Posts Tagged ‘Honey’

Beekeeping is an ancient activity. There is evidence from rock paintings that suggests beekeeping was happening as early as 13.000 BC. The ancient Egyptians were excellent beekeepers, as were the Greeks.

Honey is produced as food by the honeybees to sustain them during the winter months. The bees take nectar from flowers, take it to the hive, and, by concentrating it, make honey. It is stored within the hive on structures called combs.

The flavour, aroma and colour of honey differ depending on the flowers from which the bee removed the nectar. Climate, humidity and altitude also have an affect on the characteristics of honey. Clear honey has a weak flavour and aroma. Dark honey is rich in proteins and minerals.

Common flavours of honey include orange blossom, tupelo, buckwheat, clover, blackberry, and blueberry. In Australia, the most common honey comes from eucalyptus trees, such as red gum, yellow gum and stringybark. Other countries are also noted for their honey, including Tasmanian leatherwood honey, Greek wild thyme honey, and French lavender and acacia honey.
There are three forms of honey, liquid, partially crystallized and granulated. Honey can be used as a food, preservative, or medicine. As a food, honey is rich in fructose, sucrose and glucose, making it a natural source of energy. Its antioxidant properties make it ideal as a preservative in foods, including meat, poultry and pastry. For about 4,000 years, honey has been used as a medicine.

The ancient Egyptians used it for the treatment of wounds. Today it is also used to treat burns and skin ulcers. As a dressing on wounds, it provides a moist healing environment. Honey rapidly clears infection and reduces inflammation. Honey kills bacteria and prevents yeast infections because neither can survive in its low moisture content. Thus wounds are protected from infections and they heal quicker, making skin grafting unnecessary.

Honey diluted with water has been used to treat sore throats and coughs, inflammations, some eye diseases, athlete’s foot and fungal diseases, upset stomachs, constipation and diarrhea, cardiovascular disease and cancer. It is also effective against antibiotic-resistant bacteria, such as salmonella, and H. pylori, which cause stomach ulcers.

Honey is used extensively in the cosmetics industry in moisturizers, lotions, facial creams and bath and shower products. It is an anti-irritant, making it suitable for sensitive-skin and baby products. Honey is a natural humectant, which means it both attracts and retains moisture. Many hair care products include honey in their basic ingredients.

There are some downsides to honey. Commercially processed honey is filtered and contains few allergens. Raw honey, on the other hand, retains a greater amount of pollens and may cause a reaction in people who are allergic to pollen. The reactions are usually small, but severe reactions, although rare, have occurred.

There are also several types of honey which are toxic to humans. Bees can produce “Mad Honey” from rhododendrons, mountain laurels and azalea flowers. The nectar of these plants sometimes contains grayanotoxin, which is poisonous to humans but harmless to bees. Toxic honey also results when bees gather honeydew produced by vine hopper insects feeding on the tutu plant in New Zealand. This introduces poisonous tutin into the honey and as little as one teaspoon of this can produce severe effects or death in humans. To reduce the risk of tutin poisoning, New Zealand beekeepers are required to closely monitor tutu, vine hopper, and foraging conditions within three kilometers of their bee hives.

In addition, honey isn’t for everybody. It contains Clostridium botulinum spores which cause botulism. While adults and children can safely digest the spores without harm, babies under one year of age cannot. They are susceptible to infant botulism, because their gastrointestinal tracts are not fully working.

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Honey is very beneficial to us, especially when it is organic honey, un-filtered and raw. It is commonly used to heal burns and ease throat colds because it has many healing properties and can be used in many recipes and to sweeten foods and beverages. In addition to its antimicrobial qualities, it also can prevent scarring, and speed up the healing of tissue for diabetics wounds or sores. Diabetes typically worsens ulcers by making it more difficult for the body to heal and replace infected or dead tissue with healthy skin.

Natural state means it is untouched and not processed, so it comes directly from mother nature. Organic honey is free of preservatives, additives, and artificial colors or flavors and it is good for your body. Honey cannot be labeled certified organic if it has traces of chemicals, drugs or antibiotics and it must be produced, processed, and packaged in accordance with national or federal regulations. It also needs to be certified organic by the governing body or an independent organic farming certification organization.

Honeybees that live and collect nectar in clean colonies free of contaminants are the ones that produce the truly organic honey. Honeybee colonies are about 2 mile radius from their beekeepers location. This means that honeybees could easily pick up contaminants, such as chemicals, drugs and antibiotics in their environment around their colonies.

For example, to reduce diseases in honeybees that gather nectar, antibiotics and chemicals such as sulfa compounds are used by many beekeepers. Also carbolic acid is used to easily remove the honey from the hive. In some instances, even calcium cyanide is used by beekeepers to kill the bee colonies before extracting the honey. Honeybees living in non-organic colonies gather nectar from areas that have been sprayed with pesticides and other chemicals.

