The Beekeepers Calendar 6

8/3/2019 The Beekeepers Calendar 6

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THE BEEKEEPERS CALENDAR - SESSION 6 - PRODUCE FROM THE HIVE - JULY 24th

History of HoneyThe dictionary informs us that honey is a pale yellow liquid, sweet, viscid and edible,collected and processed by bees from the nectar of flowers and is used by humans as asweetener and a spread. Honey is composed of 17-20% water, 76-80% glucose, andfructose, pollen, wax, and mineral salts. Its composition and colour are dependent upon thetype of flower that supplies the nectar. For example, alfalfa and clover produce a whitehoney, heather a reddish-brown, lavender an amber hue, and acacia and sainfoin clover, astraw or clear colour. Honey is also hygroscopic (as an ingredient it keeps things moist),

antibacterial, and is antiseptic. It is claimed to have medical and cosmetic properties, butbeyond dispute is the unique and special flavour it adds to cooking.

The word honey comes from the Arabic hon, which became in old English honigmorphinggradually to honey. The German word is still honeg. Honey has been found in the tombs ofancient Egypt, where a jar of still edible honey was discovered in the Tomb of Queen Tyisparents, it was thought to be 3,300 years old. On evidence of the oldest honey discoveredstill being edible, we must assume that as long as it is kept in air tight conditions, honey willnever go off. Evidence has also been found of honey being used by the Egyptians, soakedon bandages, to form a plaster cast for broken bones.

Considered by the Ancient Greeks to be sacred, and by the Hindus as a miracle food, honey was used as a sweetener inour diet long before the arrival of cane sugar or sugar beets. When the ancient Phoenician traders came to Britain to buylead and tin they found the population consuming great quantities of honey and called Britain, the Isles of Honey. Mead isan alcoholic beverage made from fermented honey and water.

How Nectar Becomes HoneyUsing immense heat, or when they have collected large quantities of nectar, bees flaptheir wings to refresh the atmosphere of the hive. Ventilation is part of the honeymaking process, as the nectar collected contains 50% moisture (water). It is ventilatedto become gradually dehydrated, and then becomes honey when its water contentshave dropped to 17%.

The bees need some air circulation through the hive for cooling and the evaporation omoisture caused by the drying and curing of the nectar. The bees keep the insidetemperature of the hive at 93F. When the outside t emperature is in the high 80's it isdifficult for the bees to keep the proper temperature without some air circulation throug

the hive. During such times, the hive entrance should be fully opened and the top coveshould be kept ajar with a stick so some air is allowed to circulate through the hive. Otherwise heat stress will build up in thhive and may cause problems, bees clustering all over the outside of the hive are a sure indication that inside is too hot, anit is also preferable to place the hives in partial shade. Thermo hives are unique in allowing controlled ventilation through thbottom and sides of the hive but all other hives need close attention on this matter.

Honeys Hygroscopic PropertiesHoney is Hygroscopic, if left exposed to the atmosphere it will absorb the moisture in the atmosphere, expanding, and wheit is sufficiently diluted, begin to ferment. For this reason honey should always be stored in a sealed screw top jar. Thehygroscopic characteristic can be used to stop bread drying out, and to keep cakes and biscuits moist. Basically a table-spoon of sugar can be swapped for a tablespoon of honey. This will introduce too much water, so the liquid content in therecipe will need reducing by about half a tablespoon. The honey in the bread will still be absorbing the moisture out of theatmosphere preventing the bread or cakes from drying out quickly. A good cooking tip is that when using honey in a recipe

dip the spoon in cooking oil f irst and the honey will just slip off the spoon.

CosmeticPropertiesHoney and beeswax have been used over the centuries in cosmetics. It is believed totighten skin, remove wrinkles and is used as a slimming agent, as the honey causesrapid combustion when absorbed into the blood stream, and so helps burn off fats.

Honey Face PackMix honey and bran to make a smoothpaste that is spread generously on the face.Leave for 30 mins and wash off with warmwater.

Honey for Chapped Hands1 white of an egg1 tsp of glycerine1 oz of honeybarley flour to make a paste


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Comb HoneyBees live in a construction of wax, the young bees are reared in hexagonal wax cells, and similarly the honey is stored inwax cells, which are capped with a very thin white wax to keep it safe. They can be persuaded, with some reluctance, tobuild their store of honey in comb section frame sets, which the beekeeper can then pack for sale, untouched by humanhand, and not processed in any way.

The problem for the beekeeper is that this store ofhoney is often unfinished, or blemished in some waymaking it unsaleable. Very few beekeepers are willinto go to the trouble of trying to produce comb honey

hence its high price, but its delicious aroma and tastare good compensation. Cut Comb Honey is a wayround the problem; the comb for sale is cut from alarge frame comb, omitting the damaged or unfinishcomb.

Crystalised and Runny HoneyLaboratory analysis of honey shows:- Water 17.0% Levulux 39.0% Dextrose 34.0% Sucrose 1.0% Dextrine 0.5% Proteins2.0% Wax 1.0% Plant Acids 0.5% Salts 1.0%, undetermined residues 4.0%

The bees collect very watery nectar from the flowers that they carry in their honey sacs; during this time enzymes areadded. In the hive the nectar is deposited in empty cells and the high temperature of the hive, plus the fanning action of thebees wings, reduced the water content to 17% when the cell containing the honey is sealed with a cap of white wax.

In the high temperature of the hive (approximately 85F) the honey will usually stay liquid. Taken out of the hive, the honeywill slowly crystalise and become solid in the jar. The length of time it takes to solidify will depend on the type of nectar. Ivyand Oil seed rape honeys will crystallise in days, other honeys will take years. Solid honey in a jar can be converted back toliquid by gently warming the jar - with the lid tightly sealed - in a heated pot of water. However, it must not be heated over100C or it begins to break down into a chemical th at has harmful properties.

Crystalised honey will often in time produce a frosting on the inside of the jar; this isquite normal and does not mean that the honey has deteriorated. Honey will fermentif the water content exceeds 20%, which is how mead is made. Fermenting honeyhas a very sweet smell, becomes more liquid and will overflow the pot. It has aslightly different but pleasant taste. It is also possible for honey to ferment as itcrystalises. The sugars are absorbed into the crystals, and the water content of theremaining solution increases until it starts to ferment.

Floral HoneysThe taste and appearance of honey depends on the flowers to which the bees have been attracted. Lime tree honey is verylight in colour whilst other tree flowers in the early spring create a very dark honey. The bees travel up to 3 km from the hivto gather nectars, making it impossible to control where the bees are working, hence most honeys are polyfloral. Specificfloral honeys are produced where there are huge acres of one single blossom, though even then the odd bee might haveflown a little bit further and brought home something else.

Heather Honey has a very distinctive lingering aromatic flavour and sets as a thixatropic (extremely thick and viscous) jelland does not crystalise unless something like Ivy has been mixed with it. As the Heather honey flow is in late August, whenfew other flowers are available to the bees, it can be collected separately.

Honey Tasting

A honey sommelier is someone who has developed a highly discriminatorysense of taste that can detect the type of nectar from flowers the bees havecollected. Like wine, the honey should be examined for colour then smelt forclues to its floral origin. Only a very small amount should be dribbled on the tip othe tongue using a stick or the professional tool (known as a honey dribbler) sas not to flood out the taste buds.

What you taste at the tip of the tongue is known as the foretaste, and then wheyou swallow what you taste is the aftertaste. A highly rated honey is one thattastes good in the fore and after, as a surprising amount do not deliverpleasantness on both ends. Thirdly, there is the bouquet to consider. This is thlingering taste that remains quite a while after all the honey has been swallowed


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Generally aromatic honeys have the strongest bouquet, one of the prime ones being Heather, but a mediocre honey canoften be greatly enhanced by strengthening its bouquet through the addition of herbs and condiments such as crushedchillies or vanilla sticks which are now classified as connoisseur honeys.

HoneydewHoneydew is a sugar-rich sticky substance, secreted by aphids, caterpillars and some moths andscale insects as they feed on plant sap. It is collected by certain species of birds, wasps andhoney bees, which process it into a dark, strong honey (honeydew honey). This is highly prized inparts of Europe and Asia for its reputed medicinal value.

How to Distinguish Raw Honey from Processed HoneyScientifically, honey can be identified by an analysis of the pollen grains it contains. In fact, mostcheap supermarket honeys are a blend of honey from countries where there is a heavy honey flowand wages are low (China, Mexico & Turkey), making it possible to sell at a much lower price thanlocally harvested British honey that now sells at a premium because it is scarce.

