Archive for February 2012
The Organic Honey
Article by Mari Manalo
The honey farming beekeeper is extremely careful with his beekeeping equipment. Bee farmers who produce this honey must follow a very stringent set of guidelines to ensure their produce is of the purest form. They must ensure their honey bees are a very safe distance away from any form of pollution or contamination. Some of these areas include motorways, genetically modified crops, chemically grown plants, inhabited areas like towns and cities, livestock and even rubbish tips. And a particular concern is that of the disappearing bees mystery, otherwise known as CCD.
Organic Honey Farmer
The best distance to put between any of those and their bees is a four mile radius. Their bees usually fly to pollinate plants and collect nectar within a two mile radius so you can see that a distance of four miles is good, very good indeed.
These are the reasons you will rarely find this honey in the UK. Because the UK is so densely populated there are rarely any real safe distances for the Organic beekeeper to run a honey farm.I do however, have it on good authority, that both Scottish and Cornish are excellent sources of honey, they are very good indeed.
Farming
Honey farming is quite an intricate business including the area of bees pollination so no organic beekeeper worth his salt in the farming of organic honey would dare to abuse the most stringent testing that all honey producing countries insist upon. All the equipment that is used during production must be super clean, it must be free from chemicals unless it is PCO (point of control and observation) approved and washed thoroughly with fresh hot water. This of course extends to the honey bee hives.
Healing Properties
It has so many however, only if the healthy honey itself has never been heated by more than 35 degree Celsius because its wonderful properties would be destroyed and we would not be able to benefit from eating honey. Any packaging of this honey must have labeling referring to where it came from, it must at all times be traceable.
If ever there has been an infection of any kind in the bee hives they must be de-contaminated and not used again for a minimum of one year. Because all the testing procedures are so stringent the beekeepers tend not to destroy their bees at the end of each season as others sometimes and frequently do.
After all they have spent a lot of dedicated time in ensuring their bees and equipment are of top notch quality.
The finished product is subject to the minimum of handling. Honey bees are actually great little housekeepers and do their very best to keep their hives clean with Propolis, What is Propolis?
Taste
The taste will depend upon the flowers the honey bees have collected their nectar from and can vary greatly in colour and strength. However, honey is sweet, five times sweeter than sugar and is a great sugar substitute………gosh, there are so many benefits of honey! Honey nutrition is extremely important too, so is honey good for you? it sure is. For an amazing taste in organic honey try Ulmo from Chile. This will set your taste buds tingling! Interestingly honey bees prefer blue, purple and yellow flowers!
For those of you who much prefer eating organically produced food there are some fantastic organic recipes out there and you should have no problem finding good organic food stores from which to buy. I am very happy to direct you to a super website owned and written by Rhonda, she is by far the expert in her field of certified organic food, I have enjoyed her site immensely and am sure you will too.
In fact the organic food industry is such strong business nowadays there are even organic supermarkets! Organic honey is a super-food, which can even be included on a diabetic food list although you should of course follow the guidelines of your personal diet. One of my personal favourite Organic honey’s comes from Australia where there is around 25,000,000 acres of clear areas in which to run a honey farm. This is purely my choice because it tastes like butterscotch and I do have a very sweet tooth even when enjoying the benefits of eating honey!
About the Author
Mari Manalo- A remote writer for different stories and subjects, an expert blogger and says whatever is in her mind and put it in a paper or a online blog.
Viruses Spread Varroa Mites Can Destroy a Bee Colony
Article by Thomas
Named after a Roman scholar and beekeeper, Marcus Terentius Varro, the Varroa mite is a parasitic mite first found in Southeast Asia at the beginning of the twentieth century. They have now spread to all continents but Australia. There are two types of Varroa mites, the destructor and the Jacobsoni, and both are large enough to be seen by the naked eye. They will appear as a tiny red or brown spot on the thorax of the bee.The mites feed on the bodily fluids of honey bees in their adult, pupal and larval stages and are a danger to them because they can carry viruses that are harmful to the bees. These viruses, such as the deformed wing virus and the Israel acute paralysis virus can result in deformed wings or cause colony collapse disorder. For no known reason, the viruses will cause the worker bees to suddenly disappear. Deformed wings will leave the bees unable to leave the hive to forage and may lead to the starvation of the colony. Another virus caused by the mites is the Kakugo virus, which attacks the violent guard honeybees and can cause them to become more aggressive just before the collapse of the colony.