Therefore, to produce truly organic honey first the honeybees need to be in an environment free of additives and chemicals. Second its processing must be kept to a minimum and no additives should be used. When you filter honey you remove its beneficial properties and you can ultimately change the color, and the taste, which can affect your recipe or delay healing.

The most pure form is the unfiltered raw honey because filtering and processing includes adding other syrups and flavors and chemicals to modify its properties. During filtering and processing, most of the benefits are lost including its healing and antimicrobial properties. Even though it is put through ultra-filtration processes to remove chemicals, the end results is honey that no longer has its healing properties because it has been heavily diluted with water, boiled and filtered until it returns to a more natural consistency.

One of the advantages of authentic organic honey is that organic honeybee growers need to sustain the natural life cycle of bees by safeguarding their natural environment. Also, certifying the hive as organic is expensive so most beekeepers do not exterminate the bees at the end of the season, which is often a very common practice among conventional beekeepers.

Bees are very essential insects because worldwide, they provide pollination service which is very important to agriculture and biodiversity conservation.  Aside pollination, bees also provide hive products which are nutritious and medicinal such as honey, royal jelly, beebread, propolis, wax and many more.  Most people however perceive all bees to be stinging and dangerous. This is entirely not the case because there are some bees which are harmless and very friendly to the extent that they could be kept on porches, study rooms, etc.  These bees are known as Stingless Bees.

Stingless bees also known as Meliponines are a group of bees with non-functional stings.  They are tropical bees of African origin which have dispersed to other tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world.  There are about 500 species of stingless bees, and they are the only highly social bees aside the common honeybees (Apis mellifera L.).  Stingless bees usually live in permanent colonies that consist of the queen and the drone as the reproductives and hundreds or thousands of workers (depending on the species).

The colonies are found in all forms of nest with the most common being in tree cavities. A few species however build underground nests and some also build exposed nests surrounded by hard and brittle layers, hanging over tree branches in the air.  The bees use all forms of materials including resin, sand particles, excrement, etc in building their nests, which are waterproof and highly resistant to predators.

Even though stingless bees have non-functional stings, they have various and efficient means of defence within and without their nests.  Some species adopt aggressive ways of external defence like biting, releasing caustic mandibular secretions, unpleasant oduors and irritating by crawling into eyes and ears of intruders.  The most external tactic of defence of the bees is making their nests invisible.  Internally stingless bees use a substance known as propolis to embalm intruders.

Stingless bees and pollination

The transfer of pollen grains to the stigma of flowers thus pollination is very crucial for plant reproduction and therefore, seed and fruit production.  Plants depend on agents called pollinators to effect pollination.  Bees constitute the principal pollinators, ensuring the survival of many plant species including plants that provide food security to innumerable rural households.

Most species of stingless bees exhibit some characteristics that enhance their potential as pollinators.  The bees are polylectic or generalist flower visitors, visiting and adapting to a broad range of plant species.  They also demonstrate floral constancy whereby the workers visit only one plant species on a single trip.  Floral constancy is linked with pollinator efficiency because the collection and deposition of a mixture of pollen from two or more plant species tends to contaminate the stigma with the wrong pollen.

Meliponiculture (stingless beekeeping)

Transferring stingless bee colonies into artificial nests boosts the potential of the bees for crop pollination because the hives could be transported where and when needed for pollination.  Stingless bees were kept by man centuries ago but unlike Central and South America and parts of Asia, the practice did not evolve in Africa.  Currently in Africa, meliponiculture exists only in Tanzania and Angola on small to medium scale.  Stingless bee honey in Africa is mostly harvested destructively from feral colonies.

Stingless bee keeping has some advantages over honeybee keeping. For instance the colony could last permanently as long as no damaging disaster occurs, by replacing the old queen with a virgin queen.  Also stingless bee queens and workers generally tend to live longer that of the honeybees.  Aside the longevity of their colonies and castes, stingless bees have not yet been found to be affected by the disease and the Varroa mite problems that are plaguing the honeybee keeping industry.  In addition stingless bees do not sting making them the golden and friendliest bees of the world. The stingless attribute also makes them harmless to man and therefore easy to handle and manage. This means that stingless bees could be kept as close as possible to our homes, on the porches, backyard gardens, and study rooms etc as pets. Thus stingless bees are the only pets that provide additional benefits of pollination, honey and other hive products to enjoy.

