Another sweet success..Honey!

http://homegardenstogo.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-sweet-successhoney.html

Camprn and your success is yet another straw inspiring me in this direction.

thanks for sharing

The late summer honey is quite a bit darker than the mid summer honey, stronger flavor but it is really good!


turan, read, read read, read. Go to Beesource, start going to local beekeeper club meetings in your area then in the spring take a class if you can. Beekeeping is not a casual hobby but it can be tremendously rewarding. And sweet.

That looks outstanding camp!

Thanks! When I bottle it up in a few days we'll get a good look at the color....... it's not as dark as I thought it was going to be......

sfgteachers wrote:http://homegardenstogo.blogspot.com/2012/09/another-sweet-successhoney.html

Horray for you! And consider that the value of the bees in pollination of your and neighbors' gardens is many times the value of the honey you've gained.

I love honey. I love bees. But I DON'T love the shots! Allergic so I can't keep them. So instead I try to plant a lot of bee friendly plants! We have an apiary about half hour away so I get all the honey I want. Just miss the fun of getting MY own.

camprn wrote:turan, read, read read, read. Go to Beesource, start going to local beekeeper club meetings in your area then in the spring take a class if you can. Beekeeping is not a casual hobby but it can be tremendously rewarding. And sweet.

Bookmarked. thanks. I don't know if I will follow this, but reading will surely help me learn lots about what is really involved.

There is a local club also.

WOW! this is so exciting! congratulations, belinda!

i've tinkered with the idea of keeping bees, but as i am allergic, i'm not sure it is wise. i am truly fascinated by them, and i love the idea of honey that is so local it is from the backyard.

rowena___. wrote:WOW! this is so exciting! congratulations, belinda!

i've tinkered with the idea of keeping bees, but as i am allergic, i'm not sure it is wise. i am truly fascinated by them, and i love the idea of honey that is so local it is from the backyard.

I would also love to start keeping bees. My neighbors to the north keep lots of bees next to our alfalfa. They usually give us a bit of honey around this time of year as a gesture, but really I should be giving them things from our garden as a thank you for their service.
84 year old grandpa just to our south has also taken on bee keeping as his (and his wife's) full time hobby. He keeps building boxes and adding on and I'm hoping it's just a matter of time before I can get him to place some down by our place. I've looked into starting several times, but I just don't have the time required right now to start such an adventure. So for now I just keep dropping little hints that he's always welcome to place a couple down our way

Thanks Rowena,it is SO exciting. I'm still amazed and thank my bees and the Lord when I look at my bottles full of thick delicious yum.
Rooster- I'm sure your neighbor's bees are all over your area. They fly as far as 3 miles from their hives. You're lucky-he's doing the work for you!

rowena___. wrote:WOW! this is so exciting! congratulations, belinda!

i've tinkered with the idea of keeping bees, but as i am allergic, i'm not sure it is wise. i am truly fascinated by them, and i love the idea of honey that is so local it is from the backyard.

Rowena, how do you know you are allergic? Have you been diagnosed by a competent allergy doctor? A lot of folks think they are allergic, because they got stung and it swelled up. That's a normal reaction to a first sting.

Other folks are told "you could die on your next sting" by an ER doctor who knows little about allergies, but is simply covering his own butt.

Less than 1% of the population is allergic. And evidence is growing that allergies and other autoimmune diseases may be signs of immune systems that aren't challenged enough.

This is not a suggestion that you throw caution to the wind, but is a suggestion that you proceed carefully 1. to build your immune system by the various known ways, and 2. to check out if you are really allergic.

Did you know that the most common victims of allergies to honey bee stings are among beekeeper families who *don't* get stung? The thinking is that some bee venom is embedded and dried in the keepers clothing, and then becomes dust in the home. Breathed dust is not enough to build the immune system, but rather sensitizes one to the challenging agent. This is also why new beekeepers should not bundle up like a spaceman, but rather to accept that an occasional sting is actually good for you.

Another factor that is little noticed, but known among the pros in beekeeping, is that certain drugs can interact with bee venom and cause a severe reaction. These are the non-steroidal anti-inflamitory drugs, in the ibuprofen family. I do not use ibuprofen within days of tending bees.

