MERRY CHRISTMAS

Thanks to everyone who has visited our blog this year, we hope you have enjoyed it.  In January we will continue to share interesting and fun things with you about our favorite little friends.  Please continue to join us throughout the year for more info, recipes, pictures, links and what-nots.

New Recipes!

Check our Recipe page for these two new yummy treats.

                                 
 Nut & Honey                      Holiday Honey
 Topping                                      Caramels        

Gift Giving Ideas

 A Honey Gift Bag or Basket makes a great gift.  They are fun, practical and creative.  Personalizing them for your family and friends makes them a well remembered, healthy, heartfelt gift. 

You can make them any size with anything in them.  There are a variety of honey and bee related items to make it a bee themed gift.  Try honey soap, honey butter, honey sticks, dippers, honey candy, beeswax candles, different varieties of honey and a card with your favorite honey recipe.  Add an ornament or decoration for Christmas, add chocolate candy for valentines, a baby toy for a new mom, a book for a reader, bible verses for your Sunday school teacher.  Do you know a football fanatic, put honey, salsa and chips together,
the list is endless.

A favorite basket item of our customers is honey with pecans or walnuts.  If you can't find any for sell, just buy the nuts and make your own.  This is good to eat by itself and it's also a great icecream topping.

Beeswax candles are the purist burning of all candles so they are the best for the environment.  Most of the time they are sold as molded (shaped) candles, occasionally you can find them in jars.  Rolled beeswax candles are simply sheets of beeswax with a honeycomb imprint, rolled in different thicknesses and lengths.  These are used mainly for decoration as they burn much faster than a solid candle.

 Don't know what to use for a container?  Gift bags in organza drawstring bags are our best sellers, but you can really use anything.  The basket in the picture below is a simple market basket, lined with seasonal fabric.  Place a rubber band around the edge and tuck the fabric in.  One of my favorite containers to use is an open, small wooden box, antique or not.  Browse an antique store for a decorative glass bowl or a metal container, whatever suits to person receiving it.

More great reasons to give honey are that it is a natural moisturizer and an excellent throat soother.  You can also be sure that it won't be re-gifted.  Check out The National Honey Board for some wonderful honey recipes that you can make to include in your gift baskets or simply enjoy yourself.  They even have a whole section for honey recipes to use as gifts including Holiday Honey Caramels, Ginger-Infused Honey, Honey Turtle Sauce, Honey Spice Oatmeal Cookie Mix, Nut and Honey Topping and Whipped Honey Butter. 

Don't forget about the rest of the year.  A honey gift basket is also appropriate for a housewarming gift, graduations, birthdays, wedding gifts, anniversary, congratulations, get-well wishes and any other occasion you can think off.  They will be appreciated as a lovely, handcrafted gift.

Get National Honey Board - Gift Recipes here.


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Antioxidants

It is believed that consuming more antioxidant-rich foods may help protect against cellular damage and possibly prevent the development of chronic diseases. Reasearch indicates that honey includes numerous compounds with antioxidant potential. The amount and type of these antioxidant compounds depends largely upon the floral source (variety) of the honey. In general, darker honeys have been shown to be higher in antioxidant contents than lighter honeys. While the antioxidant conent of honey may not rival that of some of the more antioxidant-rich fruits and vegetables on a gram for gram basis, honey may nevertheless, provide an additional source of dietary antioxidants.


The expression "it's none of your beeswax," really means "it's none of your business." It is believed the origin stems from the time when only the wealthy could read and write. To secure written correspondence, the writer sealed the message with a dot of melted beeswax often with the family seal. Envelopes were not used at that time, so the wax seal kept letters private.

No Bake Honey Energy Bars

Tired of getting the store bought granola bars? Try these instead.

No Bake Honey Energy Bars

2/3 c honey
3/4 creamy or chunky peanut butter
4 c granola mix

In a 4-cup microwave safe container, microwave honey at HIGH (100%) for 2 to 3 minutes or until the honey boils. Stir in peanut butter, mix until thoroughly blended. Place granola in large bowl. Pour honey mixture over granola and combine thoroughly. Press firmly into 13x9x2 inch baking pan lined with wax paper. Let stand until firm. Cut into bars.