Most honey that is sold in supermarkets is commercially processed before being packaged. Thisprocess will comprise heating honey to a temperature of at least 120F to make it more liquid, thenfiltering it to remove substances such as pollen. Proponents of pure honey claim that valuablenutrients and enzymes are destroyed during the heating and processing, and the National HoneyBoard affirms this, saying "Enzymatic activity, ant microbial properties, microbial quality, colour and chemical compositionare all influenced by heat and storage." Fortunately, there are a number of ways to distinguish processed from raw honey.

1 - Examine honey visually. Raw honey often has a cloudy appearance because of the pollen and other unfiltered material

contains, whereas processed honey is much clearer. In addition, when you turn a bottle of honey upside down, processedhoney will flow freely and raw honey will flow more slowly because it is more thixotropic at room temperature. You can alsobuy lookup tables from Thorne to determine the type of honey you have according to colour shades.

2 - Read the label for clues on how the honey was processed, if at all. Labels on raw honey will typically tell you that thehoney is unfiltered, unheated or unpasteurised. If none of these are mentioned, it might be processed honey.

3 - Contact the maker of a type of honey if you are unsure whether it is raw or processed. If they are honest, they will tellyou what processes they use between the beehive and the bottle. If the honey has been heated to above 120F, it isdefinitely not raw honey.

Antibacterial and Antiseptic Medicinal PropertiesHoney is a super saturated sugar solution in which bacterial activity is reduced in the same was as sugar is used in jam-

making. Honey thus becomes a sterile solution, and because it is it can be placed on wounds to sterilise, keeping outbacteria and stopping the wound from drying out. Runny honey poured on a minor burn or scald will ease the pain andsignificantly speed up the healing process and often not leave a skin blemish. It can make a sticky mess however, and youneed to stay indoors so that the wound does not become an attraction for bees and other insects.

Manuka HoneyProbably the best known anti bacterial honey is Manuka, which comes from the Manuka treonly found in New Zealand, a relative of the Tea Tree. Behind this brand lies an interestingstory. The taste is not that pleasant so a large processing company, Activon, which farmedthis in NZ, financed ten Phd students to look at all aspects of their product to see if theycould identify a unique selling point. One researcher discovered that Manuka had a 50-70%greater anti bacterial effect compared to all other honeys. The company leapt on thisdiscovery and started to market it as a medicinal honey rather than a food, grading the

different strains by anti bacterial strength. This is now regulated by the NZ industry and onlythey can use the manqu, much like specialist French wines.

However, not all Manuka Honey is suitable for medical use, as antibacterial potency variesfrom batch-to-batch. Only laboratory testing gurantees a particular batch is of medical grade

quality, and why rigorous standards are applied. The only honey that should be used for medical purposes is active UMFManuka Honey. UMF is an acronym for Unique Manuka Factor and is followed by a number that indicates theantibacterial strength of the honey. It can only be applied to honey with a laboratory test result of UMF10 or higher.

UMF Scales - http://www.manukahoneyus.com/product.htmlUMF 5 to UMF9 - are very low activity levelsUMF10 to UMF15 - are useful levelsUMF16 - and over are superior levels with very high activity


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Other Medicinal UsesMany claims both general and specific have been made for the healing properties of honey. Studies carried out on a groupof children and recorded in the Swiss Bee Journal during 1921 reported that those whose diet contained added honeyimproved in general health, weight, blood count and energy. It is often used in the treatment of hay fever, as local honeymay contain the same pollens that caused the hay fever, hence the small pollen portions consumed in the honey help thebody build up a resistance to the allergen.

Honey also has soporific (sleepiness) effects, try it in a hot milk drink at night. Even better, try warm honey and whiskyadded to a glass of hot milk. You can treat a cold by mixing hot Lemsip, honey and whisky and ingest at night before goingto bed. For a sore throat, try 1 tbsp of runny honey, juice from a squeezed orange and 1 teaspoon of glycerine. Mix and tak

a spoonful every hour.

Bee EscapesIf you want to remove an entire super in one go for extraction, this can be achievedover several hours by means of a BeeEscape, which is a board that is placedbetween the super and the brood chamber. There are many versions of beeescapes such as: Porter, Canadian, Wedmore, Lozenge and Rhombus designsThey all perform the same function of funnelling the bees out of the bottom of thesuper relatively quickly without them being able to return.

For an even speedier result, you can use a bee brush during mid day when itssunny, when the least amount of bees will be on the frames, as you remove themfrom the super one by one into another empty super. There are conflicting views othe bee brush method. Some say that on account of robber bees, it is safest to

remove the honey in the evening or at some time when bees do not fly. Othermethods use a fume board or a mechanical blower.

When to Extract?Extracting honey from the hive is traditionally done in the first week of September, although weather and the type of forageavailable for your bees determine this. In some places, such as Finsbury Park, most of the honey is gathered from flowerintrees in late spring and can be extracted soon after. This can provide a premium price for your honey as it will be the firstfresh available batch of the year, when all other stocks of local honey have long run out, and people who visit gourmetshops are prepared pay a very high price for this early harvest!

The honey is ready for harvesting when the honeycomb is capped. This is sometimes called ripeness, an easy test is to lifand gently shake the comb, if honey leeks out, then it is not ready. Harvesting honey before its ripe and capped may causefermentation and the loss of all the honey collected! So be patient and make sure the comb is capped before you extract th

honey. It is best to leave the capped honey with the bees for at least two weeks after the honey flow. The key to successfuextraction is speed; extract the honey from the comb as soon as possible, while it is still warm from the hive. If the combhoney gets cold it will often crystalise and become difficult to work with, blocking filters etc.

The honey should be extracted immediately while it is still warm. Set up your extraction area in the kitchen, bathroom orgarage, making sure all windows are closed and are bee and wasp proof to stop robbing. Keep a bucket of warm water anda towel handy to easily rinse sticky hands, and also put newspaper sheets all around the area you will be doing theuncapping as some will definitely drop on the floor! Remember that you are preparing a foodstuff so modern hygiene rulesmust be followed, especially if you intend to sell any of the honey.

UncappingThe first step in the extraction process is to break or removeall of the caps, this can be accomplished by several different

methods. Traditional beekeepers often use a manuallyoperated serrated uncapping knife (an electric one is alsoavailable). Beware, this is razor sharp on the cutting side andmust be kept sharp at all times to be effective. The knife canalso be heated to facilitate the cutting action.

The frame is held at a slight vertical angle in an uncapping trayaway from the body. The knife is then sawed upwards until allthe cappings are removed. In a perfect world this would be allthat is needed, but often the bees will have drawn the combunevenly so that you have a hills and valleys effect on thesurface. To make sure the valley cells will be extracted too,


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you must use an uncapping fork to puncture all the cells so that they are open for extraction. However, we recommend anuncapping roller for new beekeepers, as it is a small tool, relatively safe as long as you wrap the spikes in a sponge whennot in use, and the least messy of the uncapping tools. It also preserves most of the wax on the frame if you intend to meltthat down for reuse or trade-in.

If using the knife, the removed bits of wax, called uncappings, are placed in a glass or plastic bowl. These will holdapproximately 10% of honey and can be slowly drained off later with the help of some heating. Automated uncappingmachines in larger honey farms normally work by abrading the surface of the wax with moving chains or bristles and are alittle messier then manual uncapping, but much less laborious. Before uncapping, some beekeepers (especially non-commercial) will remove and store any propolis, normally through scraping the frames down.

Using an Extractor - http://www.thorne.co.uk/The extractor is most likely to be the most expensive piece of equipment required by any beekeeper. If you are going to seeven a small amount of your honey you must use a stainless steel or food grade polythene extractor. They come as eitherhand-cranked or motorised. The hand-cranked plastic ones are cheapest, and Thornes sell a budget all-inclusive HoneyProcessing kit for just 115 that is perfect for catering to one or two hives. The more frames that need processing then themore appealing a motorised one becomes, as it is very strenuous work.

If unaffordable, you can hire one for a day from: Freightliners Farm, Hackney City Farm, Roots n Shoots or The GoldenCompany (Hackney). You will need a small van to pick up and return it in a day.

Tangential or Radial? - http://www.parkbeekeeping.com/ Extractors also use different frame configurations, either tangential or radial. It is important when buying or hiring that you

find out first if the model can take Langstroth deep frames (if using a Thermo hive) or whatever size of frame you are usingSome extractors also have a cage that allows the extraction of raw unsupported frames from Warre or Top Bar hives.

Before use, it is advisable to rinse the equipment with warm water but NOT hot water at any stage of cleaning, as this woulmelt any particles of wax or propolis and permanently stain the polythene parts of the equipment. Ensure everything isabsolutely dry before extracting. Have ready access to warm water and a cloth or sponge to wipe up any minor spillage asthis will help to make the job less sticky.

