A New Year

At this time of year, there are no drones left in the hive.  They get kicked out as winter approaches, the ladies don't want to waste their precious honey stores on the boys.  However, worker brood may start to appear, spring isn't that far away and the guys will be needed again. 

The bees typically don't like to go outside on days with temperatures below 45 to 50 degrees.  They like to stay warm.  Right now, the girls are surrounding the queen in a ball-shaped cluster to keep her warm and maintain an overall temp of about 93 degrees.  The way they do this is by moving constantly from the center of the cluster to the outside and back again.  Their constant movement acts like a heater.

They'll be eating a lot of honey stores now, if they are low, be sure help them out with a supplement of sugar water.  We only put this in when the the outside temperature is at least 50.  If you open the lid when it's too cold, it makes them have to work so much harder to get the hive temp back up and keep it up.

On the days they do leave the hive, they have to leave for cleansing flights.  If you have snow around your hives, be sure to keep the entrances clear for this and proper ventilation.


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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.