Makes 36 bars. Calories 87, carbs 14, fat 3.2, protein 2.2, sodium 48

The Natural Energy

It is no secret that athletes of all ages and abilities include honey in their training regimens.  Honey is commonly found on training tables "before the big game," made into energy drinks to drink durng exercise, or as an energy boost for athletes who have gone through the challenge of "making weight."

The benefits of carbohydrate (CHO) consumption prior to, during and following endurance exercise are well documented.  Research supports the benefit of CHO consumption prior to and during high intensity exercise of shorter durations also (examples: soccer, swimming and even resistance exercises).  Carbs eaten before and during exercise help maintain blood glucose levels and prevent premature fatigue (crashing).  After exercise, carbs are necessary to replenish muscle and liver glycogen and prepare the athlete for the next training bout.

Honey is a natural source of readily available carbohydrates providing 17 grams of carbs per tablespoon.  Honey's unique carbohydrate composition, approximately equal amounts of fructose and glucaose, may render it the perfect pre-exercise food.  Research suggests that honey is as effective as glucose for carb replacement during endurance exercise too.

Beautiful Pictures

The following photos were taken by our friend Joni Lentz Earley.  She loves her bees and takes great photos of them, it looks like they pose just for her.

These guys aren't honeybees, but all pollinators are important.

She's loves her cat too.  Thanks Joni, for sharing your pictures.

Granola, Yogurt & Honey

Crunchy Honey-Yogurt Breakfast Parfait
1 large banana, sliced, divided
1/3 cup honey, divided
1/2 cup plain yogurt, divided
1/2 cup crunchy granola, divided

Reserve several slices of banana for garnish.  Layer 1 tablespoon honey, 1/4 of the pre-sliced banana, 2 tablespoons of yogurt, 2 tablespoons granola, 1/4 of the sliced banana, 2 tablespoons yogurt, 1 tablespoon honey and 2 tablespoons granola in parfait glass.  Repeat for second parfait.  Garnish with reserved banana and honey.

Nutrition: Calories 408, Total Fat 9.4, Protein 7.6g, Cholesterol 4mg, Carbs 80, Sodium 47, Dietary Fiber 4.


This reciped was reprinted from The National Honey Board, check their website for more great recipes,                National Honey Board Recipes.

More Health Benefits

Honey and weight loss are often associated.  Why is honey a smarter choice than table sugar if you are watching your weight and what you eat?

Refined dietary sugars lack minerals and vitamins and are often called empty calories.  They draw upon the body's nutrients to be metabloized into the system, and when these nutrients are depleted, metabolizing of cholesterol and fatty acid is impeded, contributing to higher cholesterol and promoting obesity due to higher fatty acid on the organs and tissues.  The good news is that honey, a natural sweetener, contains 22 amino acids and a variety of minerals essential for its metabolism so it is helpful in preventing obesity.

If you are determined to shed weight and speed up a sluggish metabolism, try this honey and lemon tip.
It is believed that drinking lemon juice with a little honey the first thing in the morning is an effective anticellulite treatment as it helps to increase body metabolism.  Another very popular recipe associated with honey and weight loss is a drink that uses honey and cinnamon as ingredients.  Many people have found this home remedy effective in losing pounds.  It's easy to make,  just dissolve half a teaspoon of  ground cinnamon in a cup of boiling water.  Stir and cover for half an hour.  Filter any big particles and add a teaspoon of honey.  Take it in the morning with an empty stomach and about a half hour before breakfast.

For people who tend to overeat or feel discomfort in their stomach after meals, honey can be taken for better digestion.  Honey is a simple carbohydrate that one safely  takes during fasting because it contains easily digested sugars.  Foods that are rich in sugars or complexes of sugars are carbohydrates and it takes the body much longer to digest the sugar from complex carbohydrates.

This information  was found at http ://www.benefits-of-honey.com

Anatomy of a Honey Bee

The body of the honey bee is segmented: stinger, legs, antenna, three segments of thorax and six visible segments of abdomen.  

