The Zen of Beekeeping by Wildflower Meadows

Tags

first time in hive, new beekeepers, Zen of Beekeeping

For a beginning beekeeper, opening a hive for the first few times can be somewhat overwhelming – and downright scary!  There are all those bees in there.  They have stingers.  What if they get angry???  Then there is all of the unfamiliar gear: a veil or suit, big gloves, and a new hive tool.  It can all be a bit overwhelming and cause a beginning beekeeper to feel quite anxious.

This nervousness almost certainly makes matters worse.  While it is hard to say for certain whether bees can intrinsically sense this unease, they most certainly do sense unsteady and jerky movements.  Bees do not like these kinds of rapid or rushed actions.  They especially do not like any kind of rough treatment.  For an experienced beekeeper, swatting at bees, darting about, dropping things, and banging things are all completely out of the question.

Beekeepers need to be relaxed and calm around their bees.  If you are nervous as a beginner, you need do your best to pretend that you are calm.  (“Fake it until you make it!”).  Bees are sensitive creatures.  If you move carefully and calmly, treating them with peace and respect, they will return the favor.  One of the joys of keeping bees is the opportunity to get in touch with and to give respect to the magnificent sense of peace and purpose that is in the heart of every beehive.

Read full article at: The Zen of Beekeeping — Wildflower Meadows

Dulcis Coccora Recipe by Savor the Southwest

Tags

art, dates, fruit recipe, honey, honey recipe

A bit of history to sweeten an excellent historical recipe. Have a visit and read the full recipe. – sassafrasbeefarm

Monica King here to kick off National Honey Month since I’m a beekeeper. This awareness month was initiated by the National Honey Board in 1989 to promote American beekeepers and honey.

One pharoah, Cleopatra, used honey in her beauty regime. One of Cleopatra’s secrets, and her most famous, was her ritual bathing in milk and honey. Both of these ingredients naturally soften the skin, exfoliate, and leave a fresh, sweet scent. You can do this yourself by adding two cups milk and half cup honey to your bath water.

Personally, it is Cleopatra’s sweet tooth that I can relate to. Cleopatra’s favorite treat was a sweet honey ball called “Dulcis Coccora” also known as “Tiger Nut Sweets.” A recipe was reported to have been found on a broken piece of Egyptian pottery dating from 1600 BCE.

“Dulcis Coccora”
1 pound pitted dates
water
2 Tablespoons ground cinnamon
1/2 Teaspoon fresh ground cardamon
4 tablespoons chopped walnuts
honey – to coat
ground almonds and/or pomegranate seeds

Read full recipe here: Bees: Tears of the Sun God Re — Savor the Southwest:

Bees adjust to seasons with nutrients in flowers and ‘dirty water’ by Save The Bees Concert

Tags

feeding bees, honey bee nutrition, minerals, vitamins

More and more it’s pointing to nutrition to help us save our bees.
~ sassafrasbeefarm

Researchers have discovered that honey bees alter their diet of nutrients according to the season. A spike in calcium consumption in the fall, and high intake of potassium, help prepare the bees for colder months when they likely need those minerals to generate warmth. A careful inventory of the bees’ nutrient intake revealed shifting sources and how limitations in nutrient availability from these sources can have implications for the health of both managed and wild colonies.

Read full article here: Bees adjust to seasons with nutrients in flowers and ‘dirty water’ — Save The Bees Concert

Why Smoking Soothes the Stressed-Out Bee Hive by Meredith Swett Walker

Tags

art, bee smoker, beekeeping equipment, defensive behavior, honey bee behavior

Smoke has long been the beekeeper’s secret weapon to avoid getting stung. Ancient Egyptian art dating back over 2,500 years ago depicts beekeepers blowing smoke into hives. But despite the age of this practice and human’s enduring fascination with honey bees, we still haven’t figured out exactly why smoke soothes bees.