Infection by the Varroa mites can eliminate wild bee colonies as well as apiary bee colonies. During the hive’s preparation for winter or if there is poor late summer forage, the mites can take over the bees and destroy the hive. Suddenly the colony will disappear, leaving none behind. Fortunately, some wild bee colonies seem to be recovering and it is thought that they are forming a natural resistance to the Varroa mites.The Varroa destructor mite has been called the world’s most devastating pest for Western honey bees, as most of the damage to colonies is due to them. The Varroa jacobsoni has been found not to be as harmful. Female Varroa mites are more destructive than the males. Their anatomy is well-adapted, as they have a flattened shape allowing them to fit in the abdominal segments, with claws allowing them to grasp the bee and remain attached.
Some chemical treatments are available to control the mites, such as fluvalinate, coumaphos, thymol, sucrose octanoate esters, oxalic acid and formic acid. The United States Department of Environmental Protection has advised that these chemicals must be used only as directed and then they will be effective against the mites while not harming the bees. However, they should not be used during honey production.
Mechanical controls can eliminate some mites in order to keep the infestation level down enough so as not to harm the bee colony. These can be dusting the hive with powdered sugar, so the bees will clean themselves and dislodge the mites, or using sticky screens under the nest to trap falling mites. Sticky screens are simply pieces of cardboard coated in a sticky substance and covered with wire mesh. The Varroa mites will fall through the mesh and get stuck on the sticky cardboard. Many beekeepers are trying the holistic approach to eliminate the mites rather than relying on pesticides and find that it is not only better but more economical.
About the Author
Thomas from beekeepingstarter.com submitted this article. At BeekeepingStarter.com, you can find thousands of useful tips to start beekeeping whether if you’re a newbie or a professional beekeeper.
Vital Beekeeping Information
Article by Michael V. Taylor
How do you like that piece of information repeated over and over this page and all over the place? There are a whole lot of websites and blogs talking about beekeeping. This is great actually. Sadly, that’s what you get whenever you try to search for information on beekeeping – duplicity. No other insect has been written about as much as the honey bee. As a beekeeper, there is the basic information that you need so as to get the best output for your efforts. Everything else is just, well …Fill in the blanks.
Broadly: You need to learn about the bees and their nature. Bees are incredible insects that produce honey and live in large units called colonies. They are essentially social insects and very industrious like the ants and hence the term ‘busy bee’. There are three types of bees; the worker bees, the drones, and the queen. Each of these has a very specific role in the colony. The worker bees perform most of the ‘household chores’ in the beehive like clean up, feeding the young ones, making the honey, fetching the nectar, feeding the queen, making the honey combs, guarding the hive, among others. They are sterile females and make up the majority of the population in any colony.
There’s always one queen at any given time in each colony and her role is to lay eggs (about 1500-2000 everyday) to ensure the colony’s continuity as other bees die off. She is fed on royal jelly and can live for up to 2 years. The drones are the male bees. Their primary role is to mate with the queen after which they become useless in the colony.
As a beekeeper, you need to always have protective clothing when working around your bees. You see, bees don’t really get domesticated in the sense of the word. They will not take any intrusions lightly and will in many cases attack you by delivering a painful sting which contains some venom. These multiple stings from a huge swarm could be fatal and lead to death. Ensure you have a beekeeper suit complete with gloves and boots, a hat and a veil, and even a smoker to neutralize the bees. This suit should be white in color to reduce aggression from the bees.
You need to have adequate tools and equipment to make your beekeeping experience enjoyable and fruitful. Bottom line, you will need the following: A beehive, hive tools, a smoker, bee feeders, fume boards, and excluders which help keep the queen bee intact whenever you are working around the beehive. The entire colony revolves around the queen. These are the very basic tools that any beekeeper should have, though there are other specialized tools that are available.
Get a good beekeeping guide that you can always refer to whenever you need to do the routine maintenance tasks like clean up, repairs, and even harvesting of the honey. Finally, ensure you have complied with the regulations and that you have the necessary licenses to practice beekeeping.
His newest book,”The Ultimate Beekeeping Guide,” teaches Beekeepers everything they need to know about Beekeeping Information and caring for their bees.
http://www.keystobees.com/
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