The head consists of eyes, antennas and feeding structures.  The eyes include the 2 compound eyes and the simple eye.  The compound eyes helps bees understand color, light and directional information from the sun's UV rays, while the simple eye helps in determining the amount of light present.  The antenna's function is to smell and detect odors and to measure flight speed.  The mandible is the bee's jaw, which is used in eating pollen, cutting and shaping wax, feeding larva and the queen, cleaning the hive, grooming and fighting.  The tongue allows the bee to drink nectar, honey and water.  It also functions as the medium for food exchange between the bees.

The thorax of the honey bee consists of the wings, legs and the muscles that control their movement.  The forewing, which is typically larger than the hind wing, is used for flight and as a cooling mechanism, while the latter is used to fan away heat and cool the hive.  The legs are also important to pollen transfer and propolis, a resinous mixture collected and used as a sealant in hives.

The abdomen's six segments include female reproductive organs in the queen, male reproductive organs in the drone and the stinger in both workers and queen.  The stinger is a defense mechanism which stays in the victim when used because it has barbs, and causes the bee to die.

Drones Deserve More Credit

A drone's work is never done.  Everyone knows about worker bees.  They do all the work, build the hive, fetch the pollen and nectar, take care of the babies and a lot more.  The queen has the very big and never ending task of birthing all the little bees.  Often we give the drones a hard time because other than mating with the queen, they just hang around and eat food stores.  However, they really are incredibly important, they are the carriers of the next generation.  They fly out to find queens from other colonies and pass along their genes.....thus insuring he continuity of the honey bee race, and of their particular colony.

This is what Spanish setlers first called the California Poppy.  Translated, that means "cup of gold", a term first coined in local legend and one inspired by this plant's orange petals.  It was said that as each of the petals eventually grew tired and fell, they would turn into gold as they tumbled down, changing the ground beneath into a rich, treasure-filled bounty.

Go To Sleep

It's true, I have been known to be a total grouch in the mornings, occasionally.  I'm not normally this way, but I know I don't want to do anything or deal with anybody until I've had something to eat and then I'll be fine (I'm not a coffee drinker).

A few months ago I read a book called The Hibernation Diet.  One of the main concepts of the books is about how honey fuels the liver and the effects that has on our body.  What I learned is that the liver converts glucose and fructose that we consume into energy.  Since we eat thruoughout the day, we continually keep the liver fueled.  During the night however, our bodies often use up that fuel supply and the liver can literally be on empty in the morning.  That is why you can feel sluggish, draggy, ucky or grouchy when you get up. 

Having a couple of spoonfuls of honey in the morning will refuel the liver and get you back on track.   Don't forget about all the energy you use during exercise too.  Eating honey before and/or after exercise will help your body recover faster from using all those carbs. 

Try this and see what you think.  Once I started doing this, it was like Wa La!, the Grouchies are gone  (my husband is even happier about this than I am).  The Hibernation Diet has alot more information about how great honey is for the body.  If you would like to read it, you can find copies at the following places.

Mann Lake Bee Keeping Supplies 
Amazon



Saturday, May 29 is Honey Bee Awareness Day.  Let's show our little friends some loving. 

Visit:
Celebrate Honey Bee Awareness Day

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Honey Cornbread

Honey Cornbread
1 c each yellow cornmeal and all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp each baking soda and salt
1 cup milk
1/4 cup honey
1 egg
2 tbs cooking oil

In a large bowl, combine cornmeal, flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In a small bowl, whisk together milk, honey, egg and oil.  Add to the flour mixture; stir until just combined. 

Pour batter into a well-greased 8x8 inch baking pan. Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean.  Serve warm.

Makes 9 servings

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I have recently discovered Georgia Made Georgia Grown.  It is an organization that promotes things Made and Grown in Georgia.  You will find growers, makers and entertainers of Georgia.  Visit them on Facebook at:

www.facebook.com/georgiamadegeorgiagrown

Swarm Prevention

We have recently had visitors from 18 different countries.  We appreciate everyone's interest and hope you are enjoying our blog.

On to swarm prevention.  Despite the fact that swarming is a completely natural form of reproduction for the bees, once it happens, a bee keeper now has two small hives.  While he waits on each hive to build up their workforce to preswarm numbers, he has lost a significant amount of time of honey production.

