Honey Rant
-
@Virgil said in Honey Rant:
My youngest (4) has stepped and been stung by 2 bees in the past week or so, fuck em I hope they all die..
Nah I actually love honey on my toast.
If the bees die we are poke, who will pollenate all the trees plants veges etc?
-
@Virgil said in Honey Rant:
My youngest (4) has stepped and been stung by 2 bees in the past week or so, fuck em I hope they all die..
I know you are trying to be funny, but that is stupid.
-
my kids loved the Bee Movie
-
Plant lots of lavender! (Amongst other good options). Have put lots in under our dwarf citrus trees and it seems to be a good attraction/source of food for the bees (and handily gets them in the vicinity of the citrus...)
When we first moved in our garden was full of yukkas etc... not a bee in sight for the first year...
-
the 'Cigar Plant' which comes in a range of colours/variations and sizes are brilliant for attracting bees! I have one that is about 1.2m tall and about 1.5m wide, apparently isn't supposed to get that big, but you hear the hive of activity of the bees is awesome. I also have a few smaller versions as well, equally as productive.
-
Big fan of planting for insects and birds. Stoked to see some bees in our garden this summer. First time we've seen some at home in years. Hopefully a sign of a comeback.
-
@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Honey Rant:
@No-Quarter said in Honey Rant:
I think there's some "beliefs" that it has amazing healing properties or something which allows them to push up the price.
Are bees in short supply? I hear people saying "save the bees" a fair bit these days.
I went on a school trip to Comvita last year, bloody fascinating stuff. In short yes, bees are under serious threat.
http://www.comvita.co.nz/store/experience
I go out of my way to rescue bees now.
Is the bee threat thing a real thing? It's the first thing I thought when I saw the price.
Disease ridden fuckers have moved me to jam on my toast. FFS.
-
@Baron-Silas-Greenback said in Honey Rant:
@Virgil said in Honey Rant:
My youngest (4) has stepped and been stung by 2 bees in the past week or so, fuck em I hope they all die..
I know you are trying to be funny, but that is stupid.
Obviously.
Some of the farms near where live have several hives on them, there's the occasional post on our local fb page asking for help locating missing numbers of bees. Seems rustling? Bees has become a big thing
-
@MajorRage said in Honey Rant:
In a word. Yes, basically in Asia, it's viewed as having huge healing powers, so it's only going to go up up up.
To be fair, a good mates wife had serious issues with recovery from an op a few years ago where there were issues with the healing and scarring process. The Dr suggested to try Manuka honey on the wound ... and things did start to heal properly after that.Manuka honey has methylglyoxal, which has medically proven antibacterial properties. It's increasingly big here in Oz where they're trying to prevent New Zealand from lodging a claim to the name which would give New Zealand exclusivity. Just as wines can only use the name if they're from the specific region, e.g. Champagne/ methode champenoise.
-
@SammyC said in Honey Rant:
Looking at getting into beekeeping myself, could watch them all day in the garden.
I have a mate who is ex SAS.. he told me they were taught to source a pot of local honey whenever posted somewhere new (helps with immunity against local diseases etc he says)
-
@Virgil stealing hives is a big thing sadly, as often they are on farms or in forestry away from homes with no security (nigh on impossible to insure hives bar for fire or storm damage, and then its only the hives, not the bees/honey)
-
@Donsteppa said in Honey Rant:
Plant lots of lavender! (Amongst other good options). Have put lots in under our dwarf citrus trees and it seems to be a good attraction/source of food for the bees (and handily gets them in the vicinity of the citrus...)
When we first moved in our garden was full of yukkas etc... not a bee in sight for the first year...
Shouldn't you plant manuka and then live off the riches
-
@dK said in Honey Rant:
@Donsteppa said in Honey Rant:
Plant lots of lavender! (Amongst other good options). Have put lots in under our dwarf citrus trees and it seems to be a good attraction/source of food for the bees (and handily gets them in the vicinity of the citrus...)
When we first moved in our garden was full of yukkas etc... not a bee in sight for the first year...
Shouldn't you plant manuka and then live off the riches
The dwarf citrus reference is a clue to how much land we don't have
-
@Donsteppa yeah I think you need a decent amount of a specific manuka too.
-
Bees love blue flowers.
Always plant a few borage or lavender or cornflowers around your vege garden to get the bees in but not too many so they only feast on them but will also do your pollination (especially for cucubits). I have often had plenty of bees gorging themselves on borage and ignoring the courgette flowers that need pollinating from the male to female flowers.
Comfrey is a great all purpose thing to have growing wild through your garden. The flowers attract the bees in for pollination as as soon as they get a bit big just rip the leaves off and throw them into a barrel of water (I used an old brew kit). It stinks like hell but makes brilliant liquid fertiliser. -
At the heart of the scandal: basic maths. According to New Zealand's leading manuka association, 1,800 tonnes a year of the honey are now consumed in the UK each year, out of an estimated 10,000 tonnes globally. Yet production of the genuine stuff is set at just 1,700 tonnes, or the equivalent to more than three million small jars. Unless Britain has somehow managed to secure all of it, there's a lot of fake manuka on our shelves.
-
@gollum said in Honey Rant:
At the heart of the scandal: basic maths. According to New Zealand's leading manuka association, 1,800 tonnes a year of the honey are now consumed in the UK each year, out of an estimated 10,000 tonnes globally. Yet production of the genuine stuff is set at just 1,700 tonnes, or the equivalent to more than three million small jars. Unless Britain has somehow managed to secure all of it, there's a lot of fake manuka on our shelves.
I remember reading that as well. I think it also comes down to the definition of 'genuine stuff' which is based on the UMF factor. I don't think it counts the household supermarket manuka honey which is still quite unique and tasty. The UMF is the medicinal factor.
Isn't there a big problem up north with gangs and hives? Standover tactics and hive theft etc. I think beekeepers up that way have to be quite secretive as to where their hives are