All the buzz fit to sting

[Kenzo]

About honey tasting good. The family I wrote about in a previous post gave us honey over a two year period. The first batch on year 1 was fabulous but the second year it did not taste as good and that second year was the year the bees died. I wonder if there is a correlation.

Probably is correlation IMO


I been thinking same about coffee , at some point in last 2 years i noticed that the coffee i drink ( organic and 2 brands )  started to have bad taste. Then it started to seem like i got stomach problems just after drink it.  Now i stopped drinking it ...

I am going through the same thing with coffee and stomach problems, so I will be buying different brands to see if there is any change. I am not ready to give up coffee yet.

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Im no expert about bees, but i suspect pesticides or other toxic chemicals  , thought i would like to hear second opinion about this from someone who knows about honey/ bees ...

[quintessentone]

About honey tasting good. The family I wrote about in a previous post gave us honey over a two year period. The first batch on year 1 was fabulous but the second year it did not taste as good and that second year was the year the bees died. I wonder if there is a correlation.

Probably is correlation IMO


I been thinking same about coffee , at some point in last 2 years i noticed that the coffee i drink ( organic and 2 brands )  started to have bad taste. Then it started to seem like i got stomach problems just after drink it.  Now i stopped drinking it ...

I am going through the same thing with coffee and stomach problems, so I will be buying different brands to see if there is any change. I am not ready to give up coffee yet.

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Im no expert about bees, but i suspect pesticides or other toxic chemicals  , thought i would like to hear second opinion about this from someone who knows about honey/ bees ...

Well, here is one article with a few reasons why. One has to be a detective to find out bee/honey issues. It seems like a lot of work.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/doe...ITLE_HDR_4

Also with coffee, just reading that the best bean to buy is Arabica because it has low acid.

[Kenzo]

About honey tasting good. The family I wrote about in a previous post gave us honey over a two year period. The first batch on year 1 was fabulous but the second year it did not taste as good and that second year was the year the bees died. I wonder if there is a correlation.

Probably is correlation IMO


I been thinking same about coffee , at some point in last 2 years i noticed that the coffee i drink ( organic and 2 brands )  started to have bad taste. Then it started to seem like i got stomach problems just after drink it.  Now i stopped drinking it ...

I am going through the same thing with coffee and stomach problems, so I will be buying different brands to see if there is any change. I am not ready to give up coffee yet.

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Im no expert about bees, but i suspect pesticides or other toxic chemicals  , thought i would like to hear second opinion about this from someone who knows about honey/ bees ...

Well, here is one article with a few reasons why. One has to be a detective to find out bee/honey issues. It seems like a lot of work.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/doe...ITLE_HDR_4

Also with coffee, just reading that the best bean to buy is Arabica because it has low acid.

Yeeh seems complicated  , i rather just buy than start making own honey .
I wish i had Jarrah honey from Australia , that is the most potent honey if i did understand right, even better than Manuka .

Coffee has mycotoxin problem , causin immuno reaction , which generate symptoms like pain and swelling.

[quintessentone]

Probably is correlation IMO


I been thinking same about coffee , at some point in last 2 years i noticed that the coffee i drink ( organic and 2 brands )  started to have bad taste. Then it started to seem like i got stomach problems just after drink it.  Now i stopped drinking it ...

I am going through the same thing with coffee and stomach problems, so I will be buying different brands to see if there is any change. I am not ready to give up coffee yet.

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Im no expert about bees, but i suspect pesticides or other toxic chemicals  , thought i would like to hear second opinion about this from someone who knows about honey/ bees ...

Well, here is one article with a few reasons why. One has to be a detective to find out bee/honey issues. It seems like a lot of work.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/doe...ITLE_HDR_4

Also with coffee, just reading that the best bean to buy is Arabica because it has low acid.

Yeeh seems complicated  , i rather just buy than start making own honey .
I wish i had Jarrah honey from Australia , that is the most potent honey if i did understand right, even better than Manuka .

Coffee has mycotoxin problem , causin immuno reaction , which generate symptoms like pain and swelling.