A new queen won't get the urge in her first year, but by the following spring, that natural instinct will kick in.  Once she knows it's time to get ready, she will lay several eggs that will be fed royal jelly and form into queen pupa.

 Queen cells are very easy to identify since they are so large.  The developing queen will be to large to fit in a regular cell.  When you see what often looks like a peanut hanging on the side of the comb, you've found it.

Swarm season will be at different times during the spring depending on the climate where you live.  If you are not sure when this time is, just ask another bee keeper in your area or check with a local association.  Once you have this info, you can start prevention procedure a few weeks ahead of time.

Remove queen cells as you see them being developed.  All you need to do is cut them off with your hive tool.  When you identify a hive as a potential swarmer by locating the queen cells, you can make 'splits'.  A split is simply dividing the hive in half yourself.  This way you can control the situation better and you will wind up keeping all of your bees.  Otherwise, if you don't happen to be in the bee yard when they get ready to go on their own and aren't able to catch them, you've just lost half a hive.

'Starter hives' are placed in a smaller hive box called a nucleus or a 'nuc'.  They will hold 3-5 frames each.  In order to sustain a split, you will need to remove one or two frames of brood from a healthy hive to put into the nuc.  You will also need a frame of honey so they will have food right away.  Add two frames of drawn comb so the queen will have place to start laying (or you can add two frames of honey and one of drawn comb, it is not an exact science).  Making a split does require a bit of planning because you will have to aquire an additional queen.  These can easily be ordered from most bee suppliers and will be shipped to you thru regular mail here in the US. 

A full frame of brood and a frame of honey.

When the new bees emerge from the comb that came from a different hive, the bees will stay where they are and not go to the original hive.  When they are born, they know their queen's pheromone and will know that is where they belong.  As the young colony grows, eventually place them in a full size hive box.

Accept one another, just as Christ accepted you, in order to bring praise to God.  Romans 15:7

When They Swarm

The sole purpose of the existense of a honey bee is to reproduce.  It is also a natural impulse for them to want to swarm.  If they didn't reproduce with such ferver, the swarm impulse wouldn't be there. 

There are different ways for a bee keeper to look at swarming.  On the one hand, a swarm means an additional hive, additional honey but only in the long run (probably not til the next year), and perhaps a little adventure in retrieving it.  However, on the more practical side, swarm prevention is preferred by any bee keeper who is wanting to keep his hive population and his honey production high. 

If a hive swarms, you've just lost half your honey producing bees from the original hive and they have to have time to build themselves back up so that they can get that original level of production up as well. 

If you catch the swarm and place them in a hive box that already has drawn out comb in it, you still have to wait on the queen to lay eggs that will take 21-24 days to be born.  A large portion of the bees will be dying off and the population will be dwindling as a bee typically lives about 30 days or so.  The survival of the new hive will greatly depend on the older bees surving til the new bees are born.

One way to give a tremendous boost to bee production in the new hive is to remove a couple of brood frames from another hive, they don't necessarily have to come from the original hive, you may not even know which one the swarm came from.  The baby bees will not go back to the hive that their brood frame was removed from.  When they are born, they will only know the pheromone of that hive's queen and believe that is where they are supposed to be.

Since a swarm leaves home with only the food they can carry inside them, they will need food stores quickly.  Adding a food source will also be very beneficial to the ladies.  Pollen patties are a great source of protein for the bees, but if you don't have any ready available (you can order it from a bee supplier), give them sugar water or even honey.

Our next post will be about Swarm Prevention.

Swarm Pictures

I finally got all my swarm pictures ready.  I've included pictures from 3 different ones.  The first was about 20 feet up a tree, where most of ours wind up.  We have to use the bucket on the tractor to reach them.

I lift my husband up in the bucket with snippers for small branches, lobbers for bigger ones, a hand saw  and a 5 gallon bucket.

He carefully removes any limbs sticking out of the swarm because one swarm might cover several.  You don't want to have long limbs sticking out that might hang on other ones, that could accidentally dislodge them.  And nobody would be a happy camper then.

Retreiving a swarm is not usually easy and can be dangerous.  Getting stung is the least of your worries.  Always have the right equipment before you start and know the risks if it is high off the ground.  