Stingless bee hive products

The hive products of Stingless just as that of the common honeybees include honey, propolis, pollen (beebread) and wax.  The hive products, some of which have antioxidant, antimicrobial and antifungal properties have been used in the food and cosmetic industries as well as in medicine.  Stingless bee honey has a higher medicinal value than that of A. mellifera.  It is either taken in its pure form or as a component in both in traditional (including herbal extracts especially in Africa) or conventional medicines.

Threats to stingless bees

In recent times bee population densities are declining below points of sustaining pollination services in both agro and natural ecosystems.  This decline is as a result of habitat loss, land management practices, agricultural and industrial chemicals among others.  Most feral bees and for that matter stingless bees require safe and undisturbed habitats for nesting and foraging.  The elimination of these resources by lumber exploitation, clearing of natural vegetation, wild bushfires, land degradation, literally starve and kill the bees. 

Most pesticides and other chemicals used in agriculture also kill bees directly, decreasing their populations significantly.  Stingless bees are particularly affected by these threats especially in Africa where meliponiculture is virtually non-existent.  This is further exacerbated by the destructive harvesting of the stingless bee honey from the wild colonies.

There is the need for more research and education on stingless bees, their importance and the need for meliponiculture as means of conserving this very important resource; the stingless bees.

Beekeeping as a hobby can have many benefits.  This article will show you some of the many benefits that becoming a beekeeper can have.

Learn how beekeeping can improve both your life and the lifes of others.Help Pollinate the World’s PlantsBees are responsible for pollination a large number of the world’s plants including many crops.

Beekeepers are becoming increasing important to making sure that plants get pollinated as the world’s wild bee populations continue to decline.Relieve Your Stress With A Beekeeping HobbyBeekeeping has been known to be a stress relieving activity.

Beekeeping is very similar to gardening in many ways and simply being out in nature and enjoying what you are doing can be a great way to reduce stress in your life.Improve Your Health Through BeekeepingYou can use the products such as beeswax and honey that are produced by your beekeeping efforts to improve your health.

Pure honey is well known as having many health benefits and the best part is that the honey you make will be much fresher and purer than any that you could buy in a store.Create Bee Gifts For Your Friends and FamilyOnce you start to get results from your beekeping efforts, the beeswax and honey that you have produced will make great gifts for your friends and family.

You can make cosmetics, candles and bottles of honey.If you are interested in learning more about how to become a beekeeper, visit http://www.thebeekeeper.info – A Complete Web Resource For Beekeeping Beginners

For most of us, modern life has evolved far away from our roots in nature. Most of us live and work in a man-made, artificial environment. Very few of us have the advantage of working in a natural setting, and few of us even have the privilege of communing with nature on a regular basis.

 And yet, in spite of the barriers of modern civilization, which reduce our contact with the natural world, we all recognize the importance of nature. For the natural world is the bedrock upon which our artificial world of modern civilization rests. Though we may exist in an entirely artificial environment – leaving our air-conditioned homes to travel in air-conditioned vehicles to and from our workplace cubicle – we are just as dependent upon the workings of nature as a 17th century farmer who had to sweat in the sun and grub in the dirt for his living.

 For many of us, finding a way of reconnecting with nature provides a counterweight to the artificiality of modern life, giving a balance to our lives that seems missing without some means of communing with nature. Gardening and camping are examples of popular activities that provide an interface with nature. Another such activity that unfortunately is often overlooked is beekeeping.

 Beekeeping provides an intimate connection with nature. Watching your bees as they explode in population in the spring as they prepare for the summer’s honey production, and then winding down in the fall, ready to face the winter with the stores they’ve industriously accrued, is endlessly fascinating, no matter how many times you’ve watched the cycle repeated. And fortunately, it’s not necessary to live in the country to enjoy the hobby of beekeeping. Hundreds of hives are kept on the balconies and rooftops of most cities; there are even professional beekeepers whose hives are all located within the confines of a city.

 Of course, the production of honey is one of the major benefits of beekeeping. In most seasons, a well-managed hive will produce enough honey to allow its keeper to share in the bounty and still leave the hive plenty for winter stores. And the honey that the hobbyist beekeeper can produce is nothing like the over processed and over filtered substance sold as honey at most supermarkets. Those who have never tasted pure, unprocessed honey straight from the comb (or even better, still in the comb), will be truly delighted at their first taste of honey in its natural state. There is usually quite a demand for raw, local honey, providing a ready market for any beekeeper that wishes to expand the hobby into a part-time business.

 But there is more to beekeeping than the benefits that accrue directly to the beekeeper. Beekeepers – whether professionals with thousands of hives, or hobbyists with only a hive or two – also provide a critically valuable service to society. For a variety of reasons, some of which are not completely understood, feral, or wild honeybee colonies have been dying out in recent years, making beekeepers very important people. Agriculture is highly dependent upon the pollination provided by honeybees, with about a third of the food humans consume requiring pollination by bees. If the bees disappear, so does that food, making every honeybee colony – and every beekeeper – a valuable resource.

