant past, are perhaps three generations of a rural family, standing as if at attention, beneath a canopy of shaded woods, awaiting the flash of an antiquated camera. It’s subjects lack the formal conventions of the Victorian Era.as they chose to be depicted in practical attire in lieu of their Sunday best, they appear natural and not stiffly posed before an elaborate backdrop or within a tastefully decorated parlor, but in a natural setting. This historical photo not only has the ability to transport us into a nineteenth century apiary, but it reflects the value that the family placed on beekeeping and their farm. Given the price of a photographer, we can surmise…

View original post 1,323 more words

Advice for New-Bees by Newbees

Tags

beekeeping, new beekeepers, opinion

NewBees: Beginning Beekeeping

ere Varroa: your new nightmare…

I have been keeping bees now for seven years. In spite of taking courses, reading every book I could, keeping my eyes and ears open, and earning my Master Beekeeper designation, I have made every mistake I could.

Sometimes twice.

And I know more are out there waiting for me to make. Such is beekeeping!

We all have to do things in our own way and in our own time, but for what it is worth, here is what I wish I had known in my first year…

1. It is easy to keep bees, but difficult to keep them well. For the first year or two, you will open that hive, probably with pounding heart and sweaty palms…and not have a clue what you are seeing. That is normal! Just ask a more experienced beekeeper to come look at your hive(s) with you and…

View original post 311 more words

Varroa Mite Treatments

Tags

beekeeping, oxalic acid, varroa destructor, varroa mites

 

I’m out in the bee yard vaporizing oxalic within the hives to kill Varroa mites today. Oxalic Acid is harsh on humans and I think it probably isn’t exactly kind to honey bees either although they seem to live on the acid side of the ph scale. I’m reminded though, as I vaporize the oxalic acid within each hive, of a time my son Danny had a nasty wart on his foot. We had tried everything, night after night, to remove it. Finally Danny agreed to go to a podiatrist . He thought it was going to be cut off and he was good with that. Instead the doctor applied a strong acid for a couple hours. Over the course of the next week or so it was basically blistered and burned in appearance. We felt badly for Danny but he was okay with it. He wanted it off. Anyway, applying oxalic acid to the bees kind of reminds me of the same. I hope they appreciate the mite removal.

Bee Book Season by Ron Miksha

Tags

beekeeping, beekeeping authors, beekeeping books, beekeeping winter activities, famous beekeepers

It’s holiday season. And if you’re normal, you’re thinking about beekeeping books for everyone you know. Even the non-beekeeps. I spent a few minutes today scanning the Amazon.com site to see what was bee hot. Not that the best sellers are always the best books. (My own book fell from the best seller ranks back in 2008, but I think Bad Beekeeping is still an OK gift for your friends.)  But there are some good ideas to get you started.

Read entire article here with booklist for winter reading: Bee Book Season — Bad Beekeeping Blog

Eating My Way Through the Alphabet: Letter H by snapshotsincursive

Tags

beekeeping, comb honey, honey, honey recipe, recipe

What’s Cooking in Gail’s Kitchen? Simple Sensations: Honeycomb Sweet Bee! Raw honeycomb has the most incredible flavor concentrated with the sweet nectar of wildflowers. The first time I tasted it, with a crisp apple slice and a nibble of sharp cheese, I realized what all the buzz was about. This edible mystery is a conversation-starter at every gathering. And a little goes a long way. Store honeycomb at room temperature in a covered container.
HONEYCOMB SWEET BEE
Ingredients:

Raw Honeycomb Square

Granny Smith apples

Cheddar Cheese, Extra Sharp*

Seedless Grapes

Smoked Almonds, whole with sea salt

Multi-Grain Crackers

Read more here:  Eating My Way Through the Alphabet: Letter H — snapshotsincursive