When they land in a tree, ideally you would be able to cut the limb they are on and gently lower it into a bucket or the hive box.  It won't always work that way.  If they get bumped, most of them will fall to the ground in a big clump, now they're all ticked off and will fly around in a large cloud for a few minutes.  Eventually they will all settle back around the queen, whether she's still in her original spot or she fell to the ground too.

Before we start each time, we discuss our options and angle of approach.

This is a swarm trap that we tried this year for the first time.  We placed queen pheromone inside and they literally made a 'bee line' for the trap.  The back end comes off for easy removal.

We have seen many of these traps in Tucson, Arizona.  They are used for the Africanized Honey Bees that inhabit the area.

Occasionally we get calls from stranger asking us to remove a swarm or a hive at their house.  We have only done this the one time that they could be easily reached from the ground.  A very experienced beekeeper told us to avoid getting swarms where our feet have to leave the ground because it can be so dangerous.  We will only catch a high sitting swarm if it is ours and we can reach it from the bucket of our tractor.  For those calls about hives, the next thing they say is that it is in the wall of their house.  That will require removing and replacing parts of the house, so the next call they need to make is to a professional bee removal service.

Swarms

This past Thursday we caught our first swarm of the season.  We arrived in the apiary in the middle of the swarm, it really does look like something out of the movies with such a large cloud of bees looking like they are unorganized and out of control.  However, the total opposite if true.  They are very organized, on a serious mission and everybody know exactly what their job is.

A number of scout bees have gone to scope out the perfect new home.  The remaining bee's job is to protect the queen.  Inside the middle of the cluster, is her royal highness.  Once the scouts return and the decision is made, everybody takes off for their new abode.

I once chased a swarm 500 feet through my neighbor's yard.  They were flying about 20 feet above the ground and I wanted to see where they were going.  However, they went through some trees and crossed a fence then I lost them and hopefully the neighbors didn't see me galloping thru their yard in my suit staring at the sky.

Our swarms usually seem to be on branches about 15-20 feet up.  What we normally do is, Danny will get in the bucket of the tractor with a five gallon bucket and a pair of lobbers. Once I lift him up to the swarm, he will trim limbs around and under the one with the swarm on it.  Then he cuts the limb with the swarm and gently lowers it into the bucket.  I lower him to the ground, then we literally dump the bees into a waiting hive body. 

We like to have foundations with drawn comb already in the new hive.  This way the queen can start laying immediately, which is very important.  Otherwise she can't lay eggs until the workers create cells for her, this is a serious delay in bees being born and increasing colony population.  The new colony population will dwindle rapidly while waiting for the new bees to be born.  Therefore it is a good idea to get two or three frames of brood from other hives to help the swarm be successful.

Since the only immediate food source the bees have is what they can carry inside of them when they leave the hive, it is very beneficial to pull a couple of frames of honey from another hive so their food source will be stable as they start to bring in their own.

The next day, we caught two more hives, now our count is up to 14.   Tomorrow night we are picking up the nucs we ordered back in January, then we will have a total of 29.

Incredible Senses

Bees have highly developed senses, and they use them in incredibly intriguing ways.  For instance, while flying, bees orient themselves by way of the sun, even on cloudy days.  They do this because they see ultraviolet rays.  They also hone in on flowers through their sense of smell.  And they can even feel warmth and cold.  On cold days, and really cold nights they huddle together to keep each other warm.

Coral Honeysuckle:  Also known as "trumpet honeysuckle"  for it's red, funnel shaped blossom, the coral variety sadly has a reputation thanks to its invasive sister, Japanese Honeysuckle.  But this well behaved sibling won't take over, and likes a trellis support with either shade or afternoon sun.

Honey Lemon Bars

Honey Lemon Bars

Crust:
1 c AP flour
1/4 c powdered sugar
1/2 c butter, cut up
Filling:
3/4 c honey
2 eggs
2 Tbs AP flour
3 Tbs lemon juice
1 tsp grated lemon peel
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

In a small bowl, combine flour and powdered sugar, mix well.  Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs.  Press mixture into lightly greased 8x8" baking pan.  Bake at 350* for 12-15 minutes or until lightly browned; remove from oven.