The uncapped frames are placed in the honeyextractor; ensure the frames are clear of the honeylevel in the floor of the extractor and that the cage isevenly-balanced, then start turning them in the cagewith the crank or motor. Slowly at first, then observethe honey starting to be thrown out of the combs bycentrifugal force. Gradually increase the crank speedand continue to spin for 2-3 minutes, increasing tomaximum speed on the electric machine, orapproximately one hundred turns on a manualmachine, so that most of the honey is extracted.

Care must be taken to ensure that all frames are the correct way round for ease of flow, because in the hive the cells areangled slightly upwards to prevent the honey flowing out, the correct way is with lugs out. When finished replace the framesand super back in the hive for the bees to clean and refill (if extracting spring flow), or if extracting summer flow, store thesuper for next year.


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Sieving & StoringWhen the bottom of the extractor is full, open the stopcock and let the honey flow into storage buckets as you need to geteverything extracted as quickly as possible (especially if you are hiring just for the day). If you own an extractor, then it canbe strained directly, using a sieve, to strain out the larger wax pieces into a storage bucket. A fine strainer is then used totrap the smaller wax pieces. Using a double strainer can combine these operations, and we recommend this approach as igives excellent results, although it obviously takes longer to strain. Other household items can be substituted for part of theprocess as kitchen strainers and womens nylon stockings can serve as good honey filters (clean ones, of course).

The resulting honey is held in a larger settling tank or ripener. The honey should be left toripen for 4 days then any air bubbles skimmed off the top surface with a flat knife blade, as

consumers do not like seeing them in bottled honey. Finally, the stopcock/spigot from thesettling tank is opened and the honey transferred into jars and bottles. Thornes again sell all thparaphernalia required for bottling. If you are intending to sell to the public, your label must statthe date it was bottled, the area it originates from and the weight of the product. Jars should bewiped clean of any stickiness or residue before labelling then dried. The final label is a seal,which is fixed beneath the main jar label to indicate it has not been opened since leaving theproduction room.

Any honey that can't be harvested, which includes remnants left on the frames after extraction,can be placed outside and can be reclaimed by the bees (or wasps!). This must be done early the morning or late in the evening as the bees will aggressively harvest such a rich source. Carmust be taken so that this is done at a time when food is not scarce, otherwise bees fromdiffering colonies will fight over the honey. Extracted combs should be stored in a sealed placeand fumigated for wax moths once every ten days until freezing weather sets in. It does the

combs good to freeze in winter, as cold will destroy the larva of the moth.

Any tools or utensils that are used with melted wax cannot be used for anything else; as the wacreates a thin film over everything it touches. When all extracting is completed, cleaning the

equipment is a necessity. This is best done either in the bathroom or outside near a drain. The extractor has to bedismantled and thoroughly cleaned in warm water, not hot water, then rinsed and dried. It is best to wash down allequipment outside with a hose or pressure washer if you have one. Remember, the next beekeeper to use the equipmentwishes to receive it in the condition that you would wish to find it when you hire it, so please be courteous about this.

If there is no way of obtaining an extractor, a good way to use or sell the honeycomb is by cutting it into rectangles eitherwith a knife or comb cutter that cuts the comb to the exact size to fit into cut-comb containers (special plastic containerswith clear top lids).

Extraction Using a MicrowaveIf the honey is in new, white combs, you can cut the comb into small pieces, mash it up, and put it into micro-wave proofcontainers, zap it for two minutes at a time, stir, watch closely so the wax doesn't overheat (it can burn!) and scoop off thewax that comes to the surface. The same thing can be done on the stove, but be careful not to overheat the bottom, and noto let the stuff get hot enough to catch the wax on fire, as this can be very dangerous.

Use tough, disposable plastic food containers so you don't have to wash up afterwards. When the honey is pretty warm, itcan be strained through a good quality, fine-mesh nylon food straining cloth. Cool the warm honey down quickly (put yourfinal, strained jars into a cold water bath) and the honey will be fine.

Top-Bar HivesTop bar hives come in horizontal (African trough) and vertical (the Warr hive) designs.Trough hives allow for continuous harvesting through the season, whilst Warr hives should

only be harvested at the end of the season. Once the combs are removed from the hive, theycan be processed in several ways: encase them in a cage and use a centrifugal extractor aswith framed combs, preserve as-is to be consumed in comb form and cutting out, crushingthe combs, straining the honey, and processing the beeswax.

A History of MeadMead is probably the oldest alcoholic drink known, with references dating back 12,000 years ago, and the word for meadoccurs in nearly all Indo-European languages. Pollio Romulus wrote to Julius Caesar, when over 100 years old, that heenjoyed a full sex life, which he attributed to drinking copious amounts of Welsh Mead! The Vikings were used to consuminat least half a dozen horns of mead during a meal. The word honeymoon comes from the practice of drinking mead duringthe month-long celebrations that followed high-class weddings. It was certainly very popular in Anglo-Saxon times and in


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polite society right up to the end of the 17th century. Being one of the main ingredients of mead, honey was in high demanand beekeepers, although leading a somewhat remote life, were well respected.

Medieval beekeepers did not breed bees in the modern sense of the word, their bees were wildbees living in the large forests, slightly domesticated by beekeepers through providing ideal nestingplaces and guiding a new colony to these. The beekeeper would cut off the top of a suitable treenear the edge of a forest or clearing. The remaining trunk had to be high enough to offer someprotection from bears and low enough for the beekeeper to reach the bees without too muchtrouble. He would then carve a hole big enough for a colony to fit or use a natural cavity in the trunand position it so the sun could shine on the trunk most of the day, and thus keep it warm.

In the course of the 12th to 14th century, several generations spent their entire working life on thedestruction of forests and creation of farmable land, a process that reduced the size of the landuseable for beekeeping. The consequence was a steady increase in the price of honey and wax,and following that, an increase in the price of mead. The slow decline of mead as the national drinkcan be traced back to the Norman Conquest, for in the wake of the invasion came the first winetraders. The dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII then put an end to monastic brewing, andfinally, in the 18th century sugar replaced honey. As mead became more and more expensive, beeand wine became more popular. Beer was easy enough and inexpensive to brew - and would keepfresh for much longer than mead hence it soon became the most popular drink in Europe.

Making MeadThe type of honey used determines the flavour and bouquet of the finished product. Light coloured honey is best for makindry light meads with subtle flavours, whilst dark honeys were used for strong flavoured sweet meads. Flavours in honey

masked by the sweetness become more noticeable when the sugar is fermented and the quantity of the honey determinesthe alcoholic strength and final sweetness.

Mead is made by adding yeast to the honey dissolved in water. Duringfermentation the yeast feeds on the sugar in the honey and splits it intocarbon dioxide and alcohol, then the carbon dioxide gas bubbles awayleaving the alcohol behind (fortunately!). Yeast also needs nutrientsand acids added - which are lacking in honey - to keep it growing andworking. Tannin is also needed to give the mead astringency and toassist clarification. During fermentation the liquor is susceptible tospoilage by microorganisms, always present in the air, the mostimportant of which are vinegar bacteria that convert alcohol into aceticacid (vinegar). To avoid competing with Sarsons Vinegar, utensils must

be sterilised and air must be excluded during fermentation using anairlock.

Ingredients: (ingredients obtained from any wine making supplier) TheMedieval Beekeepers - Pieter Brueghel3 - 3 1/2 lb. honey1/2 oz. citric acid.1/2 tsp. tannin (or 1/2 cup strong black tea).2 tsp. yeast nutrient.Wine yeast (Maury yeast has been specially selected for mead but a General Purpose Yeast will be fine).2 tsp. yeast nutrient & 1/4 tsp. yeast extract (e.g. Marmite) to provide vitamin B.Water to 1 gal. (S.G. approx. 1.100 = potential alcohol 13.4%)

Warm the honey in three times its own volume of water, stir to dissolve

(avoid burning the honey), bring just to the boil and simmer for a couple ofminutes, removing the scum. Do not boil fast as many desirable substancewill be evaporated, causing loss of flavour and bouquet. When cool, transfeto a 1 gallon glass jar (demijohn), previously well rinsed with hot water. Brinthe remaining water to the boil and, when cool, add the yeast, nutrient,tannin and acid to the dissolved honey. Fit an air lock (or plug the neck ofthe jar with cotton wool) and leave in a warm place. When fermentation iscomplete (when there are no more bubbles and it has begun to clear),siphon using a length of plastic tubing (or carefully decant) the mead into aclean jar leaving the sediment behind. When another deposit has formed,siphon again. When it no longer leaves sediment and is clear, bottle. Ifnecessary, filter or add wine finings.