 Perhaps more than any other single activity or hobby, beekeeping offers an endlessly fascinating exposure to the workings of nature. And when considering the other benefits of beekeeping: the opportunity to produce nature’s purest and most delectable sweet, the chance to profit from the pastime for those who wish, and the important contribution made to society by those who care for such an important insect, it’s truly a shame that more people don’t pursue the intriguing hobby of beekeeping.

As honeybees buzz from blossom to blossom and back to the hive, they may be creating some of the most powerful natural ingredients effective in promoting good health. Supplying the queen bee with the nutrients she needs to outlive and outgrow the average worker bee, the bees also protect the hive from outside invaders through their steadfast work. Take advantage of all their work and promote your own health through all four ingredients created by bees: royal jelly, bee pollen, propolis and honey. Read on to learn more about how these ingredients may improve your daily and overall health.

Royal Jelly

Live like a queen! Royal jelly is produced by the worker bees solely to feed the queen bee, resulting in impressive longevity and reproductive capabilities in the queen. By taking this natural elixir, many people have laid claim to an enhanced physical condition, with claims of increased energy and the ability to fight off infection. In addition, the enjoyment of many other benefits is commonly noted, such as asthma, cholesterol, depression, high blood pressure, arthritis, and diabetes.

This magical creation of the worker bees cannot be recreated by humans, thus, like the queen bee, we must rely on them for its production. A natural source of many essential nutrients that are needed for our bodies to maintain good health, Royal Jelly is a liquid made up of approximately 67% water. To minimize the risk of contamination likely in such a state, it needs to be processed within a few hours of removal from the hive, a method that may include treating the product with a chemical preservative, freeze-drying the product, combining it with a natural preservative such as honey, or freezing or refrigerating it. If Royal Jelly is lyophilized, or freeze-dried, the quality of the nutrients is not affected. In fact, this process preserves the nutritional viability for up to four years and reduces the possibility of contamination during the encapsulating and bottling process, whereas Royal Jelly in its liquid state must remain frozen or refrigerated to avoid contamination.

Rich in B vitamins, fatty acids, folic acids, aspartic acid (for optimum tissue regeneration), amino acids, minerals and natural hormones, royal jelly provides many harmonizing health benefits throughout the human body.

Bee Pollen

Yet another product from the hands of worker bees, bee pollen has been coined “The Food of the Gods” for its superb health benefits and nutritional composition. Within the blossom of a plant, the stamen produces male seed, or pollen, which is collected by bees using their tongue and mandibles, transferred to their second pair of legs as a now-sticky substance, and stored on their body and legs for transport back to the hive. Commercially, mesh wire substitutes for the small chambers in the hive used for collection of honey and pollen. As the bees fly into the hives through small openings in the wire, the pollen is scraped from their legs and falls into a tray which can be removed by the beekeeper for collection. The pollen is often kept in its pure form after the removal of any foreign particles, packaged and then frozen. Pollen can also be consumed in capsule form, which extends its shelf life, usually 3 or 4 years, but, if processed correctly, the pollen loses none of its wonderful nutritional composition.

Vitamins C, A, and E, carotenoids, folic acid, B vitamins, collagen, lecithin (often associated with weight control), amino acids, rutin (a strong antioxidant), and minerals such as magnesium, calcium manganese, and copper all combine to form this complete food. Some believe that life can sustain itself solely on consumption of pollen and water. As for its apparent health benefits, the list is long: increased energy, weight loss, antibiotic properties, controlling asthma, immune system enhancement, regulation of prostate diseases, desensitization toward effects of hay fever, stress reducer and regulation of the digestive system.

When considering where your bee pollen comes from, choose domestic pollen, which is plentiful. Imported bee pollen, often from China, may be procured from unregulated facilities, increasing the likelihood of contaminants in the granules.

Propolis

Considered by many to be nature’s antibiotic, Propolis, created by honeybees from a resinous material in tree bark and leaves, protects the beehive against infection and any foreign organisms. For centuries, humans have used propolis for the same purposes – to fight infections – but also to increase energy and to promote healing.

Quite different than other products created by bees, propolis can be applied externally, as well as taken orally. Using its antibiotic properties, propolis can be applied to cuts and other skin abrasions to sterilize the wound. It is also taken orally as a natural alternative to more modern pharmaceuticals, such as penicillin and other antibiotics. Sporting another advantage over conventional medicines, propolis has shown an ability to maintain its effectiveness, while many antibiotics become ineffective as viruses and bacteria build immunity against them.

