I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.

http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg

http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg


--
ღ.¸¸.œ«*¨`*œ¶
Cheryl

On 7/25/2014 9:52 PM, Cheryl wrote:
> I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
> down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
> she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
> like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
> to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
> differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
> That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.
>
> http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg
>
> http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg
>
>
Sweet! (pardon the pun) Do you know what kind of flowers?

I've got a jar of honey in the pantry, I don't know where it came from.
There's no label on it other than one on the lid with the year 2006.
I realize honey doesn't go bad but this stuff is so dark it looks like
molasses. The jar has never been opened.

Jill

On 7/25/2014 10:16 PM, jmcquown wrote:

> On 7/25/2014 9:52 PM, Cheryl wrote:
>> I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
>> down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
>> she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
>> like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
>> to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
>> differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
>> That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.
>>
>> http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg
>>
>> http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg
>>
>>
> Sweet! (pardon the pun) Do you know what kind of flowers?
>
> I've got a jar of honey in the pantry, I don't know where it came from.
> There's no label on it other than one on the lid with the year 2006. I
> realize honey doesn't go bad but this stuff is so dark it looks like
> molasses. The jar has never been opened.
>
> Jill

I don't know what kind of flowers, but he said he recently got purple
honey. This isn't the purple stuff. I'll have to ask as I can't quite
tell from the floral flavor and aroma.

--
ღ.¸¸.œ«*¨`*œ¶
Cheryl

On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:52:07 -0400, Cheryl >
wrote:

> I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
> down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
> she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
> like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
> to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
> differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
> That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.
>
> http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg
>
> http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg

I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.

--
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

On 7/25/2014 11:50 PM, sf wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:52:07 -0400, Cheryl >
> wrote:
>
>> I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
>> down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
>> she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
>> like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
>> to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
>> differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
>> That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.
>>
>> http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg
>>
>> http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg
>
> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>

A number of years ago I bought a couple of jars of "honeydew honey".
This is honey produced by bees that eat "honeydew" instead of nectar.
Honeydew is the sweet secretion of insects that feed on sap, such as
aphids. It has a strong flavor and a dark color; I liked it a lot.

This is the stuff: http://www.airborne.co.nz/hnydew.shtml . I think it's
available from Amazon.

sf wrote:
>
> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.

Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.

G.

On Sat, 26 Jul 2014 06:46:30 -0400, Gary > wrote:

> sf wrote:
> >
> > I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
> > places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
> > neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
> > stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>
> Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
> preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
> her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
> together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.
>
I do live within city limits, but we have honey that is actually named
after districts here, so I think it's possible... I've even heard of
city residents nearish to me who have done it. One was a chef
somewhere. When I get more serious about a hive, I know where the bee
keepers have their meetings and I can find out more details. I know I
looked into keeping chickens years (decades) ago and setbacks stopped
me back then, but times have changed as have regulations. There are
entire web sites now about keeping "city chickens".

--
All you need is love. But a little chocolate now and then doesn't hurt.

"Gary" > wrote in message ...
> sf wrote:
>>
>> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
>> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
>> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
>> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>
> Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
> preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
> her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
> together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.
>
> G.

Yep, my BIL is a beekeeper, and used to have several hundred hives in the
country, but was sort of devastated by the Verona Mite outbreak and the
dying off of the honey bees. He no longer makes a living at it, but he still
has some. He used to give us a dozen small jars of different types of honey
at Christmas, but no more. My dh likes honey, me I can take it or leave it
actually. :-)

Cheri

On 25/07/2014 9:50 PM, sf wrote:
> On Fri, 25 Jul 2014 21:52:07 -0400, Cheryl >
> wrote:
>
>> I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
>> down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
>> she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
>> like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
>> to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
>> differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
>> That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.
>>
>> http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg
>>
>> http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg
>
> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>
They are only dangerous near the hive. Otherwise if you leave them be,
they'll leave you be!
We kept hives in our back yard for a while and a woman about 5 houses
away complained - to us fortunately. They were drinking the seepage from
her hot tub! We explained the situation, gave her some honey and no
further trouble.
Graham

Kroger usually has a good selection of honey and the Orange Blossom variant sure has some citrusy overtones to me. Makes a great addition to sweeten up a spare rib glaze. Had a bee keeper guy give me some some honey where the bees made a living off Mesquite tree blossoms. Now wowser that was good. Real dark color almost brown. Very unique flavor..sorta smokey or something.