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The above recipe should produce a dry mead containing about 13% alcohol. If the finished mead tastes rather sweet, delaybottling until you are sure fermentation has finished to avoid burst bottles. A medium mead would need about 4 lb. honeyand a sweet (or sack) mead 4-1/2 lb.

Sultanas give extra flavour, body and smoothness to mead and nourish the yeast. Rinse 12 oz. sultanas in warm water andchop or mince. Ferment on the pulp, stir daily, and strain after 10 days. Your mead will probably be drinkable after a year.Having made mead, dont be impatient to drink it - there is no comparison between young mead and the matured article.Brother Adam of Buckfast Abbey recommended maturing mead in sound oak casks for a full seven years before bottling.

Cappings are often used to make mead by placing them in a suitable container and

adding cold water. Stir to dissolve the honey, allow to stand a while and then strain.Take a hydrometer reading and adjust with honey or water to give the requiredstarting gravity (S.G.). More honey will increase the specific gravity, and morewater will lower it. Follow the P. 7 recipe.2 lb. honey in 1 gal. gives S.G. 1.060, potential alcohol 7.8%.3 lb. honey in 1 gal. gives S.G. 1.090, potential alcohol 12%.4 lb. honey in 1 gal. gives S.G. 1.120, potential alcohol 16.3%.

A meads alcoholic content may range from that of a mild ale to that of a strongwine. It can be still, carbonated, or sparkling; and can be dry, semi-sweet, or sweet.It can be brewed with spices, fruits, or grain mash, and can also be flavoured withhops to produce a bitter, beer-like flavour. It can be distilled to a brandy or liqueurstrength e.g. Polish Krupnik - a sweet Polish liqueur.

By adding other ingredients to the fermentation process many other mead derivatives have been created around the worldGreat mead is any mead aged several years, which distinguishes it from short mead. Blended varieties of mead may beknown by either style represented. For instance, mead made with cinnamon and apples may be referred to as either acinnamon cyser or an apple metheglin.

Here are some of the more common mead variations you may come across:

Acerglyn - Honey and maple syrup.

Black Mead Honey and blackcurrants.

Braggot - Welsh origin (also called bracket or brackett).Originally brewed with honey and hops, later with honeyand malt - with or without hops added.

Bochet - Honey is caramelised or burned separately beforeadding the water. Gives toffee, chocolate & marshmallowflavours.

Capsicumel - Flavoured with chile peppers.

Cyser - A blend of honey and apple juice.

Hippocras - honey, grapes, and spices.

Hydromel - Means "water-honey" in Greek and is also theFrench name for mead. (hidromiel: Spanish, idromele:

Italian, hidromel: Portuguese). It is also used as a name fora very light or low-alcohol mead.

Melomel, mulsum - A mead that contains fruit (such asraspberry, blackberry or strawberry) and is also used as ameans of food preservation, keeping summer produce forthe winter. Depending on the fruit-base used, certainmelomels may also be known by more specific names (seecyser, pyment, morat for examples)

Metheglin - A mead that also contains spices (such ascloves, cinnamon or nutmeg), or herbs (such as oregano,

Morat - Blends honey and mulberries.

Mulsum - This is not true mead, but is unfermented honeyblended with a high-alcohol wine.

Omphacomel - mead and the juice of unripe grapes(verjuice). This makes it a variety of pyment.

Oxymel - Blends honey with wine vinegar.

Pyment, pyment-claree - Blends honey and red or whitegrapes. Pyment made with white grape juice is sometimescalled "white mead."

Rhodomel - Honey, rose hips, petals or rose attar (a rosepetal distillate) and water.

Sack mead - Mead made with more copious amounts ofhoney than usual. The finished product retains anextremely high specific gravity and elevated levels of

sweetness.

Short mead - Also called "quick mead", a type of meadrecipe that is meant to age quickly, for immediateconsumption. Because of the techniques used in itscreation, short mead shares some qualities found in cider(or even light ale): primarily that it is effervescent, and oftenhas a cidery taste. It can also be champagne-like.

Show mead - A term that has come to mean "plain" mead.One that has honey and water as a base, with no fruits,spices or extra flavourings. Since honey alone often does


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hops, or even lavender or chamomile). Some of the mostcommon metheglins are ginger, tea, orange peel, nutmeg,coriander, cinnamon, cloves or vanilla. Its name indicatesthat many metheglins were originally employed as folkmedicines.

Mulled mead is a popular drink at Christmas, where meadis flavoured with spices (and sometimes various fruits) andwarmed, traditionally by having a hot poker plunged into it.

not provide enough nourishment for the yeast to carry on itlifecycle, a mead that is devoid of fruit, etc. will sometimesrequire a special yeast nutrient and other enzymes toproduce an acceptable finished product.

Scottish Heather mead - Mead with citrus, tannin andheather honey.

White mead - A mead that is coloured white, either fromherbs or fruit used, or sometimes egg whites.

Beeswax FactsA compound of carbon and hydrogen, beeswax is a natural wax produced in the hive onlyby worker bees that have four pairs of wax-producing mirror glands on the inner sides oftheir abdomens. It has a very stable chemical make-up and its properties remain unspoilt btime. It is resistant to hydrolysis and natural oxidisation and is completely insoluble in wateApart from the larvae of the wax moth, no animal has the digestive acids and juices tobreak it down. To produce their wax, bees must consume about eight times as much honeby mass. It is estimated that bees fly 150,000 miles, roughly six times around the earth, toyield one pound of beeswax (530,000 km/kg).

FoundationBeeswax is used to build hexagonal cells with three-faced bases. Normal honeycomb comes in two sizes: worker comb hacells 5 mm in diameter, and drone comb has cells 6 mm across. Cells are drawn out to a depth of approximately 15 mmfrom the base. Both sizes of cells are used for food storage. The hexagonal design gives honeycomb unusual strength anda great load-bearing capacity. A piece of wax comb built under natural conditions and weighing 12 ounces will hold aboutfour pounds of honey. The diagram shows how three of the corners of cells on one side of the comb form the centres of thecells on the other side, which also allows the centre point of each cell on both sides to be recessed.

Bright light or queenlessness will inhibit a cluster from making comb, although it does not prevent them from making wax ifthey are full of honey. All European bee races accept foundation wax with 800 cells/dm2, which is the perfect number forbees with 5.37mm cells. The actual number of cells per dm2 varies slightly with different models of foundation makers. Beereadily accept variations in size within certain limits: if they are too small, they are rejected, and if too big, the brood is likelyto be predominantly male. A plentiful season stimulates wax secretion, whilst during hard times it ceases altogether.However, bees can seal their honey and brood cells even without an available honeyflow by reusing wax from existing comb.

Provided that conditions are right, comb construction will start at one attachmentpoint and the comb will be built out latitudinaly in all directions from this point,producing a very evenly constructed two-sided comb. Sometimes more than onestarting point will be used, and as these points are not accurately measured out fromeach other in cell widths, adjustments have to be made in the cell pattern where theresulting pieces of comb meet. These irregular cells are called transition cells.

Making FoundationThe inventor of foundation was Johannes Mehring who invented a press to impress wax waferswith indentations like the bottom of cells in 1857. Today the process is still the same. A laminatedsheet of wax is run through embossed rollers surfaced with hexagonal cell mould to produce acontinuous ribbon of foundation. While rotating, the rollers are lubricated by a series of small jetsof soapy water. The ribbon of foundation is cut to size and stacked automatically at the end of th

production line.

Cappings wax, probably because it is too pure, results in brittle much less pliable foundation thanwhen made with combs, quite independent of manufacturing techniques. Wax manufacturersfavour comb wax but generally use a judicious mix of both in order to unite strength and pliability

There are two important reasons for introducing frames of foundation wax every two years.1. The annual replacement of a number of frames ensures the continuing health of the colony. O

frames are an ideal spawning ground for diseases caused by spores and fungi.

2. Replacing frames with foundation wax also helps reduce swarming. When nurse bees have a shortage of young larvae tlook after, they accumulate fat, and, if there are no new frames to work on, this can trigger swarming fever.


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Colour and AgeThe colour of beeswax is nearly white, and then darkens rapidly as it ages. It becomes progressively yellow or brown by theincorporation of pollen, oils, and propolis, and often turns to almost black. Wax from brood comb tends to be darker thanwax from honeycomb. As impurities accumulate more quickly in the brood comb, the wax has to be rendered before furtheuse, and the leftovers are called slumgum. Darker comb yields much less wax than lighter-coloured comb because darkerolder comb has been used repeatedly for brood, so contains cocoons and waste that absorbs the wax, making it impossiblto obtain all the wax during extraction. However, these additions add strength to the comb. Very little, or no, wax is addedwhen the comb is built to contain brood, but as soon as any of the brood combs are expanded at the top for the storage ofhoney, the extra length of the cells is made of pure new white wax.