The nutritional content of propolis is as varied as that of pollen and royal jelly. It is rich in amino acids and bioflavonoids, promoting healthy immune systems. It also has a high vitamin content, consisting of all known vitamins, except Vitamin K. And it contains fourteen of the 15 minerals required by our bodies for normal function.

Again, being similar to other products from the hive, propolis is associated with promoting healthy body systems. It has been shown to fight against allergies, skin irritations, oral irritations (such as canker sores), respiratory illnesses, fatigue, inflammations and the everyday cold and flu.

To process propolis for human consumption, some will package it raw and freeze it, or the active ingredients can be removed and added to water or alcohol through a specific process, resulting in a liquid form or a dried and capsulated product. Due to its effectiveness, propolis may soon be available in many more products.

Honey

We are all familiar with honey, often thinking of it only as a natural sweetener. But like other products from the hive, it may have many medicinal qualities, including the ability to treat infection and provide energy more quickly than sugar. While sugar is made up of sucrose, honey contains glucose and fructose. Because all carbohydrates must be converted to glucose before our bodies can absorb them, honey, being made of glucose, is more easily converted to energy for our bodies, providing a quicker source of get-up-and-go than other carbs.

In addition to glucose and fructose, honey contains a large array of nutrients like its sister products from the hive, including vitamin A, C, D, E, K and the complete line of B-complex vitamins, minerals, amino acids, betacarotene and antioxidants. As J.S. Taylor notes in the book “Power of the Beehive”, “Bee pollen and propolis enzymes are present in even the purest of raw honey. These possess anti-viral and antibacterial properties that work from within the honey to sterilize wounds and assist healing.” The list of known nutritional benefits from honey keeps growing.

Reap the benefits from the work of thousands of honeybees by taking bee products daily and potentially increase your chances of maintaining an overall good state of health.