Meredith Swett Walker

In research published in August in the Journal of Insect Science, Stephanie Gage, Ph.D., with colleagues at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Carl Hayden Bee Research Center and at BetaTec Hop Products, presents a scientific evaluation of smoke on the honey bee’s defensive behavior. The researchers focused on the “sting extension response” and evaluated the effects of two different types of smoke: burlap, which is commonly used by beekeepers, and spent hop pellets—a recycled material made from hop flowers after they have been used to make beer.

Because a honey bee (Apis mellifera) hive contains valuable treasure—sweet honey and protein packed larvae—bees must mount a coordinated defense to protect the hive from the many predators that would love to plunder it. A small number of worker bees serve as “guard bees” that patrol the entrance to the hive and watch for intruders. If a threat is detected, the guard will raise her abdomen and extend her stinger into the air. This behavior is called the sting extension response, and it releases an alarm pheromone, or a chemical signal, to the rest of the colony, mobilizing other workers to prepare to attack an intruder. If the intruder provokes the bees further, stinging commences.

Read the full article here on Entomology Today Why Smoking Soothes the Stressed-Out Bee Hive — Entomology Today

Breakfast fruit bowl with honey by Sunsets Sunrise

Tags

breakfast recipe, honey, honey and fruit, recipe

Hi everyone! I thought I would post food for today. Back on the grind of eating healthier. Breakfast is known as the most important meal. This is breakfast. Strawberries, blueberries, mango, kiwi over yogurt and oats on the bottom drizzled with raw honey. My way of eating healthier. Although at times I go off course. […]

Read full blog post here: Breakfast fruit bowl. — Sunsets Sunrise

Honeycomb Cheese Wheel by snapshotsincursive

Tags

cheese and honey, comb honey, honey recipe, recipe

What’s Cooking in Gail’s Kitchen? Equal Measures: Honeycomb Cheese Wheel! Remember when you were a kid and for fun you puckered up with those candy red wax lips? Me and my girlfriends would put them on, batt our eyes, sashay our hips, and laugh hysterically. Most often we’d find ourselves chewing on the sugary insides […]

Get the full recipe here: Honeycomb Cheese Wheel — snapshotsincursive

Use Honey first for a cough, new guidelines say by Lytchett Bay Apiaries

Tags

honey, honey for cough, raw honey

New guidelines for doctors from the National Institute of Clinical Excellence (NICE) say they should tell patients to use honey first when they have a cough. This is based on 3 studies that showed honey reduces symptoms by 2 points on a 7 point scale.

Honey and over-the-counter medicines should be the first line of treatment for most people with coughs, new guidelines recommend.

Read full article here: Use Honey first for a cough, new guidelines say — Lytchett Bay Apiaries

Honey Chicken Toast by The Honey Cottage

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honey as food, honey recipe, recipe

Do you enjoy simple dinners that are healthy and tasty?

One of my favorite meals is Honey chicken toast because it is a great meal on a busy day. This meal is perfect for one person or a whole family. My favorite honeys to use on this recipe are; alfalfa clover and the plain whipped honey from Honeyville. I switch between two different honeys depending on my mood. These are nice and sweet; which is complemented by the salt sprinkled on top. This dish is perfect for sparking your taste buds. Don’t take my word, try it out for yourself and see what the buzz is all about.

Read full recipe here: Honey Chicken Toast — The Honey Cottage

My cell phone is sticky. By Christine at The B(ee)log

Tags

bee humor, beekeeping, beekeeping humor, humor

A little humor in the bee yard always helps as this article by Christine at The B(ee)log demonstrates. Cheers! sassafrassbeefarm

On my last colony check, I leaned over too far and my cell phone slipped out of my pocket. Neither the bees nor my phone were best pleased by this occurrence, but we all survived largely unscathed. (Note to self: Phone goes in lower suit pocket, not upper pocket!)

Fortunately, much like buttered toast, cell phones always land screen-down. Actually, this usually isn’t fortunate at all – but it was today. That universal law meant my phone didn’t slip between the frames, so I could pick it up again quickly. Although I can picture the discussion with the repair tech if that had gone another way…

via My cell phone is sticky. — The B(ee)log

Citrus Honey Chicken by The Thankful Heart

Tags

chicken, citrus chicken, honey, honey recipe, recipe

And for your busy days, here’s an easy dinner, done in about 30 minutes.  It’s full of citrusy flavor with just hint of sweetness.  A little mixed rice, a bright salad and it’s dinner!