Meanwhle, prepare filling.  In large bowl, whisk together honey and eggs.  Add remaining ingredients, whisk until well blended.  Pour over baked crust.  Bake at 350* for 25-30 minutes intil filling is set.

Cool completely on wire rack. Cut in to bars, makes 12.


198 calories, 9 g fat, 56 mg cholesterol, 153 mg sodium, 29 g cargohydrates, 0 fiber, 2 protein

The Drone

A drone's work is never done.  You probably know the term "worker bee."  They do all the work, build the hive, fetch the pollen and nectar, plus a lot more.  And you've probably heard about the queen, who has the very big task of birthing all the little bees.  But drones, what do they do?  Drones are the carriers of the next generation.  They fly out to find queens from other colonies and pass along their genes....thus insuring the continuity of the honey bee race, and of their particular colony.

If ever a plant has received a raw deal, it's the Common Dandelion.  Considered a pesky weed by modern homeowners, it was once a culinary delicacy.  So here's a thought:  Instead of killing them, cultivate them.  Try their flowers as a wine, or their leaves in a salad.  In fact, the Dandelion leaf is how the plant gets its name.  In old French, dent-de-lion means "lion's tooth," a great description of the leaves' signature shape.

Queen Bee Mysteries

I'd like to introduce everyone to a fellow bee friend of mine. Her name is Deb Baker and in addition to loving bees, she is also a mystery author with two established series. When I asked Deb to tell my readers a bit about herself, here is what she said.

"Like honeybees, I have to keep moving, so one day I decided to write something completely different. My agent and I brainstormed. What wasn't 'beeing' done? Then we hit on the idea of introducing a beekeeper to the world of mysteries, which was perfect for me (I love nature). From that tiny glimmer, I created a small Wisconsin town and the protagonist Story Fischer, a new beekeeper with a lot to learn. My publisher liked the idea and so here I am, waiting for the first in the Queen Bee series (Buzz Off) to come out in September under my pen name Hannah Reed.

And like Story, I have much to learn about those tiny important insects. Joining the local beekeepers association and helping out in the club's beeyard has been exciting research. While having my own hives isn't an option right now, I've planted bee-friendly flowers and participate in the Great Sunflower Project every year, where I monitor and record bee activity in my area."

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Here's a little about the book:

It's September-National Honey Month-in Moraine, Wisconsin, and things are looking up for Story Fischer. Her messy divorce is final; the honey from her beekeeping business has been harvested; and the Wild Clover, the market she owns, is thriving. Life seems pretty sweet until her mentor in the honey business is found stung to death in his apiary.

Story is still trying to explain to the panicked locals that Manny was killed by wasps, not honeybees, when another body is found floating in the Oconomowoc River. This time the evidence points to Story's ex. Sure, Clay's a womanizer and a buzz kill-but a murderer?

With the townsfolk stirred up against her honeybees, and a handsome cop-who also happens to be Story's former high school sweetheart-putting Clay in cuffs, it's up to Story to get them both out of a very sticky situation.

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Buzz Off is now available for pre-order. To celebrate I'm running a special spring deal. Pre-order Buzz Off before May 1st and prove it by sending a copy of the receipt - either email (hannahreed51@gmail.com) or snail mail (email for the address) and you'll be entered in the May 1st drawing for a honey of a mystery prize. Your favorite brick-and-mortar bookstore can handle the pre-order for you. Or take care of it right now.


Order from Barnes and Noble Here
Order from Amazon Here
Visit the Queen Bee Facebook Page
Visit the Queen Bee Website


Thanks Deb,
I've got mine ordered and I can't wait to read it!




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To Do List

March Chores:

If you've medicated your hives, remember to remove all medication in time for the nectar flow, no one wants to get that stuff in their honey.

Monitor the hives to be certain they are not preparing to swarm since this is the season for it.  One indication that they are preparing to swarm is that they are trying to produce multiple queen cells.  If you find these, simply cut them out.  Swarming may be a natural occurance, but to a beekeeper, it's not really a good thing.  During a swarm, half of the colony will leave.  That means that the populations suddenly drops dramatically, and there is half the honey being brought in until they get their poplulation back up to normal which can take about a month.  This can put a big dent in your total honey harvest.