Honey use and production has a long and varied history. In many cultures, honey has associations that go beyond its use as a food. It appears in literature, religion, linguistics, folk belief and is frequently a talisman and symbol of sweetness. The main uses of honey are in cooking, baking, as a spread on breads, as an addition to various beverages such as tea and as a sweetener in commercial beverages. It is the main ingredient in the alcoholic beverage mead, which is also known as “honey wine” or “honey beer” (although it is neither wine nor beer). It is also used as an adjunct in beer. It is a sweet fluid produced by honey bees and derived from the nectar of flowers. It gets its sweetness from the fructose and glucose, has attractive chemical properties for baking and a distinctive flavour which leads some people to prefer it over sugar and other sweeteners.It contains Carbohydrates (Sugars and Dietary fibre), Fat, Protein, Water, Vitamins B2 (Riboflavin), B3 (Niacin), B5 (Pantothenic acid), B9 (Folate), B6 and C, Calcium, Iron, Magnesium, Phosphorus, Potassium, Sodium and Zinc. It is a mixture of sugars and other compounds. With respect to carbohydrates, honey is mainly fructose (about 38.5%) and glucose (about 31.0%). Honey’s remaining carbohydrates include maltose, sucrose, and other complex carbohydrates. It also contains tiny amounts of several compounds thought to function as antioxidants, including chrysin, pinobanksin, vitamin C, catalase, and pinocembrin. The specific composition of any batch of honey will depend largely on the mix of flowers available to the bees that produced the honey.Its collection is an ancient activity. Eva Crane The Archaeology of Beekeeping (1983) states that humans began hunting for honey at least 10,000 years ago. She evidences this with a cave painting in Valencia, Spain. The painting is a Mesolithic rock painting, showing two female honey-hunters collecting honey and honeycomb from a wild bee hive. In Ancient Egypt, honey was used to sweeten cakes and cookies, and was used in many other dishes. Ancient Egyptian and Middle-Eastern people also used honey for embalming the dead. In the Roman Empire, honey was possibly used instead of gold to pay taxes. Pliny the Elder devotes considerable space in his book Naturalis Historia to the bee and honey, and its many uses. The fertility god of Egypt, Min, was offered honey. In some parts of post-classical Greece, like Rhodes, it was formerly the custom for a bride to dip her fingers in honey and make the sign of the cross before entering her new home.Honey in the Bible. The Old Testament contains many references to honey. In The Book of Judges, Samson found a swarm of bees and honey in the carcass of a lion (14:8). In Matthew 3:4, John the Baptist is said to have lived for a long period of time in the wilderness on a diet consisting of locusts and wild honey. The book of Exodus famously describes the Promised Land as a “land flowing with milk and honey”.In Jewish tradition, honey is a symbol for the New Year—Rosh Hashana. At the traditional meal for that holiday, apple slices are dipped in honey and eaten to bring a sweet new year. Some Rosh Hashana greetings show honey and an apple, symbolizing the feast. In some congregations, small straws of honey are given out to usher in the New Year.In Islam, there is an entire Surah in the Qur’an called al-Nahl (the Honey Bee). According to hadith, Prophet Muhammad strongly recommended honey for healing purposes. The Qur’an also promotes honey as a nutritious and healthy food.In Buddhism, honey plays an important role in the festival of Madhu Purnima, celebrated by Buddhists in India and Bangladesh. The day commemorates Buddha’s making peace among his disciples by retreating into the wilderness. The legend has it that while he was there, a monkey brought him honey to eat. On Madhu Purnima, Buddhists remember this act by giving honey to monks. The monkey’s gift is frequently depicted in Buddhist art.In Western culture the word “honey”, along with variations like “honey bun” and “honey pot” and the abbreviation “hon”, has become a term of endearment. In many children’s books bears are depicted as eating honey, (e.g. Winnie the Pooh) even though most bears actually eat a wide variety of foods, and bears seen at beehives are usually more interested in bee larvae than honey. In some European languages even the word for ‘bear’ (e.g. in Russian ‘medvéd’, in Czech ‘medved, in Hungarian medve, in Croatian ‘medvjed’) is derived from the noun which means ‘honey’ and the verb which means ‘to eat’. Honey is sometimes sold in bear-shaped jars or squeeze bottles.Because of its unique composition and the complex processing of nectar by the bees which changes its chemical properties, honey is suitable for long term storage and is easily assimilated even after long preservation. History knows examples of honey preservation for decades, and even centuries. A number of special prerequisites are, however, necessary to achieve these conservation periods. It includes sealing the product in vessels of chosen material, kept in a favourable environment of specific humidity, temperature, etc. One example is the natural process of bees sealing of the honey in honeycomb cells with wax caps. Acacia honey is known to be more resistant to crystallization.Traditionally honey was preserved in deep cellars and stored in ceramic or wooden containers; however glass is now the favoured material. When conventional preservation methods are applied, it is not recommended to preserve it for longer than 2-3 years. As honey has a strong tendency to absorb outside smells, it is advisable to keep it in clean, hermetically sealed vessels. It is also advisable to keep it in opaque vessels, or stored in a dark dry place, preventing it from absorbing any moisture. If excessive moisture is absorbed it can ferment. It should not be preserved in metal containers, because the acids in the honey may promote oxidation of the vessel. This leads to increased content of heavy metals, decreases the amount of nutrients, and may lead to stomach discomfort or even poisoning. Because honey has a high tendency to absorb outside smells and moisture, it is not advisable to preserve it uncovered in a refrigerator, especially together with other foods and products. Excessive heat can have detrimental effects on the nutritional value of honey. Heating up to 37Deg C causes loss of nearly 200 components, part of which is antibacterial. Heating up to 40Deg C destroys invertase, and important enzyme. Heating up to 50Dec C turns the honey into caramel (the most valuable honey sugars become analogous to sugar).For more than 2000 years, it has been used by humans to treat a variety of ailments through topical application, but only recently have the antiseptic and antibacterial properties of honey been chemically explained. Wound Gels that contain antibacterial honey and have regulatory approval for wound care are now available to help conventional medicine in the battle against drug resistant strains of bacteria MRSA. As an antimicrobial agent it may have the potential for treating a variety of ailments. Antibacterial properties are the result of the low water activity causing osmosis, hydrogen peroxide effect and high acidity.Some studies suggest that the topical use of honey may reduce odours, swelling, and scarring when used to treat wounds; it may also prevent the dressing from sticking to the healing wound. A review in the Cochrane Library suggests that honey could reduce the time it takes for a burn to heal – up to four days sooner in some cases. Antioxidants in honey have even been implicated in reducing the damage done to the colon in colitis. Such claims are consistent with its use in many traditions of folk medicine. Most micro-organisms do not grow in honey because of its low water activity.It appears to be effective in killing drug-resistant biofilms which are implicated in chronic rhinosinusitis. Topical honey has been used successfully in a comprehensive treatment of diabetic ulcers when the patient cannot use other topical antibiotics. It has also been used for centuries as a treatment for sore throats and coughs, and according to recent research may in fact be more effective than most common medicines. Mixed with lemon juice and consumed slowly, it coats the throat, alleviating discomfort. The antibacterial and antiseptic properties aid in healing sore throats and laryngitis.NB: Honey frequently contains dormant endospores of the bacterium Clostridium botulinum, which can be dangerous to infants as the endospores can transform into toxin-producing bacteria in the infant’s immature intestinal tract.A main effect of bees collecting nectar to make honey is pollination, which is crucial for flowering plants. The study of pollens and spores in raw honey can determine the floral sources of honey. Because bees carry an electrostatic charge, and can attract other particles, the same techniques of can be used in area environmental studies of radioactive particles, dust, or particulate pollution.Let’s applaud the Honey Bee…