Read the full recipe at: Citrus Honey Chicken — The Thankful Heart

Funny Honey at the Zoo Reveals Bees’ Foraging on Sugar Baits by Entomology Today

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feeding sugar, foraging bees, honey bees, nectar gathering

In the course of a study on mosquito movement at a zoo in Manhattan, Kansas, researchers discovered that local colonies of honey bees had foraged on a sugar bait for the mosquitoes that had been applied to foliage near the zoo. The bait had been dyed for the purpose of tracking mosquitoes that had fed on it, but the dye also showed up in much of the bees’ honey. Here, a frame from one of the zoo’s bee hives shows honey dyed red (black arrow). The bait in this case was nontoxic, but the discovery indicates a need for further study on attractive toxic sugar baits’ impacts on bees and other nontarget insects. (Image originally published in Kapaldo et al 2018, Journal of Insect Science)

Read the full article here: Funny Honey at the Zoo Reveals Bees’ Foraging on Sugar Baits — Entomology Today

Create a garden habitat to help essential bees by Vancouver Sun

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flowers, gardening for bees, habitat for bees, honey bee forage

Worldwide there’s concern that the survival of many bee populations — in particular honeybees (Apis mellifera) — is threatened by several complex factors that will require a multi-pronged approach to resolve.

The loss of natural habitat, stress, the lack of nutrition, the use of neonicotinoid insecticides, a parasitic mite (Varroa destructor), and many bacterial and viral diseases seem to be the prime causes of decline in all bee species.

Read the full article here: Create a garden habitat to help essential bees — Vancouver Sun

Deformed Wing Virus by Prime Bees – College Station Bee & Honey Farm

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deformed wing virus, honey bee diseases, honey bee pests

Deformed wing virus (DWV) is a highly viral disease transmitted by Varroa destructor. The disease is commonly found in colonies infested with mites. Deformed Wing Virus is regarded as deadly due to its ability to spread fast in any colony. It causes massive wing deformation in bees making it difficult for them to live normally. DWV which is regarded as a low-grade infectious disease is commonly triggered by mite infestations. It has a reputation for being massively destructive leading to the decimation of well-established colonies globally. The deformed wing virus is common in late summer and early fall. A high concentration of mites can be overwhelming for any bee colony.

Read the full article here: Deformed Wing Virus — Prime Bees – College Station Bee & Honey Farm

A Curated Collection of Beehive Cams by Grove Greenman

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bee hive cams, feral honey bees, honey bees, wild honey bees

A collection of beehive cams that includes views from inside a hive, a zoom camera the viewer controls in an apiary, and lots more.

Visit all the Honey Bee Hive Cams here: A Curated Collection of Beehive Cams — Grove Greenman

Honey Barbecue Pulled Chicken by Frugal Hausfrau

Tags

barbecue, honey, honey recipe, pulled chicken

I wish we all had time to stand in front of the barbecue and have parties on the deck (or by the pool if you’re so lucky) but man, sometimes we’re just busy and need to eat! That’s when this big batch of Honey Barbecue Pulled Chicken is a lifesaver.

Read full recipe at: Honey Barbecue Pulled Chicken — Frugal Hausfrau

Honey Bee Speed: 100 Flowers Per Hour by 67steffen

Tags

bee photos, photography

The typical honey bee (female forager) will visit 100 flowers in an hour’s time before returning to the hive to drop off collected pollen. The bee will repeat this process about ten times in a day. I like to say the honey bee travels at a speed of 100 FPH, even though it  beats it wings around 12,000 times per minute.

View original article here: Honey Bee Speed: 100 Flowers Per Hour — 67steffen

Spinach Strawberry Salad with Honey Dressing byFarm, Garden and Beyond

Tags

honey recipe, recipe, salad

What a great way to use fresh Summer produce and compliment anything that you are tossing on the grill.