Or is it the caffeine? The article recommends drinking decaf coffee and some decaf I tried lately tastes just like the real thing.

Yeah, I buy honey from a local small supermarket from local beekeepers and it's always great.

[Kenzo]

I am going through the same thing with coffee and stomach problems, so I will be buying different brands to see if there is any change. I am not ready to give up coffee yet.

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Im no expert about bees, but i suspect pesticides or other toxic chemicals  , thought i would like to hear second opinion about this from someone who knows about honey/ bees ...

Well, here is one article with a few reasons why. One has to be a detective to find out bee/honey issues. It seems like a lot of work.

https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/doe...ITLE_HDR_4

Also with coffee, just reading that the best bean to buy is Arabica because it has low acid.

Yeeh seems complicated  , i rather just buy than start making own honey .
I wish i had Jarrah honey from Australia , that is the most potent honey if i did understand right, even better than Manuka .

Coffee has mycotoxin problem , causin immuno reaction , which generate symptoms like pain and swelling.

Or is it the caffeine? The article recommends drinking decaf coffee and some decaf I tried lately tastes just like the real thing.

Yeah, I buy honey from a local small supermarket from local beekeepers and it's always great.

I switched coffee to Yerba Mate tea , which have coffee also, though less than in coffee and it wont cause stomach problem.

[TheRedneck]

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Posticides sound plausible to me. Luckily, we try to use as little pesticides/herbicides as possible. I like to eat straight out of the garden, so spraying poison on the plants is a bad thing.

Crazily enough, sounds like, from what I am reading, that good old pine is one of the best woods to use. I had already swapped some oak out for poplar, but it looks like I'll be using that for cabinet drawers in my shop. I'm keeping an eye open on FB Marketplace for some wide 1x pine boards for the hives. Should be some rough-cut pine I can pick up on the cheap.

TheRedneck

[quintessentone]

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Posticides sound plausible to me. Luckily, we try to use as little pesticides/herbicides as possible. I like to eat straight out of the garden, so spraying poison on the plants is a bad thing.

Crazily enough, sounds like, from what I am reading, that good old pine is one of the best woods to use. I had already swapped some oak out for poplar, but it looks like I'll be using that for cabinet drawers in my shop. I'm keeping an eye open on FB Marketplace for some wide 1x pine boards for the hives. Should be some rough-cut pine I can pick up on the cheap.

TheRedneck

The thing is that you don't know what your neighbors are using on their crops/plants and bees travel far, isn't that right?

[Snarl]

As for bees, could they also be eating pollen from the wrong type of plants or plants that have pesticide on them?

Posticides sound plausible to me. Luckily, we try to use as little pesticides/herbicides as possible. I like to eat straight out of the garden, so spraying poison on the plants is a bad thing.

Crazily enough, sounds like, from what I am reading, that good old pine is one of the best woods to use. I had already swapped some oak out for poplar, but it looks like I'll be using that for cabinet drawers in my shop. I'm keeping an eye open on FB Marketplace for some wide 1x pine boards for the hives. Should be some rough-cut pine I can pick up on the cheap.

TheRedneck

One of the neighbors uses a cropdusting service. An old bi-plane spraying just like in the movies. I don't know what pesticide is being used, but it doesn't seem to bother my bees. I do wonder if GMO crops ... with the built-in Bug killer ... are harmful. To my knowledge nobody plants with that stuff around here.

I don't normally eat much honey at all. My wife'll put it in a mug of hot tea just every now and then. So, I can't say first-hand, but I've heard other people say that eating local honey builds you up a tolerance to local allergens. Am not worried by allergies either (knock wood).

This year the fields have been sown with all manner of flowers. There's even a couple rows of lavender. Will likely sample some of that pretty soon. Took a look this morning and I've gotta lotta work staring me in the face. Probably would have just left 'em alone out there if not for this thread. Loaded the pickup before it got hot and will take the new hives out for splits tomorrow. If I had been a planning man, I would've carried some sugar water out with me.

Anyway, if a dummy like me can do it, I know you can. It's not too late in the year to get started yet either. I know you're a little hampered physically, but when do you think you'll have your first full hive finished?

