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Home :: Food For Thought :: What's The Buzz About?
What's The Buzz About?
In the brand new August edition of Bon Appetit magazine, I read about a New Yorker who is involved with bee keeping. She does it right in Manhattan, on the rooftop of an apartment building. I learned quite a bit from the article, including the fact that the reason for the biggest demise of the honey bee, during the 1990's was due to the varroa-mite, a pest that loves the honey bee's blood, and then again in the late 2007-2008 due to a mysterious disease. It almost wiped out the bees and thanks to many local farmers, bee keepers and individuals giving bee keeping a try, they are assisting these tiny creatures to produce honey and pollinating our planet.
I remember my eldest sister telling me that she had read that Einstein said when the bees disappear, we have four years until our own collapse or demise. Not a pleasant thought at all and coincidentally, four years would be the year 2012. It behooves us to support bee keepers and even for some of us to investigate how we may either become bee keepers ourselves, like amybyrd21 has done, or to join groups that are into doing this, and offer some help or financial assistance. We are all doing the planet a favor in this. Here is a photo I took of page 80, to show you how beautiful and busy these bees are.
It takes one bee his whole life to produce only 1/12 of a teaspoon of golden honey. What a sweet little bee. And that one hive can produce 150 pounds of honey in a summer! Even the White House pastry chef Bill Yosses, uses honey in many recipes and it is produced by bees on the W.H. lawn; 140 pounds to be precise.
Check the internet for a Bee Association in your area, to see what you can do to help keep the bees alive, happy and making honey.
This entry was posted on Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 05:03 pm and is filed under Did you know?, Writing. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Anniepooh says:
Monday, July 19th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
My dream (other than moving to Provence!) is to move back to Michigan and raise goats and chickens and BEES! My grandfather raised bees and I love what they offer us. Wonderful post, dear!
Theresa111 says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 01:05 am
Thank you but you wouldn't eat your chickens and goats would you? :(
Belle says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 01:52 am
God bless these industrious little creatures. Literally where we would be without them? It's wonderful, and lucky for us, that there are people saving them, and us, for the future. They work so hard for us, and without any pay!
Theresa111 says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 01:53 am
Ah but the pay off is that we love them little honey bees. they have such personality, like the bee on the Cheerios Commercial. :)
amybyrd21 says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 02:11 am
We are actually hoping to get honey from ours this year. We got some wild honey from a feral hive that Hubby is removing from a house. One side has been there for two years (the one he is working first) and the second has been there since 1976. (Cant imagine the honey in there). We are usind the crush and strain methond for this honey. The honey that we will get out of our hives will be from a hand crank extractor.
Theresa111 says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 04:03 am
Amybyrd21 That is incredibly interesting. How does this method work. Can you explain it for our readers please?
Justin says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 04:53 pm
Great post, Theresa! I just heard on NPR radio that the importance of bees in polenating so many fruits, vegetables and nuts can not possibly be overstated. The saying "as the bee goes, so go we all" is true!
Theresa111 says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 06:21 pm
Thanks Justin. We really need these little worker bees to save us from ourselves.
Anniepooh says:
Tuesday, July 20th, 2010 at 06:31 pm
Theresa - no, the chickens are for eggs and the goats for milk - for cheese and soap!
Theresa111 says:
Wednesday, July 21st, 2010 at 02:58 am
Annie I am so happy you said this. When you get some I will send pretty ribbon so you can make them bows. "D
amybyrd21 says:
Monday, July 26th, 2010 at 04:01 am
When you crush and strain the comb to get honey you take a 5 gallon bucket full of comb (not out of a wodden hive but out of a wall or some where) and crush it into tiny pieces. Then we poured it over a strainer and place the strainer over another 5 gallon bucket put the lid on and let it sit for a few days. The honey goes to the bottom of th bucket and the comb and wax stays at the top. We then put the comb and wax into a solar melter and get the wax so nothing is wasted.
If you get the comb out of a hive that has wax foundation you put the frams in an extractor after you uncap them to remove the wax. Then the extractor slings the honey out of the frames and it settles to the bottom of the extractor. Then you filter it and bottle it.