To clean the wax it is melted in a saucepan of hot water. This is best done in a double jacket saucepan to prevent the highflammable beeswax from catching fire, but it is a safer process using an electric ring. Let the wax cool and solidify, and allthe dross will have collected in a layer between the wax and the water. The dross can be scraped off leaving pure beeswaxHave a wet cloth handy to extinguish any flame. As with petroleum waxes, it may also be softened by dilution with vegetaboil to make it more workable at room temperature.

Making PolishBeeswax polish is made by putting equal amounts of beeswax and turpentine in acontainer and sealing it with a lid to stop evaporation. Leave it in a warm place wherethe wax will dissolve into the turpentine. It may take a few days to do this and it can bespeeded up by melting the wax in a metal container, as described above, removing itwell away from the heat source, and then pouring in the turpentine and stirring. Let itcool but not set and then pour it into the final container or tins and leave it to set. A

good container is a wide jam jar but any container will do so long as you can enclose itwith a lid, otherwise the turpentine will evaporate. Only use real turpentine and notturpentine substitute.

Candle ScienceBeeswax candle wax is made from the wax bees use in their hives. It can bebought in several forms including flat & honeycomb sheets, blocks, chunks andpearls. Sheets can be bought pre-coloured, while the chunks, blocks and pearlstend to come in their natural colour. Beeswax is naturally aromatic, so it is rarethat one would add fragrance. The wax is quite sticky, and has a low meltingpoint, so if you are making candles from sheets, the heat from your hand willmake the wax pliable and easy to roll.

If you are using pure beeswax in candle moulds or containers, you shouldconsider adding a candle hardener and also be prepared to top up your mouldssince the wax tends to shrink quite a bit when cooling. Beeswax tends to be moexpensive than paraffin wax, and you will often get a lot of variation in colour anmelting point between waxes.

Beeswax Candles and GodBeeswax candles are preferred in most churches because they burn cleanly, with little or nowax dripping down the sides and little visible smoke. The burning characteristics of beeswaxcandles differ from those of paraffin wax too. A beeswax candle flame has a "warmer," moreyellow colour than that of paraffin, and the colour of the flame may vary depending on theseason in which the wax was harvested. Beeswax candles have been the main form ofillumination in building interiors for hundreds of years. It is also prescribed as the material for

the Paschal candle ("Easter Candle") and is recommended for other candles used in the liturgyof the Roman Catholic Church.

Solar ExtractorsThe temperature only needs to rises above 68 - 70C to render beeswax sufficiently fluid to bemelted successfully in a solar extractor. A solar wax extractor produces top quality wax, but thismethod only yields 75% with old combs because when they are rendered, the mass of cocoonwaste from successive brood acts as a sponge and soaks up the wax, thus reducing its flow.Another drawback the solar extractor base has to be turned regularly towards the sun - and in cloudy weather or weaksunlight there is no yield at all. This method is not very efficient for old comb and is mainly used for melting down cappingsor new comb.


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DIY Solar Tub MelterThis can assembled in 10 minutes and produces 184F Meltingtemperature on a 62F day. If the paper towel hangs over theside of the container, wax will sometimes wick off, and drop tothe bottom of the chest. This really is no problem, for the waxcan be lifted off the bottom when cooled. You can use metalcoffee cans rather than a plastic tub.

MaterialsA - Styrofoam box (can be obtained free from a fish vendor)

B - Piece of window glass or polycarbonateC - Piece of Aluminium FoilD - Length of Duct TapeE - Instant Read Thermometer

DIY Plastic Trough MelterBuilding a solar oven that will have the ability to reach 220F within 2 hours of direct sunlight is r elatively easy. Get a mid-sized clear plastic storage container with a clear lid, which will be the body of the wax melter itself. The cappings you wantto melt are put in a paint roller tray. Cut a one-inch square hole in the deepest part and the melted wax all runs down to thebottom and drips through this hole.

To catch the wax, put a large deep tray under the paint tray, but put some fine wire mesh (fly wire type material) over thiscontainer. The wax is strained as it drips through the mesh. As well as that, I've found that much of the dark impurities in thwax stays in the bottom of the paint tray and doesn't even make it to the mesh, so the melted wax is quite clean and nice

looking.

As it's not as efficient as a double glazed insulated solar wax model, it needs temperatures in the high 20'sC (80'sF) inorder to work, but it can melt a lot of wax on a hot day. Put some newspaper in the bottom of the main body to catch anysplashes of honey or wax, then you can still use it for storage when not being used to melt wax.

Other Types of Solar ExtractorsThe lid or cover for a solar melter can be constructed using 1" by 4" clear board, on edge, about three-eight's inch larger ininside dimensions than the outside dimensions of the box, so it will be easy to remove. For glazing use Plexiglas - it is farlighter and sturdier than glass. To make the double glazing, lay the top down on a flat surface, making sure it is square, andnail on " x 3/4" square moulding on the bottom. Then a piece of Plexiglas is cut to fit, laid on the moulding, and anotherround of moulding fitted with small screws, then another piece of Plexiglas, then another round of moulding. When invertedthe top will fit over the box to a depth of about an inch and a half, which is sufficient for strength and security, and the doub

glazing of Plexiglas with a " air gap has a good insulation factor. You can fit a grab handle in the centre of the back of thelid, just to make it easier to manoeuvre. To use the solar oven, merely raise the back, lift up the prop, set the box down sothe prop is in the slot, and it is automatically raised to about 40 degrees and ready for use.

Internal temperatures well above the melting point of beeswax, about 145F, are maintained on warm su nny days. In veryhot weather, the rendered wax should be removed from the extractor regularly, because the wax will darken if subjected tohigh temperatures for long periods. The solar wax extractor should be placed in a protected location on the south side of abuilding, or at least where it is protected against the prevailing winds that lower the temperature in the extractor.

Research has shown that extractor efficiency can beimproved by using a glass cover consisting of twopanes of double-strength glass about 1/4 inch apartand by placing a piece of fibreboard insulation under

the melting pan. This design helps to retain theabsorbed heat.

The outside of the box should be painted black andthe inside, white. The size of the extractor needed depends on the amount of wax to be rendered. An extractor that is 2 feewide and 3 feet long will handle all of the wax from up to sixty hives of bees. The solar extractor is highly attractive to robbebees due to the odours given off by the warm honey and wax. It should be kept tightly closed except when being loaded orwhen the filled collecting pan is being removed.The solar extractor eliminates the need to render old combs and cappings by melting the wax in containers of boiling waterand then straining the mixtures through layers of cloth. In addition to being time consuming and messy, this method poses continual fire hazard because the wax may boil over and run down to the heat source below. Placing the extractor onwheels allows it to be moved to face into the sun.


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Keeping the Reflector Glass CleanThe glass or plexiglass cover of a solar oven will become dirty over time, which reduces the effectiveness or solar heattransmission by a considerable margin. Both the top and bottom surfaces of the top, be they Plexiglas or glass, should becleaned and polished with a good automotive cleaner wax, which is as effective as plexiglass polish and less than half thecost. The auto cleaner/wax will won't leave any moisture residue to fog up the glass for a couple of days, and as cleaningthe glass is a weekly event when in constant use, this is an important consideration.

Extraction Using Boiling Water or SteamThis is the most popular commercial method. Equipmentmust be made of aluminium, copper, or stainless steel. Zinc

pewter, tinplate and consequently galvanised iron are notrecommended as they darken wax. The combs are placed a jute sack that then needs to be tied tightly. The sack isdropped into a large cooking pot or clothes boiler filled withwater. It needs to be weighted to make sure it sinks, thenbrought to the boil. As wax is lighter than water, it will filterthrough the jute and rise to the surface. Once the combshave all melted, turn off the heat and leave the pot to cooldown. The wax solidifies as it cools, forming a block on thesurface of the water. Lastly, dispose of any waste left in thesack.

Purest waxRegardless of the system used, the recuperated wax will be

far from pure, containing a large quantity of water andnumerous impurities. To obtain purest quality beeswax, the mixture must be kept warm for as long as possible whilstdecanting, and is done commercially using a heated-decanting tank. A makeshift solution is a bucket placed in a sawdusfilled box covered with a thick lid. Once the wax has settled and completely cooled, the block is ready to take out of themould.