The one serious reaction I ever received in a long career of working with bees was after surgery, when I was on a prescribed pain killer in that family. I went walking in my back yard, where I always kept a few hives (my "hospital yard" for the bees), and while watching them, one popped me on the stomach through my t-shirt. I probably got in her way as she was returning and the sting was a reflex. Normally I wouldn't pay it any attention, and within a half hour, would not be able to find the spot where I had been stung.

This time was different. It swelled up quickly and I broke out in hives all over my body. I began to feel really miserable, hot and cold, sweaty, and then began to wheeze. It scared me. I took some Benedryl and rested the remainder of the afternoon, with the symptoms gradually subsiding. I could have gone to the ER, and maybe should have, but I'll bet I would have been told I had to quit my career as "the next sting could kill you."

I did not go near the bees again until I was off the medication and had three or four more days for it to clear my system. When I went back to work, I was very cautious, but the first sting provoked no reaction, and I was much relieved.

Another factor is that honey may well help in building the immune system. I have very few colds - and almost always when I sense that first scratchy throat that signals one developing, I increase my honey consumption for a few days, and it almost always goes away. I have a mild asthma, which also seems to be suppressed as long as I am fairly regular in honey consumption.

I also am immune to poison ivy. It wasn't always that way. As a child I was immune, but when I left home, I stopped eating honey (too expensive I thought), and began to get poison ivy rashes. Then I started keeping bees and had my own honey. The rashes stopped. Just last week I walked right through a bed of poison ivy in my sandals, and never had a bit of reaction. (It wasn't intentional, but I was preoccupied and not watching where I stepped.)

Now the only honey I use is raw honey - unprocessed and only strained, not filtered. Under the lid of a new jar, I can see bits of wax and pollen when I open it. Supermarket honey is cooked and ultrafiltered, which kills all its benefits. It also is probably Chinese honey which frequently is contaminated.

I am retired now. We get local honey, but when we travel, we look for unique honeys. I never buy honey that doesn't have a beekeeper's name and address on the label. I figure that is my best indicator that it is real and uncontaminated.

We saw a sign on our vacation that advertised "Apple Blossom" honey. I was quite skeptical. Commercial beekeepers who do apple pollination usually don't even super the bees, and wouldn't have time to deal with honey if they could make it, as their primary business at that time of year is pollination. You really can't pollinate crops and make honey at the same time.

But we stopped and had a long talk with the beekeeper, a retired police officer, who had purchased an old orchard. He made no effort to maintain the orchard for fruit, but put an apiary in the middle of it and he took off honey right after the apple bloom.

He offered a taste. It was real; and it was exquisite! We bought two jars without any quibble about prices (which were very high). Now I wish I had bought more.

If you come to my home and you are offered apple blossom honey, you'll know you are highly favored and you are considered really special!

i learned i was allergic as a child when i stopped breathing and turned blue two minutes after a bee sting.

edited to add: yes, it was later confirmed by an allergist at my father's hospital.

Wow Pollinator, thanks for all the great info. I will be looking for raw local honey.

Do you by chance have a website or blog? I would love to read more about your experiences with pollinators.

I just bought my first-ever jar of raw honey. Can you please tell me if I need to know anything special re: storage and usage? Thanks a bunch.

Lindacol wrote:Wow Pollinator, thanks for all the great info. I will be looking for raw local honey.

Do you by chance have a website or blog? I would love to read more about your experiences with pollinators.

Pollinator's website/blog can be linked to by clicking on the globe icon under his avatar. This holds true for any member who has chosen to share their blog or site in their profile settings.
He's got some good info there about bees. I check it out often

link:
http://gardensouth.org/

RoOsTeR wrote:

Lindacol wrote:Wow Pollinator, thanks for all the great info. I will be looking for raw local honey.

Do you by chance have a website or blog? I would love to read more about your experiences with pollinators.

Pollinator's website/blog can be linked to by clicking on the globe icon under his avatar. This holds true for any member who has chosen to share their blog or site in their profile settings.
He's got some good info there about bees. I check it out often

link:
http://gardensouth.org/

Thanks Rooster, I learned something new today. Didn't know what the globe icons were.

Great website Pollinator.