Should of done wonders for aches and pains.
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I grabbed a swarm about 2’ over my head from a guy’s driveway. He told me they were there just a day but had been there 4 days and he had sprayed them with a garden hose alot. I was going to just shake them into an apple box so I just pulled a veil on w/o tying it. Dropped those dry pissed off wet bees right down the front of my shirt. My wife pulled 200 stingers out of me that night, felt a little punk the next day but was real nimble the rest of the summer!!
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Love all your bee stories! Fascinating! I always fantasize about keeping bees, I love raw honey!
Can you find out if you are allergic to bee sting without being stung by a one?
Do you need to check on bees regularly? Can you leave bees unattended for 2-3 weeks at time, say like if you gong on vacation?
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Sara. When I get involved in a new hobby I go way overboard with attention and I did check on the bees regularly. Once I learned how to manage them I backed off and yes they can be left alone for for weeks and sometimes months at a time. One of the most critical times for bees is early spring. They are building up their numbers to take advantage of what we call a honey flow and to possibly swarm (their way of expanding colonies). This occurs when no nectar is available and they can run out of food with no way to replenish it. My answer to this problem was to leave plenty of stored honey in the hive going into the fall season. Others supplement the hive with sugar water. With all this being said I enjoyed queen rearing as much or more than producing honey. Bill
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This will be a big swarm season here because the winter was mild and the flowers are plenty. I’ve caught one swarm already and hope to catch more soon.
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Bill, thanks for the info!
One of these days, I will get a little farm, and have my own bees!
Queen rearing sounds interesting, I am sure it requires a lot of experience.
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Me too!
I’ve always fancied out loud that I wanted to live in a little farm so I can raise chickens, ducks and bees. But my fancies always got busted with a vote down from wifey! She’s not very fond of chickens, duck nor BEEs.
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Today I had something both nice and troubling happen and I want to share it and get some feedback.
A local farmer who owns the property directly across the road from me stopped his truck when he saw me in my orchard. He said he heard that I was getting into bee keeping (ah…small town rumor mills!) and he said he had some semi bad news but he wanted me to know as soon as possible. He said that he has a crop he grows in several other locations that he is about to start growing across from me- CANOLA. He said that he has no experience with bees and has only been growing canola for 2 years, but he has heard that it is a very mixed blessing to bee keepers and some hate it so he thought I should know. According to him, the good news is that bees feeding on canola produce huge amounts of honey- more than double the amount of bees left to forage on wild things. Having seen it growing at other sites in the area, I can attest to the beauty of it- acres and acres of bright yellow flowers- so I can see how it could really be a source for large amounts of pollen.
However, the big problem he said he had heard is that the honey from canola-fed bees crystallizes extremely fast- so fast that it sometimes crystallizes before you can take it out of the hive. He said the honey would still be good, but it would have to be heated when used.
I’ve done a little web reading since he told me all this an hour ago, and what I’ve seen seems to go along with what he told me. But I really want to hear from you guys, so please let me know if you have any experience with canola and bees and if so, is the increased production worth the crystallization problem?
THanks.
(BTW…I know lots of people say canola also has a bad smell, especially at harvest, but I’m not concerned about that aspect.
Kevin, I know nothing about canola and bees, just want to say that as a consumer of raw honey, crystallized honey is not a problem to me at all. I actually prefer crystallized raw honey, and I don’t heat it up when I use it.
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That means a lot to me, Sara. It really does. I have to say that when I have old honey that has crystallized I don’t care for it- but maybe that’s just because I only use honey on biscuits and similar uses, and it doesn’t work well for that if it has crystals. I suspect you are using it as a sweetener and/or in recipes, etc. SO its really nice to hear that some people have no problem with crystallized honey! Thanks.
No canola is grown where I am, but I wouldn’t worry at all about quick crystallization. You’re only going to have a few hives. If canola forage is that great, then your honey supers will fill quickly. Then you’ll have reason as new beek to pull and extract more often.