Due to the difference in density between wax and water, the wax will rise to the surface of the water and any impurities willbe trapped below it. Once the wax hardens, these can be scraped off the underside of the block. If the beeswax cools tooquickly, a large quantity of these impurities will be trapped inside the wax as the block sets and it will have to be re-rendere

Beeswax ProductsLost-wax casting of metals, practised by the ancient Greeks and Romans, involved coating awax model with plaster, melting the wax out of the resulting mould and filling the space with

molten metal. The Egyptians used it in shipbuilding, the Romans used it as a waterproofingagent, and the English used it in bow making. In the Middle Ages beeswax was consideredvaluable enough to become a form of currency. The Romans also sent messages on hingedpairs of wooden writing tablets coated with beeswax, the message being written into thesmooth wax surface using a stylus. After it had been read the message could be erased, anda reply written and returned.

Beeswax is used commercially to make fine candles, cosmetics and pharmaceuticals, inpolishing materials (particularly shoe polish and furniture polish) and as a component ofmodelling waxes. The wax can be dissolved in turpentine and then used as a furniture finish,sometimes blended with linseed or tung oil. It is commonly used during the assembly of pooltables to fill the screw holes and the seams between the slates.

It is also used as a coating for cheese, to protect the food as it ages. While some cheese-makers have replaced it with plastic, many still use beeswax in order to avoid any unpleasantflavours that may result from plastic.

Squeezebox makers use beeswax as an adhesive, when blended with pine rosin, to attach reed plates to the structureinside a squeezebox. It is also used by percussionists to create a desired surface on tambourines for thumb rolls.

Beeswax is used in Eastern Europe in egg decoration for writing on batik eggs (as in pysanky) and for making beaded eggIn the Far East, batik is used as a barrier process to build up layers of colours on material prints.


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As a skin care product a German study found beeswax to be superior to similar "barrier creams" (usually mineral oil basedcreams, such as petroleum jelly), when used according to its protocol. Beeswax is also an ingredient in moustache wax, aswell as hair pomades. It was used in the manufacturing of the cylinders used by the earliest phonographs.

Beeswax has also been used as a primary constituent of bullet lubricant since the earliest days of rifleman when it wasmixed with Tallow. It is now mixed with Moly grease or Lubrizol Alox and also used to make Cutler's resin.

PollenThe term pollen source is often used in the context of beekeeping and refers toflowering plants as a source of pollen for bees or other insects. Pollen is a fine to

coarse powder containing the microgametophytes of seed plants, which producethe male gametes (sperm cells). Insect-loving plants produce pollen that isrelatively heavy, sticky and protein-rich, for dispersal by insect pollinatorsattracted to their flowers.

Bees collect pollen as a protein source to raise their brood. For the plant, thepolliniser, this can be an important mechanism for sexual reproduction, as thepollinator distributes its pollen. Few flowering plants self-pollinate; some canprovide their own pollen (self-fertile), but require a pollinator to move the pollen;others are dependent on cross-pollination from a genetically different source ofviable pollen, through the activity of pollinators. One of the main pollinators thatassist in cross-pollination is honeybees.

Dry pollen, is a food source for bees that contains 35% protein (half are free-form amino acids which can be assimilated

immediately by the body without being broken down), 5% fat, 1-7% starch, 3% minerals, 4% moisture, A/B/C/E vitamins an40% natural sugars. The remainder is made up of trace elements many which have still not been identified today. Theprotein source needed for rearing one worker bee from larval to adult stage requires approximately 120-145 mg of pollen.An average bee colony will collect about 20-57 kg (44-125 pounds) of pollen a year. By natural instinct, bees will collect onlthe best entomophily pollen grains that are higher in nutritional value. The pollen varies in colour due to the variety offlowers visited by the bees and this is done purposely to ensure a wide and varying range of proteins.

The pollen basket or corbicula is part of the tibia on the hind legs of honey bees. A honeybee moistens the forelegs with a protruding tongue and brushes the pollen that hascollected on head, body and forward appendages to the hind legs. The pollen istransferred to the pollen comb on the hind legs and then combed, pressed, compacted,and transferred to the corbicula on the outside surface of the tibia of the hind legs. A singlehair functions as a pin that secures the middle of the pollen load. It takes an individual

worker bee from three to eighteen minutes to complete a pollen load and return to the hive.A bee collects an average pollen load of 11-29 mg. It takes 3-18 minutes to collect the loadand this will be done around 8 times per day.

How to Collect Bee PollenThis is done by fitting a pollen trap to the entrance of the hive (there are different designsfor different hives including front, side and bottom traps). When the worker bees bring back pollen to feed the brood, queenand for storage, they enter the pollen trap and as they makes their way down to the bottom of the hive, about 1/3 of thepollen on their legs falls off into the drawer of the trap. The extraction is done by forcing the bee to squeeze through a serieof tight holes or "grids" of wire at the front section of the entrance, in order to access the brood box. Please note that allpollen traps are designed NOT to take more bee pollen than necessary. After all, it would be stupid for a beekeeper to takeall the nutrients from their own bees!

Once the trap is fitted, it usually takes acouple of days for the drawer of the trapto fill. Since bee pollen is extremelyperishable with heat, it is vital to collectthe bee pollen every couple of days, ordaily if possible. Either collect it in theearly morning, before the bees startflying, or late in the day, after they areback in their hive to rest for the night.Open each drawer, remove the pollen

and pour it into a plastic bucket, it should be immediately taken to a freezer for storage. If you are too far away from yourhives for this to be feasible then do not fit a pollen trap at all.


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When to collect pollen?Trapping should be done only during high pollen flows of one-quarter pound per day minimum, and traps or grids should beremoved at all other times. Pollen should be removed from the trap often (daily during heavy pollen flows) and cared forproperly. During major nectar flows, pollen trapping is unprofitable, and the grid slows down active flight, which reduceshoney production.

Health BenefitsPollen is usually eaten at breakfast time with a cereal, as it has no taste itself.As it is a complete food (i.e. one that humans can live on with no additionalfood sources required), it is also used for body cleansing diets, where only

pollen and water are consumed for a specified number of days. It can causethe same reaction as allergies do, so it is best to try a little before purchasing.Weight for weight, bee pollen contains more protein than other familiar sourcessuch as meat, fish, eggs and dairy products. It has been found to haveregenerative powers for the human body though the presence of naturalsteroids (hormones), that appears to stimulate sluggish glands and act as asupplement to substitute for endocrine deficiencies.

However, it is used far more widely these days as an antidote to hayfever. Many allergies, such as asthma or hayfever, arecaused by pollen introduced into the respiratory system. Research has shown that there is a difference between inhaledpollen and bee pollen. Breathing in the anemophious pollens that are carried by the wind causes allergies. To help build anatural form of resistance, your body requires a supply of entomophious pollens (bee pollen) that can act as a barrier orshield against the windborne inhaled pollens responsible for allergic reactions.

PropolisWhen a tree (and some plants) is wounded it secretes resin around the wound as the first stagof the healing process. Humans have also learnt to derive great benefit from these powerfulplant chemicals. There are thousands of examples including: aspirin (from willow trees),penicillin (from a fungus), caffeine (from coffee) and menthol (from mint plants).

Propolis is a resinous mixture that honey bees collect from tree buds (such as poplars andconifers), sap flows, or other botanical sources. It is used as a sealant for unwanted openspaces in the hive. Northern temperate propolis has approximately 50 constituents, primarilyresins and vegetable balsams (50%), waxes (30%), essential oils (10%), and pollen (5%). In

tropical regions, in addition to a large variety of trees, bees may also gather resin from flowers in the genera Clusia andDalechampia, which are the only known plant genera that produce floral resins to attract pollinators. Propolis samples takefrom within a single colony can vary, making controlled clinical tests difficult, and the results of any given study cannot be

reliably extrapolated to propolis samples from other areas, so quality claims are impossible to verify.

Why do Bees Collect Propolis?Apis cerana is one honeybee species that does not use propolis. Different races of Apismellifera use propolis to different extents; the Caucasian race is a particularly enthusiasticcollector. Propolis is used for plugging small gaps - approximately 6 millimetres (0.2 in) orless in a hive - whilst larger spaces are usually filled with beeswax. Its colour variesdepending on its botanical source, the most common being dark brown. The composition ofpropolis varies from hive to hive, district to district, and from season to season. Normally itis dark brown in colour, but it can be found in green, red, black and white hues, dependingon the sources of resin found in the particular hive area. Propolis is sticky at and aboveroom temperature, but at lower temperatures it becomes hard and very brittle.

The bee bites off scraps of plant resin with her mandibles and packs them into the corbiculae (pollen baskets) on her hindlegs. Each corbicula can carry around 10 mg of propolis. Because of its stickiness, propolis gathering is a slow business.Bees will only collect it when the temperature is above 18C, and it can take an hour to fill both bas kets, whilst back at thehive, unloading can take another hour. Sometimes, bees also collect man-made materials - such as drying paints, road taror varnish - and use these in the same way as 'real' propolis. Presumably to bees these substances have a consistency anstrong odour similar to plant resins.