Get the full recipe here: Spinach Strawberry Salad with Honey Dressing — Farm, Garden and Beyond

Berry Honey Milkshake by BEEKeeping: Your First Three Years

Tags

honey, honey recipe, strawberry

 

BERRY HONEY MILKSHAKE

You can use non-fat milk, ice cream or yogurt if you wish

• 1 pint vanilla ice cream or frozen yogurt
• 2-1/2 cups strawberries
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/4 cup honey
• 4 small mint sprigs (optional)

In blender combine all ingredients except mint. Blend about 30 seconds until smooth and creamy. Serve immediately in tall chilled glasses. Garnish with mint sprigs if desired. Makes four servings.

via Cooking with Honey — BEEKeeping: Your First Three Years

Over Wintering Nucs- A Better Way by Michael Palmer

Tags

beekeeping, nucleus hives, winter beekeeing, winter management

I used to buy bees, lots and lots of bees; singles from South Carolina, nuclei from Florida and frames of brood from New York. I used to buy queens, lots and lots of queens; queens from Georgia, queens from Texas and queens from California. Every year it was the same. Pick up the pieces of my apiary in the Spring, send a big check to southern queen breeders, split up my best colonies, and hope I made enough of a honey crop to pay the bills. Some years I did, some years I did not.

Read full article here: Over Wintering Nucs- A Better Way — BEEKeeping: Your First Three Years

Beekeeping Humor – Self Incrimination, You have a Right to a Lawyer by Stephen Bishop

Tags

beekeeping humor

Apparently, I had been speeding down a South Carolina highway without wearing my seatbelt (uncharacteristic, I swear) and couldn’t provide a logical answer to a state trooper’s question, “So where you heading?” My conundrum was I didn’t know where I was heading. I was searching the countryside for a logging crew, any logging crew to photograph. I had just written an article, in fact my first ever as a freelancer, for Grit magazine on forest management, and the editor wanted photos to accompany it. The state trooper doubted my story and asked me to exit the car and follow his finger with my eyeballs without moving my head. Then he proceeded to tell me to recite the alphabet backwards from M.

You try.

It’s difficult, even sober. I was sober but petrified because my story sounded ridiculous. After walking a line, toe to toe, which isn’t so easy either under the gaze of a lawman, the trooper asked if he could search my backpack in the passenger’s seat. I consented thankfully. If not, I might have been escorted to the slammer. In that backpack was a copy of William Zinsser’s On Writing Well and about a year’s worth of Writer’s Digest. After that, the trooper handed me a seatbelt violation and let me go on my aimless way.

Today I use that same backpack to tote beekeeping stuff. It contains, among other things, a crowbar-looking thing with a little hook on the end that looks like a perfect tool for burglary. I have a grafting tool that looks like a lock pic and an unlabeled ziplock bag of a white powdery substance. In my truck bed is a long metal wand that I can hook to my truck battery to volatilize my white powdery substance. I reek of smoke. If stopped by a state trooper today, I would soon be sitting behind bars until the lab results came back showing oxalic acid.

Read full article here: Self Incrimination — BEEKeeping: Your First Three Years

Physical Barriers, Aging, and Beekeeping by Morris Ostrofsky

Tags

beekeepers, physical barriers to beekeeping

They say death and taxes are unavoidable. There is a third item that can be added to this list; physical changes whether due to aging or disability.

This article is written for any beekeeper who is encountering physical barriers that affect their ability to continue keeping bees. These barriers can come in the form of mobility issues, arthritis, diminishing strength, back problems, eyesight or other unexpected challenges.

Beekeepers are resourceful and find creative solutions to continue keeping bees. Aging or other obstacles can be addressed on multiple fronts: lifestyle, equipment and management changes. Some of the solutions can be put into practice now and some will take planning and time to implement. The objective of this article is to provide practical information to help beekeepers adapt to changing physical conditions thus allowing them to continue doing what they love.