On 7/26/2014 3:35 PM, graham wrote:
>>
> They are only dangerous near the hive. Otherwise if you leave them be,
> they'll leave you be!
> We kept hives in our back yard for a while and a woman about 5 houses
> away complained - to us fortunately. They were drinking the seepage from
> her hot tub! We explained the situation, gave her some honey and no
> further trouble.

My friend just recently got hammered by quite a few of his bees, but he
blames himself because of the hot conditions and he knew they were
active. As you become more familiar with their activity I'm sure you
know when the best time is to be around them. Neighbors, I'm not so sure
how or even if he has to deal with that.

--
ღ.¸¸.œ«*¨`*œ¶
Cheryl

jmcquown wrote:
> On 7/25/2014 9:52 PM, Cheryl wrote:
>> I have a friend who moved to GA several years ago, and now that he's
>> down there, he's been bee keeping. His wife was up here this week and
>> she brought me a jar of their fresh honey. I've never tasted anything
>> like it! You can taste the flowers they fed on. A very floral addition
>> to whatever I choose to use it in. And here I thought there were
>> differences between store bought and that some were better than others.
>> That may be true, but I've never tasted flowers in any of them.
>>
>> http://i58.tinypic.com/s4cbhd.jpg
>>
>> http://i60.tinypic.com/33w40gw.jpg
>>
>>
> Sweet! (pardon the pun) Do you know what kind of flowers?
>
> I've got a jar of honey in the pantry, I don't know where it came
> from. There's no label on it other than one on the lid with the year
> 2006. I realize honey doesn't go bad but this stuff is so dark it
> looks like molasses. The jar has never been opened.
>
> Jill
>
Dig in!

On 7/26/2014 5:46 AM, Gary wrote:
> sf wrote:
>>
>> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
>> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
>> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
>> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>
> Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
> preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
> her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
> together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.
>

Bees don't attack unless they're threatened. If the neighbor doesn't
harass the bees or go to the hives, there won't be a problem. Bee
allergy hysteria is overblown. The odds of being stung are too low.

On 7/26/2014 7:27 PM, Cheryl wrote:
> On 7/26/2014 3:35 PM, graham wrote:
>>>
>> They are only dangerous near the hive. Otherwise if you leave them be,
>> they'll leave you be!
>> We kept hives in our back yard for a while and a woman about 5 houses
>> away complained - to us fortunately. They were drinking the seepage
>> from
>> her hot tub! We explained the situation, gave her some honey and no
>> further trouble.
>
> My friend just recently got hammered by quite a few of his bees, but
> he blames himself because of the hot conditions and he knew they were
> active. As you become more familiar with their activity I'm sure you
> know when the best time is to be around them. Neighbors, I'm not so
> sure how or even if he has to deal with that.
>

A neighbors of our had kept backyard bees for over thirty years before
we even became aware of the hives. I live in suburbia. I have several
large gardens. I have only been stung once by a honeybee. A neighbor
keeping bees does not increase the risk getting stung.

The University of Minnesota has a backyard beehive program where
people can buy a hive and a year's service from a University apiarist,
who will set up the hive, perform the necessary maintenance, and
harvest the honey for them at the end of the year. It's a way for
people to learn about everything involved with beekeeping before
committing to keeping bees themselves.

On 7/30/2014 11:35 AM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
> On 7/26/2014 5:46 AM, Gary wrote:
>> sf wrote:
>>>
>>> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
>>> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
>>> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
>>> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>>
>> Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
>> preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
>> her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
>> together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.
>>
>
> Bees don't attack unless they're threatened. If the neighbor doesn't
> harass the bees or go to the hives, there won't be a problem. Bee
> allergy hysteria is overblown. The odds of being stung are too low.