The Function of Propolis for BeesFor centuries, beekeepers assumed that bees sealed the beehive with propolis to protect the colony from the elements,such as rain and cold winter drafts. However, 20th century research has revealed that bees not only survive, but also thrivewith increased ventilation during the winter months throughout most temperate regions of the world.


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Apis mellifera use propolis to keep their homes dry, cosy and hygienic, as the propolis coating makes the walls of theirnesting place water and draught proof. Propolis is used to seal up any cracks or gaps where microorganisms could flourishand the volatile oils in propolis serve as a kind of antiseptic air-freshener. They also use it as a building material to decreasthe size of nest entrances, and to make them smooth for passing bee traffic. A thin layer is used to varnish inside broodcells before the queen lays eggs into them, this provides a strong, waterproof and hygienic unit for developing larvae.

Speelmanskop Apiary Products has manufactured a propolis based product that has performed well on various fishpathogens so much so that they are achieving better results than with the traditional aquaculture antimicrobials.

Human Health Benefits

Propolis has long been used as a medicine and iscommonly available as an ingredient in toothpaste, lbalm, chewing gum, soaps and ointments. Manypeople value propolis for sore throats and toothacheand take a pea-sized piece of propolis and keep it intheir mouths. It is available in many forms, includingtablet, capsule, ointment, powder, extract, cream,lotion and other cosmetics. A tincture of propolis is

made by dissolving it in alcohol. It's available as a nutritional supplement in health food stores and online.

As it is one of the most effective natural antibiotics ever, bee propolis helps to maintain excellent health by strengthening oimmune system. So effective are the anti-bacterial, anti-viral and ant parasitic properties of propolis, that the interior of abeehive is many more times germ-free than the most sterile operating theatres. One particularly potent bacterium calledMRSA that has killed many people in UK hospitals, and which no other antibiotic seem to be very effective against, is

extremely sensitive to propolis.

How do you harvest it?There are two approaches to harvesting the substance. The most common isto use a propolis grid that is made up of perforated mesh made of metal,gauze or plastic (you can even buy a rolled net but it is not very effective). Thisis similar to a queen excluder but with smaller slots - not more than 6 mm. Thebees will start to seal up the slots with propolis as soon as it is fitted. Take outthe grid when reasonably full and put it in a freezer. After a few days, flexingthe sheet will cause the propolis pieces to drop out, and it is possible to harvest50 gm per hive per season this way.

The other approach favoured in Brazil, Slovenia & Russia is to use a

propolis tower. This is a box that sits on top of the super but is filled witstrips of wood with holes in them on all four sides. The bees willautomatically start to fill the holes up to keep out the bright sunlight. It iseasier to squeeze the propolis our in button shapes using this methodwithout resorting to freezing. These are generally used in large tree filledareas where there is a lot of resin available.

Propolis is now believed to reinforce the structural stability of the hive,reduce vibration, make the hive more defensible by sealing alternateentrances, prevent diseases and parasites from entering the hive, preveputrefaction within the hive, and to inhibit bacterial growth. Bees usually

carry waste out of and away from the hive. However if a small lizard or mouse found its way into the hive and died there,bees may be unable to carry it out through the hive entrance. In that case, they would attempt instead to seal the carcass in

propolis, essentially mummifying it and making it odourless and harmless.

Side EffectsNatural medicine practitioners use propolis for the relief of various conditions, including inflammations, viral diseases, ulcersuperficial burns or scalds (emollients) and reducing the chances of cataracts. Propolis shouldn't be applied to the eye areaand repeated use of propolis may make people more prone to developing allergies. It can even cause severe allergicreactions if the user is sensitive to bees or bee products. Try a skin test first if in doubt.

It acts as a dental anti-plaque agent and has been the subject of recent dentistry research, since there is some evidencethat propolis may actively protect against caries and other forms of oral disease, due to its ant microbial properties. Its use canal debridement for endodontic procedures has been explored in Brazil. As an anti-tumour growth agent, propolis use ininhibiting tumorigenesis has been studied in mice in Japan and it can also be used to treat canker sores.


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It is used by certain music instrument makers to enhance the appearance of the wood grain. It is a component of somevarnishes and was reportedly used extensively by Antonio Stradivarius that may explain the durability over centuries of hismuch sought-after violins.

Royal JellyRoyal Jelly is a milky gelatinous secretion with a pungent and sour taste that isproduced by young nurse bees in the hypopharangeal gland located in the braincavity. In the beehive, the only difference between the raising of a queen and afemale worker is the diet in which the larvae are fed. This 'super food' of bees isderived from pollen and specially blended with enzymes and fed continuously to

each bee destined to become a queen. A larva developing into a queen consumesmuch royal jelly and her weight increases 1300 times over a period of six days. It isthe exclusive food of the queen bee throughout her highly productive life, enablingher to lay up to 2000 eggs per day at her peak, whereas worker bees fed onlyordinary pollen and honey, live just four to six weeks. The royal jelly is administeredto the queen bee by the nurse bees licking her body and it being absorbed, howeverif the Queen requires extra supplies of Royal Jelly, she will suck it directly from the gland in the brain of the bee in which it iproduced!

CompositionThe overall composition of royal jelly is 67% water, 12.5% crude protein (including small amounts of many different aminoacids), and 11% simple sugars (monosaccharides), also including a relatively high amount (5%) of fatty acids. It alsocontains many trace minerals, some enzymes, antibacterial and antibiotic components, and trace amounts of vitamin C. Thfat-soluble vitamins, A, D, E and K, are completely absent from royal jelly.

Health BenefitsRoyal Jelly is a superb health giving food, as it is also a rich natural storehouse ofthe B-complex vitamins. With 22 amino acids, it is a highly concentrated source ofrich proteins including cystine, lysine and arginine, and also components like B-complex vitamins such as pantothenic acid (vitamin B5) and vitamin B6 (pyridoxine).Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid) is one of the most important substances in the body,essential for the synthesis and metabolism of proteins, fats, carbohydrates andseveral hormones. People with a deficiency suffer fatigue, headaches, upperrespiratory infections, sensitivity to insulin, insomnia, nausea and nervous disorders.Royal jelly contains all eight essential amino acids (including nucleic acid) plus tensecondary amino acids and notable amounts of minerals, calcium, copper iron,phosphorous, potassium, silicon and sulphur.

As vitamins in the B group are water soluble, taken daily, royal jelly enhances the body's metabolism, and there are reportebenefits of greatly increased energy and rapid recovery from fatigue. Other benefits attributed to Royal jelly are that it aids icell regeneration, improves skin texture and clarity and increases the body's resistance to illnesses. It is favoured by thecosmetics industry as it contains Collagen, a powerful anti-aging element that claims to give users a youthful appearanceand skin elasticity. However it should be noted that mammals are very different from insects! Substances that have dramateffects on honeybees may have no effect whatsoever on mammals and vice versa.

This product can also be taken to combat stress, reduce cholesterol and pre-menstrual tension. It is high in protein, and issynthesised during the digestion of pollen. It also contains acetycholine, which plays a varied and important role in thefunction of the entire body, provoking adrenaline secretion. For a very high nutritional value, a mixture of Royal Jelly, beepollen and propolis in a base of Vitamin E would provide a whole dietary supplement.

As a health tonic, royal jelly is sold as capsules or pills to be ingested on a daily basis. Since it is rare and difficult to collectfrom hives, it can be quite expensive. It is not a regulated medicine and has never been shown, through scientific studies ohumans, to have any health benefits. However, a few studies on mice leave open the possibility that royal jelly can lowercholesterol.

When extracted from the hive it must be rapidly refrigerated, frozen or freeze-dried. This process removes only the excesswater from the product, leaving all vitamins, minerals, enzymes and co-enzymes present. The method for testing the purityand potency of royal jelly consists of measuring the amount of 10-hydroxy-2-decenoic acid (HDA) it contains. A reading of 46%+ HDA, is an excellent standard for royal jelly and a certificate for analysis is kept on file for each batch tested. Ironicallyif Royal Jelly did not have a built-in antibiotic factor, the nutritive richness of the Royal Jelly would provide an excellentgrowing medium for all kinds of harmful microbes.


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Harvesting Royal JellyThe main countries harvesting royal jelly commercially are China, Taiwan and Thailand. Under natural conditions a larvadestined to become a queen bee develops in an especially large wax cell or cup, and inside this cell worker bees placelavish amounts of royal jelly. Extra feeding and rigorous time keeping in the manipulation of colonies is needed to achievegreat numbers of queens, perhaps 50 or more. Worker bees produce vast amounts of royal jelly and place it in the queencells. However instead of the larvae feeding on this and developing into queen bees, the larvae are removed and the royaljelly is harvested by the beekeeper.

