On Mon, 6 Feb 2006, Keith Benson wrote:

>
>
> Elaine Parrish wrote:

>
> > They are "diluting" it in a way. A lot of commercial honey is farmed.
>
> It is all "farmed" in the sense that someone is managing the hives.

Yeah, well, just as sure as I say *all* somebody comes along with the
exceptions. haha

You may well be correct in all the points you made. I've only known 2
beekeepers, both elderly men and neither a commercial farmer, and both
more than 30 years ago.

Both produced wonderful honey that was much better than anything
"store-bought".

>
> > Many
> > man-made hives are "salted" with sugar to allow bees to produce with
> > little or no nectar and many come with a man-made comb.
>
> Not true, some are fed when used for pollination on nectar poor crops,
>or early in the season to promote brood buildup, but not to produce
> honey, it would be tough to do econimically. THe point in honey
> production is to use the bees to collect an otherwise hard to collect
> substance - nectar.
>

Yes, this is in keeping with what they both said in our conversations.

It was my understanding that bees make honey out of nectar and nectar is
just flavored sugar in liquid form. And, that bees will make honey out of
any nectar that they can get. And that bees make honey because they eat
honey and they store it in the comb to feed themselves during the winter.

According to both men, if honey bees have access to sugar in liquid form
and water, they will make honey. The quality of the honey depends on the
quality of the sugar supply.

In the second year of a drought, one of the men put out thick liquid sugar
for his bees. I don't know what kind. He said he did it for several
reasons. He wanted his bees to have enough honey to be able to make it
through the winter and he didn't want them to abandon the hive and go else
where and he wanted them to reproduce as normal, which he said they would
not do in time of "famine".

When he checked the hives to see it the bees were making enough honey, he
pulled some of it off. When he let me taste it, I remarked that it didn't
taste like "his" honey, but was more like "store-bought". He said that was
because he had "salted the hives". He said that it was a common trick to
equal out Mother Nature, and some commerical farmers used it to meet
production when nature didn't cooperate, which was often if they tried to
farm more honey than the surrounding land would naturally accommodate.
This man was in his 70s 30 years ago, so I don't know what his frame of
reference was.



> > It is also common
> > for farmers to pull the honey several times a "growing season" which does
> > does not allow for the seasoning that occurs when honey is left to "ripen"
> > in the comb.
>
> Not true, once the honey has a water content of 18% or so it is ready to
> consume. This is about the point that bees "cap" it. No need for it to
> "ripen"

Again, this may well be true. And again, I was going on what the two men
said. They said that the honey should be left in the hive as long as
possible before pulling it, but pulled soon enough for the bees to
replenish the stock for winter. They said that the bees heated and cooled
the hives (something about air flow and little beating bee wings; sorry,
it's been a long time) and that the honey "cured" do to the
conditions (again, that could have just been their perceptions).


>
> This method of management also preserves individual crops of varietal
> honey, and some folks like different varieties.

I always thought that it was interesting how they managed to produce a
specific variety of honey. If bees aren't variety specific and you don't
stomp out every other flowering tree, shrub, and plant, how do they
control what bees make honey out of?


>
> You might pick up a decent beekeeping book, there are dozens and they
> are realtively inexpensive.
>

It looks like I need to do that.

Thanks for the information.

> Keith
>

Elaine, too