Fall honey also crystallizes quickly compared to spring honey. The everyday honey sold in the grocery stores would probably crystallize before it was sold if it weren’t heated beyond warming and highly filtered prior to packaging.
My own honey crystallizes in its jars because it is not super filtered and not heat treated. If you wind up selling some of your honey to individuals as time goes on, there are ways to convincingly market quick crystallizing honey in a positive way. Really, crystallization is not a bad thing to the backyard beekeeper.
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You guys are making me feel better all the time- THANKS! I can’t imagine ever getting beyond a few hives or selling any honey, but I would like to give it to friends and family and I was afraid this would make it highly unattractive to everyone. Nice to hear it won’t. Also, from what you said, Muddy, it sounds like it I end up being extremely unhappy with the canola honey I might be able to heat and/or filter it to a point that would make it resist crystalizing- at least for a longer time period. Right? Either way, thanks to you both for telling me that my bee keeping dreams won’t be ruined by a nearby canola crop!
The more highly it’s filtered, meaning through smaller and smaller screening, the less rapidly it will crystallize. Particles suspended in the honey give a base for crystals to start forming. In fact, you can buy starters of very finely crystallized honey to add to your own in order to produce “creamed” honey.
Honey contains fructose and glucose. The higher the proportion of glucose from the collected nectar, the more quickly it will crystallize. That’s why the honey from some plants crystallizes much more quickly.
Yes, heating your honey will also delay crystallization, but there are trade offs. When you preheat it high enough to cause a significant delay, you are also destroying some natural enzymes in there. However, if you have honey in a jar that has crystallized, and you prefer the liquid version for your biscuits, just set that jar in a pot of warm water and allow it to slowly warm to a point where it is once again liquid. As long as you totally liquefy the honey, it will stay that way for quite some time. If you only do it part way, say just enough to take what you want, then it will recrystallize even more than before, because you will have skewed the ratio of the remainder toward an even greater proportion of glucose.
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@tomIL: Well, wife rules. Whatever she says goes.
@thecityman: from my experience, crystallized raw honey is still soft unlike the old commercial honey that can be hard as rock. Unfiltered and unheated raw honey preserves the special fragrance and taste of the flower source, once you taste it, you would not want to go back to the heated and filtered one.
Muddy, you really know your raw honey 
Many including myself consider crystal honey to be excellent. My big concern would be if it actually crystallizes in the comb and is it going to be in a form that the bees can use it as a food source during the winter months. Bill
well, now you guys have gone from reassuring me to fascinating me. When I think of crystallized honey I thought we were talking about the kind of thing I mentioned…the honey left in a jar for a long time which sort of turned to sugar- a hard, crunchy mess. Sort of like what Muddy described, and I’ve used the warm water soak before to re-liquify it. But I can’s see how Bill or Sara could possibly ENJOY that (the hard, crunch, sugar-like stuff). But then you all gave a description of what I thought was called “spun” honey or creamed honey. Are those things the same as crystallized honey? Sorry I’m slow…this is very interesting and clearly you guys know honey. I can get why people would like the “creamed honey” but not why anyone would like the hard, crunchy stuff that I thought crystallized honey is. Thanks
Creamed honey is a crystallized honey. Regular liquid honey is seeded with small smooth crystals of honey to start the process. You probably know that crystals build on one another, repeating the pattern of the first ones. By seeding with the very fine honey crystals, and encouraging them to multiply rapidly, you wind up with a creamy, easy to spread, honey. Plus, you don’t destroy enzymes or flavors.
I found a link that can help you understand the natural crystallization that honey undergoes. There’s even a list of some nectar sources and the relative speed with which honey made from them will crystallize.
Kevin,
Muddy explained crystallization of honey so well!
This is a picture of my raw honey. The thickness is like peanut butter, you can use it as spread.
I had never considered this, can bees use honey if it crystallizes in the comb?
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