ProcedureFirst you need a colony without a queen then place several queen-cupped frames in the hive.

these cells put 20 - 36 hours old bee larvae. Because bees cannot live without their queen thetry to raise a new one and feed larvae with a lot of royal jelly, trying to make new queens.

Mature queen cells, i.e. those with larvae four days old (3 days after grafting), must be broughquickly into the extraction room and the open, narrow part of the cells is cut to facilitate andspeed up collection. The larvae are removed with a pair of soft forceps, taking care not to harmthem and contaminate the jelly. The royal jelly is extracted by emptying each cell with a smallspatula, by sucking it up with a special mouth operated device, with a pump-operated device, oby centrifugal extraction for larger extraction batches. Following extraction, the cells areimmediately ready for another rearing cycle.

Feeding with sugar syrup (1:1 sugar/water) increases cell acceptance, even when flowers areavailable. Individual queen cells should not contain less than 200 mg of royal jelly, as a low cell content means that thereare too many cells for the finisher colony or that the colony is not in a condition to provide for queen rearing. There are raci

differences in productivity and specially selected strains can be obtained.

The royal jelly must be filtered using a fine nylon net (nylon stockings are excellent)to eliminate fragments of wax and larvae and metal filters should not be used. Thejelly should be placed into dark glass vials or food-grade plastic containers, avoidingany excessive exposure to air. It should be refrigerated immediately. Any material orequipment contacting royal jelly - including hands - must be clean and disinfectedusing heat or pure alcohol. The laboratory must be kept impeccably clean andextraction should never be done outside or in sunlight.

A well-managed hive during a season of 56 months can produce approximately500 gm of royal jelly. Since the product is perishable, producers must haveimmediate access to proper cold storage (e.g., a household refrigerator or freezer),

in which the royal jelly is stored until it is sold. Sometimes honey or beeswax isadded to it, which is believed to aid its preservation.

How it is Packaged & SoldRoyal Jelly is offered in one of two ways. Either in its pure natural statas a thick milky substance whose form is very unstable and must bekept frozen or refrigerated in order to preserve it. This is calledLyophilizedRoyal Jelly (more commonly called Freeze-Dried RoyalJelly). The second and most popular form is an extract (powder orliquid form) delivered in capsules.

There are two methods of achieving a powdered extract,1 - Freeze-drying Royal Jelly costs more to manufacture but is also

the best method because no food preservatives have to be added. Thprocess removes all the moisture content, and contrary to what somemanufacturers say, NO nutritional value is lost in this process.

2 - Spray-drying is a cheaper production method that involves dilutindown the RJ and spraying it to achieve a dried product. However, thismethod requires that a food preservative be added to it.

Bee VenomAlthough it is widely believed that a worker honey bee can sting only once, this is a partial misconception. Although thestinger is in fact barbed so that it lodges in the victim's skin, tearing loose from the bee's abdomen and leading to its death minutes, this only happens if the skin of the victim is sufficiently thick, such as a mammal's. The bee's sting is speculated tohave evolved for inter-bee combat between members of different hives, and the barbs serve to improve penetration of the


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chitinous plates of another insect's exoskeleton. When bees sting elastic-skinned mammals like us, the barbs become ahazard to the bees as described above. Honeybees are the only hymenoptera with a strongly barbed sting, although yellowjackets and some other wasps have small barbs.

The larger drone bees do not have stings, but in worker bees, the sting is a modifiedovipositor. The queen bee has a smooth sting and can, if need be, sting skin-bearingcreatures multiple times, but the queen does not leave the hive under normal conditions.Her sting is not for defence of the hive; she only uses it for dispatching rival queens,ideally before they can finish pupating. Queen breeders, who handle multiple queens andhave the queen odour on their hands, are sometimes stung by a queen.

The main component of bee venom responsible for pain in vertebrates is the toxinmelittin, although histamine and other biogenic amines may also contribute to pain anditching. In one of the medical uses of honeybee products, apitherapy, bee venom hasbeen used to treat arthritis and other painful conditions. Studies have shown the amountof venom delivered does not differ if the sting is pinched or scraped off, and even a delayof a few seconds will lead to more venom being injected. Once the stinger is removed, pain and swelling should be reducewith a cold compress.

Bee venom is acidic, and neutralising a sting is unlikely to be effective as the venom is injected under the skin and deepinto the tissues, where a topically applied alkali is unable to reach. Many traditional remedies are suggested for bee stings,including damp pastes of tobacco, salt, baking soda, meat tenderiser, toothpaste, clay, garlic, urine, onions, aspirin or eventhe application of copper coins. A study has concluded that only ice is a better treatment for bee and wasp stings thanaspirin.

For about 2% of people, anaphylactic shock from certain proteins in the venom can be life-threatening as the air passageswells and can suffocate the victim, and this requires emergency treatment by a doctor. People known to be highly allergicshould carry around epinephrine, in the form of a self-injectable EpiPen, for the treatment of anaphylactic shock.

Harvesting ProcessThe first bee venom products in the forms of injections and creams were introduced in the end of 1920s in Germany,Austria, Switzerland and England. One of the most effective products was patented in 1932, by Pfizer in Germany, andmanufactured from 1934, it is still on the market and sold in eight countries.

Since the middle 1950s, the electric shock method has been used to stimulate thebees to sting. A collector frame made from wood or plastic that holds a wire grid, isusually placed at the entrance of the hive and connected to a device that supplies

electrical impulses. Underneath the frame wires lies a glass sheet that is covered with plastic or rubber material to avoid contamination of the venom. During collection, beescome into contact with the wire grid and receive a mild electric shock and they sting thesurface of the collector sheet as they see this to be the source of danger. The venom,which is a colourless liquid, is then deposited between the glass and the protectivematerial where it dries and is later scraped off.

The newer collector devices and methods (especially the Bee Venom Collector developed by Chung Jin Biotech)are claimed to be safe and do not harm bees but are anathema to biodynamic beekeepers. During 30 minutes of collectiontime, a well-adjusted collector device claims to kill not more than 10 bees per hive. This loss is not significant to thepopulation of the colony and does not affect its life span.

How it is Packaged & SoldAfter drying, it is a white powder-like material, however if not protected, oxidation willchange the colour from white to brownish-yellow and will decrease its healing effect. Thereare different kinds of venom: pure whole dried, whole dried and freeze-dried (lyophilized)bee venom. Pure whole dried bee venom is the purest venom, being white in colour (oftenit is snow white), not contaminated with foreign materials and colourless when it is used ina solution.

Whole dried bee venom may be contaminated with pollen, faeces, dust, nectar or honey. Itscolour varies from yellow to brownish-yellow, which depends on the oxidation of thecomponents. In solution form it also has the same colour.


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Freeze-dried bee venom is a highly processed and purified venom.During the preparation, its moisture content and any othercontaminants are removed in order to purify and preserve it. Some ofthe active components may be removed also if an uncontrolledpurification method is used. It is widely employed in creams, linimentsand ointments. In a tablet form, it can be used to prepare venomsolution for electrophoresis or ultrasonophoresis applications. It iseasy to sterilise with syringe filtration.

If bee venom is protected from moisture and light it can be stored forfive years or more. It will not lose its toxicity, however its healing effecare reduced by storage. Freeze-drying is the most effective method opreserving bee venom.

Can bee venom be taken orally?There are dozens of products on the European market in thehomeopathic category containing Apis mellifica or Apis Virus (ApiamVirus - venom sac extract). In this category, bee venom is also mixedwith snake and centipede venoms and is taken orally to treat cancer.

How is bee venom solution (BVS) prepared?One of the simplest methods of preparing bee venom solution is todissolve the venom in a previously sterilised, hot, isotonic saline

solution and pass it through a micropore filter. The disadvantage of thmethod is that the hot saline solution may partially destroy the activecomponents of the venom. Consequently, its healing effect cannot becompared to the effectiveness of live bee stings. There are othermethods to prepare a more effective venom solution, such as by a"cold" preparation method, or by using freeze dried bee venom.Thorough study and precise methodology is required to prepare aneffective solution that will meet the high standards of pharmaceuticalproducts.

Some of the most commonly used disinfectants, like alcohol or tincture of iodine, should not be used for Bee VenomTherapy (BVT), as these disinfectants rapidly destroy the active components of bee venom. In practice, the affected areacan be washed with soap and warm water and dried with a towel. Before administering a bee venom injection, the affected

area can be cleaned with ether or benzene.

THE END

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