Regardless of zoning laws, honey bees need access to lots of flowers. I
can see that being much easier to accommodate in the country than in a
city like San Francisco.

Jill

On 7/30/2014 10:42 AM, jmcquown wrote:
> On 7/30/2014 11:35 AM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:
>> On 7/26/2014 5:46 AM, Gary wrote:
>>> sf wrote:
>>>>
>>>> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
>>>> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it
>>>> to a
>>>> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to
>>>> bee
>>>> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
>>>
>>> Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
>>> preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
>>> her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
>>> together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.
>>>
>>
>> Bees don't attack unless they're threatened. If the neighbor doesn't
>> harass the bees or go to the hives, there won't be a problem. Bee
>> allergy hysteria is overblown. The odds of being stung are too low.
>
> Regardless of zoning laws, honey bees need access to lots of flowers.
> I can see that being much easier to accommodate in the country than in
> a city like San Francisco.

It depends. Current intensive farming practices have greatly reduced
the amount of land left wild, and pesticide use has killed off a lot
of the wild flowering plants left on that acreage. Corn and soybean
fields are virtual deserts from the honeybee point of view, in that
they don't provide any nectar or pollen for the bees, and those are
the two biggest crops in the USA. Lawns that have been treated to kill
weeds are worthless to bees as well, which is why the push is now to
leave the weeds grow and plant clover in lawns as well. Dandelions and
cover are rich nectar and pollen sources for bees. Let the lawn weeds
grow and bloom, and between those and the gardens in the city and
suburbia, the bees will have at least as strong as chance as in the
countryside.

On Wed, 30 Jul 2014 10:35:41 -0500, Moe DeLoughan >
wrote:

> On 7/26/2014 5:46 AM, Gary wrote:
> > sf wrote:
> >>
> >> I want to host a bee hive (there are bee keepers who are looking for
> >> places and will do the real work) - unfortunately, I mentioned it to a
> >> neighbor and she went ballistic because she says she's allergic to bee
> >> stings. <sigh> There was no reasoning with her.
> >
> > Don't you live within city limits? There might be zoning laws
> > preventing that where you live. Regardless, I can certainly understand
> > her position if she's allergic to bees and you live so close
> > together. I would think it's better to raise bees in rural areas.
> >
>
> Bees don't attack unless they're threatened. If the neighbor doesn't
> harass the bees or go to the hives, there won't be a problem. Bee
> allergy hysteria is overblown. The odds of being stung are too low.

I know, but she's not the type who can be reasoned with. I figure
I'll just do it one of these days and she can deal with it. They
aren't going to stray into her yard if she doesn't have anything
blooming that they are interested in. If she does, there will be wild
beneficial bees hanging out there anyway.

--
I take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila

On 7/30/2014 11:41 AM, Moe DeLoughan wrote:

> The University of Minnesota has a backyard beehive program where people
> can buy a hive and a year's service from a University apiarist, who will
> set up the hive, perform the necessary maintenance, and harvest the
> honey for them at the end of the year. It's a way for people to learn
> about everything involved with beekeeping before committing to keeping
> bees themselves.

I found out what the predominant food for these bees is. It is
predominately clover, blackberry & Black gum trees. I've never heard of
black gum trees!

I had some hot tea today with this honey and it was so good. It was
jasmine tea, so even more floral flavor.

--
ღ.¸¸.œ«*¨`*œ¶
Cheryl

On Thu, 31 Jul 2014 00:04:44 -0400, Cheryl >
wrote:

> I found out what the predominant food for these bees is. It is
> predominately clover, blackberry & Black gum trees. I've never heard of
> black gum trees!

Sounds like it's worth pursuing. I've heard of Eucalyptus (gumwood)
and I know Kookaburra sits in the old gum tree,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eucalyptus_globulus

but I didn't know there was a black gum tree native to the USA.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyssa_sylvatica

--
I take life with a grain of salt, a slice of lemon and a shot of tequila