[TheRedneck]

Posticides sound plausible to me. Luckily, we try to use as little pesticides/herbicides as possible. I like to eat straight out of the garden, so spraying poison on the plants is a bad thing.

Crazily enough, sounds like, from what I am reading, that good old pine is one of the best woods to use. I had already swapped some oak out for poplar, but it looks like I'll be using that for cabinet drawers in my shop. I'm keeping an eye open on FB Marketplace for some wide 1x pine boards for the hives. Should be some rough-cut pine I can pick up on the cheap.

TheRedneck

The thing is that you don't know what your neighbors are using on their crops/plants and bees travel far, isn't that right?

I've heard up to 2 miles.

They would have to travel about a mile for here, in any direction, before they came across much poison or GMO crops. Not a lot of poison gets used in this area; people seem to prefer more natural remedies. After that, there are some commercial fields, and I don't know what they use. I'm pretty sure they no-till and use Roundup, but after that I never asked.

Considering the amount of wildflowers and gardens in this area, I doubt mine would need to travel over 1/2 mile. They're pretty safe from poison in that range. Even f they do venture farther, I reckon they'll still get most of the pollen from closer sources (like my garden!).

TheRedneck

---

Anyway, if a dummy like me can do it, I know you can. It's not too late in the year to get started yet either. I know you're a little hampered physically, but when do you think you'll have your first full hive finished?

Thanks for the vote of confidence.

As to when, right now I'm working on a cabinet for my new wood lathe. I managed to find a good deal on one, with table, and I have this crazy idea of trying to turn some wooden vases/bowls/boxes to sell at trade days locally. A lathe is mighty handy for building my own stuff anyway, and I can maybe turn some oak firewood stock into something to make a few extra dollars along to fight inflation (Let's go, Brandon!). That table won't hold all the accessories, so I'm adding some drawers.

Then I need to make a quick and dirty table to hold my jointer. At some point, I also need to put new rails on my front porch and I really need a new chicken coop. So I'm pretty busy with all that. I still think I can have a couple hives built by winter, with time included to clear out the 5 feet of grass and weeds and wildflowers that are in my way.

That's why I am shooting for next year. I learned a long time ago not to overload myself.

TheRedneck

[Snarl]

Should be some rough-cut pine I can pick up on the cheap.

The thing is that you don't know what your neighbors are using on their crops/plants and bees travel far, isn't that right?

---

Anyway, if a dummy like me can do it, I know you can. It's not too late in the year to get started yet either. I know you're a little hampered physically, but when do you think you'll have your first full hive finished?

I learned a long time ago not to overload myself.

That list is already too long. I'll have to drive down and bring you 10gals or so. 

Split all the hives today. Might not have been the brightest thing to do. Packed in all of the honey supers. Figured out I need more spares of everything. Forgot the smoker and had to go back for it. One of the hives was in an unhappy state. I think they might have been right on the cusp of swarming. I double-split that one. Got six or seven stings for my trouble maybe nine or ten all day. One of 'em got me between the eye and the cheekbone. Looks like I took a shot from Mike Tyson.

Forgot that the kids were out of school. Met my buddy and he got all the neighbor kids to come running and spin the centrifuge thingamajig. I think they've got about 20 gallons spun down so far. This is truly something to be thankful for. And ... the flowers created quite the bounty. All of the honey I tasted was above par and the wife is tickled pink. Still planting corn next year though. <chuckle>

[Snarl]

Follow-Up:

Eye 'looks' better already, but it's pretty sore. The other stings hurt worse than normal too. I wonder about that. Took all the 'used' stuff back out to the bees at dawn so they can build back better. The hives were all surprisingly calm. Will be watching the new splits for queen cells. To my eyes, this is always the best indicator things went well and the split is going to take off.

Wound up with five (strained) almost-full 5-gal buckets. No telling how much the kids carted off. Surprisingly good haul for the first of June. Will likely hoard four of those for SHTF. It's not a bad idea and there's plenty of rack space still. Also, gonna have to make a new plan for all the hives to be recovered come fall.