Read full article here: Barriers — BEEKeeping: Your First Three Years

Pros and Cons of Feeding Dry Pollen Sub by Bee Informed Partnership

Tags

beekeeping management, pollen, pollen substitute

Most beekeepers have come to realize that due to lack of natural forage in our urban and agricultural landscapes, feeding pollen substitute has become necessary to keep bees healthy in most parts of the country. Last summer was an especially challenging season in the West due to extremely hot and dry conditions. Despite a wet spring in California and Oregon last year, the spigot was shut off abruptly early in the summer and what little forage was available quickly shriveled. Beekeepers who had not been providing supplemental feed saw their colonies dwindle as the summer went on. Although it’s still early, this year is looking like it could be similar.

Read the entire article here: Pros and Cons of Feeding Dry Pollen Sub — Bee Informed Partnership

Your beekeeping year is about to change by Honey Bee Suite

Tags

beekeeping seasons, summer solstice

Here we are at the Summer Solstice. Here’s some good advice from Rusty…
~sasafrasbeefarm

Your beekeeping year is about to change:

The beekeeping year can be divided into two halves. One half is characterized by expansion, and the other by contraction. Tomorrow we begin the next phase. Whether you live in the northern hemisphere or the southern, the solstices mark the boundaries, the points at which things begin to change.

The most important concept in beekeeping:

If I were to write a book on beekeeping, this is where it would begin. Relatively unimportant issues like how to feed, where to put a hive, or how to inspect would be relegated to the appendix. The how-to part of beekeeping is unimportant compared to the why of it. Once you understand how bee colonies respond to their environment—what they do and why—the how-to stuff becomes easy. You can figure it out without instructions because you understand the purpose.

The honey bee lifestyle is much easier to understand when you look at bees as a part of the natural world, not the man-made one. Honey bees respond to cues provided by nature, and once you understand their place in the ecosystem, their life cycle begins to make sense.

Read full article here: Your beekeeping year is about to change — Honey Bee Suite

Summer Solstice by Wildflower Meadows

Tags

beekeeping, beekeeping seasons, seasons, summer solstice

For beekeepers and the bees, the summer solstice marks the end of the period of increase and the beginning of the journey to the winter equinox. The next six months will be a period of reduction and preparation for winter.
~sassafrasbeefarm

As the sun reaches its most northerly position relative to the earth, the bees also reach their maximum strength.  The summer solstice, which occurs on June 21st, brings the longest day of the year in the northern hemisphere.  It also marks a delineation between the two broad seasons in the year of a beehive:  the season of expansion and the season of contraction.

Read the full article here: Summer Solstice — Wildflower Meadows

William Woodley – An Introduction by Beehive Yourself

Those that know me know that I have an interest in beekeeping history and those who have contributed so much to our knowledge. Beehive Yourself has created an interesting video titled: William Woodley – An Introduction. I encourage a visit to his blog to view the short, but well done and interesting video. ~sassafrasbeefarm

Click here to visit Beehive Yourself and view the video: William Woodley – An Introduction

National Pollinator Week by Bad Beekeeping Blog

Tags

national pollinators week, pollination

Here’s a reminder from our friend Ron Miksha over at Bad Beekeeping Blog to celebrate NAtional Pollinator Week. Thanks Ron!
~sassafrasbeefarm

National Pollinator Week has arrived: June 18-24! Today, I’m re-running part of a blog I posted last week.  It had some ideas on what you might do to celebrate Pollinator Week.

Pollinator Partnership tells us, “National Pollinator Week is a time to celebrate pollinators and spread the word about what you can do to protect them.” Eleven years ago, when colony collapse was at its peak and the end of civilization was near, the US Senate approved “National Pollinator Week” unanimously. Unanimously! Has the US Senate ever approved anything else by undissented decree? That’s a hundred out of a hundred. Congratulations to them for collaborating, for once, on something important. They wanted every American to recognize the pollination services provided by birds and bees and beetles and bats.

Read the full blog post at: National Pollinator Week — Bad Beekeeping Blog