The Original Green Material

In this day and age when the government, industry and environmentalists are calling for “Green Products” – they seem to forget there was a time when all products were Green. That time was not that long ago. If you are 59 years old (as I am) or have access to grandparents or Great-grandparents ask them what they did to live. My father said as a boy they used horse manure, cow manure and chicken litter as fertilizer and picked the bugs off of garden plants by hand and dropped them in a coffee can of kerosene to kill them. Do the words “Organic Gardening” come to mind? The reason for this was they did not have money for commercial products that did the same job. Travel was either by horse or walking - one provided the fertilizer and the other the health benefits that saw most of my Great-grandparents live to reach over 90 years of age. Heat was from wood and it was they who cut, split, stored the wood and kept the fires burning. Meat came from farm raised animals fed by some of the same farm raised crops they ate. Soap you made from animal fat and lye from the wood ashes left over from the heating and cooking fires. Medicine for the most part came from the wild plants that grew around the home and their use was handed down by word of mouth. Sweeteners came from fruit, molasses and honey. Before electricity - Water came from a well or spring and light came from oil lamps and candles. Have you seen anything yet that would not qualify as a “Green Product”? I wish to talk about “Green Products” you can still make and use today that will have the virtues of the products of my Great-grandparents day. You will control the factory that makes the products and its quality. The factory is called a honeybee hive. In my Great-grandparents day either a bee tree was found or a swarm of honeybees was captured and put in a nail keg (called a bee gum) or a home made wooden box to be the source of the hive products. Today there are wooden hives that allow for the products to be removed without destroying the hive or the bees. The original method meant the bee tree was cut down at night (the days before smokers, bee suits and veils that cost money) or the bee box – nail keg open at night because honey bees will not fly after sunset unless it is to a light near the hive. (Usually they crawl at night in your shirt, pants etc. when you don’t pay attention) The part of the hive with the honeybee brood in it was reinstalled in a bee box – nail keg and the remaining bees and queen were eager to go into the container to save the brood. The comb with the honey was brushed free of bees and put in a big pan or pans to take back home where the process of storing the honey could be completed. You could get 20 to 100 pounds of honey depending on how long the hive was there and the physical size of the hive. (I have seen hives in the side of old houses without insulation in the walls - plenty of room for growth.) Back home the honeycomb was cut to fit (usually a gallon or half gallon wide mouth jar) and the liquid honey at the bottom of the pans poured over the cut comb and the jar closed - job finished. (After removing any unwanted items, dead bees etc.) If you wished to make candles – you would hand crush the wax comb forcing out as much of the honey as possible and this was usually put in a strainer to drain and be collected in a pan. The resulting liquid honey would have pollen, some propolis and honey from the hive. This was saved in a jar or poured over the cut comb honey. After the wax had finished draining it would then be washed in warm water to remove the remaining honey from the wax that did not drain out. This honey water could be used for baking, a sweet drink or for wine making. (In those days nothing was wasted that required work to get) The wax was put in a pot of water and heat added until the wax melted and then lightly stirred to let any trash settle out or rise to the surface where it could be removed. Let the water cool and remove the block of wax. Any dirt or trash left on the bottom of the wax can be scraped off with a knife. This process could be repeated as often as felt necessary to make a better final product. You now have the wax for your Beeswax candles. Molds and Cotton wick could be purchased for the candle making process. Or you could use a clean metal container about 10 to 12 inches tall filled with bees wax which was usually heated in a make shift double boiler to melt the wax. This is your dipping container. The wick would then be dipped in the dipping container as many times as necessary to get the desired thickness of the candle. As the wax was used up more was added until you either ran out of wax or make enough candles. If you had a mold you would center your wick in the mold and pour the melted wax into it until full. The mold with the bees wax was then allowed to cool and the wax harden. Then the candle could be pulled out of the mold. Did I forget to mention you would have to grease the inside of the mold to be able to pull the candle out? A little trial and error was always present. Honeybee Wax could be used to make salves, furniture polish, chewing gum, water-proofing paper (like wax paper) and as a lubricant for sticky drawers. The wax had soothing properties for a sore throat and would help open a stuffy nose when chewed. A salve could be made using lard and beeswax. The herb of choice would be heated in the lard and after a suitable time drained through a cloth filter to remove the solids. This lard extract would then be heated with wax added and melted until (with testing) you got the finished product to the desired hardness. This honeybee wax cost nothing but the time it took to process it into a product you had a need for and you knew what was in it.Honey was the sweetener brought to you by Mother Nature’s insect herbalist. Honey poured over fresh mint and left for 6 weeks gives you a honey flavored peppermint patty taste. Medicinal honey was made the same way with the herb of choice used instead of the mint (which is good for digestion). Just think – no doctors, no prescriptions, no drug companies and no FDA just the results you want and the cost is your time. Honey has been used as a medicine before the Romans even dreamed of creating medicine. How To Create Your Own “Green Factory”To create your own “Green Factory” you first do the research by finding a local honeybee club or Beekeeper to help you get started. Most if not all states have a State Apiarist. Find the phone number and he or she can get you in touch with a local club. Everyone there will be more than willing to help you with information. Talk to 10 different Beekeepers and you will get 10 different ways to do the same thing and most likely all 10 will be right. This is a job where what works for one may not work for another. The reasons are varied because of the location of the hives, the race of the honeybees and your thoughts on the subject. The equipment needed can be made by you, purchased from bee companies like “The Walter T. Kelly Company” and “Dadant & Sons” or a complete hive and equipment purchased from a retiring beekeeper. A good reference to have is “The Hive and The Honeybee” from Dadant & Sons. You can also go real basic and create your own Kenya hive. These are all decisions to be made by the President of your “Green Factory”.A solar wax melter is the easiest way to convert honeybee comb into solid beeswax blocks for making your candles. A Pierce Thermostat Knife is a good way to cut the cappings off of the honeycomb so you can use an extractor to spin the honey out of the comb. This way you can put the comb back into the hive, still have wax cappings for your candles and liquid honey for storage and use. Here again it is decision time for the President of your “Green Factory”. How Do You want to run your “Green Factory”? The decision is yours.About Me My Wife and I started our website at http://Jamersonscrafts.com where we sell handrolled beeswax candles and other crafts we make. I also have a blog at http://naturalbeekeeping.blogspot.com where I give a running account of how I started in natural bee keeping, the results good and bad, what I do and how I do it.