You Can Make A Difference

Join the Great Sunflower Project.

Can you plant a few sunflower seeds?  Do you have a 1/2 hour to count the bees that visit it and report the amount?  Great!  You are now a perfect candidate for the project.  You can help create a habitat to understand and protect our pollinators. Sure you'll have to wait til next spring to start planting your sunflowers, but keep the project in mind and plan ahead.

All you do is:

• Sign up at
• Plant sunflower seeds
• Describe your garden
• Count how many bees visit your flower in 5 minutes
• Report your observations

Are you a teacher or a student?  Here is a great project for the whole class.  It's also a fun project for community centers, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, even nursing homes.  By last May, about 30,000 people from every US state and province in Canada signed up to participate this year.  They can even send you the seeds!  Just think, by planting a few sunflower seeds, you are not only supporting bees, but the environment overall.  Trees, flowers and crops must have pollinators to be productive.  By making that contribution, you're also helping support the food production that is important to us all.

Ask your family and friends to join and make it a group project.  Don't worry about forgetting by the time spring rolls around, I'll post this again after the first of the year to remind everybody. 

Sign up at http://www.greatsunflower.org/

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Gingerbee Cookies

1 1/2 cups honey                         2 tsp baking powder
3/4 cup butter softened                1 Tbs ground ginger 
1  egg                                          1 Tbs cinnamon
5 cups AP flour                            1 tsp ground cloves

In large bowl, cream honey and butter until light and fluffy.  Beat in egg. Add flour, baking powder, ginger, cinnamon and cloves; mix until combined.  Wrap dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. 

When dough is chilled, divide dough in half; return one half to frig.  Dust work surface and dough with flour.  Roll out dough to 1/4 inch thick.  Cut into desired shapes using cookie cutter; transfer to well-greased baking sheet.  Repeat with remaining dough from frig.

Bake at 350* for 10 to 12 minutes 
Makes about 3 dozen cookies

Connect the Dots

Bees seem to have the ability to recognize dots, a skill they utilize for distinquishing between nectar-rich and plain old flowers.  Though it's likely more pattern recognition than actual counting, bees can reliably tell the difference between patterns of two, three and four dots.  Dots appear on a variety of plants like Jewelweed and Foxglove, which may form a simple nector quide, inviting the bees in for a quick sip.

This is a Flowering Quince:  Mixing beauty and more than a little brawn, the Flowering Quince is probably best thought of as a garden shrub.  A hearty, sturdy plant, it requires little care or attention.  And it's generally one of the first to stick out a tentative spring bloom in most climates.  Originally known as Japonica, it moves from blossom to a pear-like fruit that makes a tart and tasty jam.

Originally printed in A Bee Lover's Garden calendar.

Farm 2 U

Check out www.farm2uonline.com/westga .

It is an exciting new way to buy local produce in the Carrollton, Georgia community.  The idea is for anyone to be able to buy directly from local farmers.  I have recently started selling honey thru this site along with several others who have farms of less than 25 acres and grow a variety of organic produce.  You will even find beef, sausage, goat cheese, fresh eggs, and whole grain breads there.

Farm 2 U was started in Virginia and has recently come to West Georgia.  The purpose of Farm 2 U is to provide members access to nutritous, natural, locally grown and raised foods by supporting sustaining local family farms.

If you are interested in selling or buying thru this great new local program, visit the website above and read all about it.  Or contact Steve Faulk directly at 678-977-7352 or Stan@Farm2uOnline.com.  If you would like to start a Farm2u family food co-op in your community, visit http://www.farm2uonline.com/ for more information.

Listed to the left are some of the farmers and producers for the West Georgia area.

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Hey Everybody,

Thanks for stopping by our blog again.  We are excited about our new layout.  Across the top you will see tabs for a variety of topics, this should make it easier to find certain interests and keep like things in one place.  We are just getting started with the upgrade and it will take a little while to get it all organized. 

We have been having more and more folks stop by and visit our blog and we thank you very much.  Recently our visitor count topped 1000, something else we are excited about.

Dancing Bee would love to know about our readers; where are you from, are you part of school group or scouts, do you keep bees, do you think you want to keep bees, did you have any interest in honey bees before you found us?  So let us know about you, or if you have any questions or suggestions for the blog, please let us know that too.  Make a comment here or drop us a line at dancingbeefarm@att.net.  Also, visit us on Facebook and become a fan.

Do you see a post you would like to share?  Just click on the envelope below any post to email it to a friend.

Thanks and Come Again,
Jill

Pure or Not? & February To Do List

To eat PURE honey or 'not really' Pure honey. 

Truly pure honey means that when you buy it, it is  the same as when it was in the hive.  A few beekeepers have been known to put additives in their honey, often water or corn syrup, usually to make it cheaper to produce.  A beekeeper with integrity would never put additives in their honey.

There are a few ways honey can be tested to determine if it has additives.  The following website contains more info about impure honey and how to perform the tests. 

www.wikihow.com/Verify-the-Purity-of-Honey.

February Chores:
This month, the bees are gearing up for the spring honey flow.  If their food supply is low, we must continue feeding them.  This may be the last month we need to do this. 

Some beekeepers medicate their bees because of pests and diseases.  For those that do, now is the time.  The medication needs time to work and then be removed from the hive 4 weeks prior to the start of the flow.  This is so that no medication winds up in the honey.  When we began keeping bees, we used medicines for 2 years, but then decided we'd rather fight pests and diseases naturally and eliminated the medications from our hives.

Winter is also a great time to prepare sites for new hives, and repair and build new equipment.  This is our son helping build a new hive.

Infants

Honey should never be fed to infants under 12 months.  It is a known source of bacterial spores that produce Clostriduim botulunum bacteria.  When ingested by infants, these bacteria make a toxin that can cause infant botulism, a rare and serious form of food poisoning.

Infant botulism affects a baby's nervous system and can result in death. Most babies with infant botulism, however, do recover.  Signs and syptoms of infant botulism include:

• Floppy arms, legs and neck
• Persistant constipation
• Weak cry due to muscle weakness
• Weak sucking and poor feeding
• Tired all the time (lethargy)
• Difficulty breathing

Botulism spores may also be found in low-acid home-canned foods and corn syrup.  For this reason, you should avoid feeding these foods to infants.


Reprinted from http://www.mayoclinic.com/

Bee Brains & Bee Flowers

Don't underestimate the bee brain.  Bees are considered to be among the smartest in the insect kingdom,  with their highly developed colonies, and the hierarchies that exist therein.  In fact, though the brain of a bee is only a cubic millimeter, it has the densiest neurophile tissue (the stuff that makes our brains work) of any animal.  That includes us too.

This plant is Borage, and is nicknamed "bee's bread" because bees love its nectar-rich blooms.  This is the herb plant for those with great taste and who like to taste their plants too.  The hardy annual has leaves that taste like cucumber, and planting them near tomatoes actually improves your tomato's flavor.  Mainly, the bees would love you if you planted some Borage.

No Bake Peanut Butter Honey Candy

Call it candy, call it a cookie, or just a snack.  It's healthy, easy, and yummy.  If you are one of those that like peanut butter and honey mixed together, you'll definitely like these.

Peanut Butter Honey Candy
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup peanut butter
1 cup dry milk
1 1/2 cup raisins
1 1/2 cup pecans and/or walnuts

Variations:  Add dried cranberries, sunflower seeds, oatmeal, chocolate chips, golden raisins for color.  Have fun, get creative.

Blend honey and peanut butter together in a bowl.  Gradually add dry milk, mixing well.  Mix in raisins and nuts.  Shape into a log, wrap tightly and store in refrigerator.  To serve, cut into 1/2 inch slices.  I also tried rolling it into balls and mashing them, this way they turned out like cookies. 


When mixing the first 3 ingredients, it may help to microwave them for 20-30 seconds, it will make the peanut butter easier to stir.  These are good at either room temperature or refrigerated.  If they are cold, it makes them chewier, a little extra honey and it makes them softer.

This is by far the easiest and best honey recipe I have found.  If you try it, let me know what you think.

Recipe pubished Emory-Adventist Hospital