I hope I have given anyone who would like to do this a starting point. Where you take it – is your Green Decision. Best Wishes & Good Luck Paul Jamerson

The topbar beehive is not a new concept. Historical reference to the top-bar hive date back to the 1600′s. Most of today’s top bar bee hives are derived from work in the 1960′s. It was perfected for use in Kenya, Africa, and is often referred to as the Kenya Hive. Today it is also used in many other developing countries for it’s simple design and cost effective management methods. In recent years it has also become more popular in the United States.
The traditional Langstroth beehive consists of several boxes (supers) and numerous other parts that are either difficult to build or expensive to buy. In addition to the beehive, the Langstroth hive requires many other pieces of equipment to harvest honey and manage your bees. Not so with the top bar hive as you can read below.
Simple and Maintenance-Free
The top bar hive has only a few components: the hive body (box), 20 to 30 top bars (frames), and a lid. That’s all you will ever need. Compare that to your Langstroth hive. Bees build their own comb which eliminates the need for costly frames. The top bars are re-used after the harvest.
Non-Invasive Design
The top bar hive is healthier for bees. To check your bees, you will not have to take the whole thing apart. Hence, your bees will be less disturbed by your presence and checking of the comb.
Easy Harvest
To harvest your honey, you simply remove the bars with honeycomb. Unlike traditional methods, you won’t have to take the hive apart and disturb the bees as much. Not only is the top bar hive less stressful to harvest for you, it also does not disturb the bees as much. In addition to honey, the top bar hive has more beeswax to harvest. You also do not need a honey extractor/centrifuge or uncapping knife which saves you thousands of dollars. Smoking is completely unnecessary and many top bar hive users do not wear protective clothing either. (For the beginner I do advise to use some kind of protection, gloves and veil as the minimum!) Once you remove the honey comb, the bees will go about their business as usual. Try that on a Langstroth hive.
Healthier Bees
The top bar hive is designed for the bees’ optimal living conditions. This makes a colony much stronger and enables it to fight off pests and diseases on their own, much better than in a Langstroth hive. Besides healthier bees this will save you hundreds of dollars in medication as well as disappointment.
Why doesn’t everyone use top bar hives?
The top bar hive is not designed for maximum honey production, although there have been reports otherwise. For the hobby beekeeper a few pounds less honey are well worth the ease of management. You will harvest more beeswax with a top bar hive though. Any hobbyist should have more of an interest in keeping healthy bees than in squeezing out a few more pounds of honey from a stressed, overworked colony. With just one top bar hive, you will still have more than enough honey for your whole family and friends.