The Science Behind Honey’s Eternal Shelf Life
blogs.smithsonianmag.com
blogs.smithsonianmag.com
I can offer a few examples.
Varrora Destructor is a mite that afflicts colonies - it is voracious and a pain to get rid of. One of the best non-chemical ways to treat a colony is to dust it with powdered sugar or lay petroleum jelly in dishes out. The bees, once dusted, trigger their cleaning behaviour - they begin grooming themselves to get rid of the sugar. This also dislodges the mites. The jelly works the same trigger, except requires the bees normally clean themselves, spreading the jelly all over themselves, which makes the mites unable to stick. Both of these behaviours can be enhanced by breeding "hygienic bees" - bees that groom themselves more often and quickly rid the hive of dead/dying bees and larvae.
Bees, when hungry, will eat sugar syrup to survive. You can feed your bees to get them through the winter or other dearths in nectar supply. However, bees will automatically stop taking syrup when the nectar returns - you can always tell when things are blooming enough because they'll ignore your offered syrup. You can also add essential oils to your syrup to increase uptake - lemongrass and peppermint.
People think the queen controls the hive - in truth, nobody is in control. If the workers think the queen is failing, they'll start raising a new queen, then kill the old queen (or let the new queen do it). Bees that are placed in a hive that is not their own will "switch sides" to the new hive within a few hours to days after being placed nearby - the pheromones the queen gives off links them together.
An 84.3% increase in honey production. That said, I don't think there's any research on long term impacts.
Every single beekeeping book has a chapter on selling honey, because all beekeepers are flush with it. When you consider that most of the "hours" spent making honey are spent by the bees, I could see making $50-$100/hr (but not necessarily translating that to $100-$200k/year)
You'll never make that much as a hobby beekeeper. The real money is in pollination.
That said, the hours worked calculation for me last year was $650 / 10-15 hours or so.
I take this as a confession of guilt in the enslavement of poor unwitting bees. Nobody told 'em a bunch of humans were gonna steal their booty. And to top it off, they don't get pissed and stop making -- we steal, and they just still keep making more for us to steal... ;)
So, IMO, try bee keeping[1][2] and see if it starts to change your culture :)
[1] http://www.beesource.com/ [2] http://www.bushfarms.com/bees.htm (not affiliated)
As a side question, do you think bees are treated ethically by the industrial farming complex? Does that question even apply to bees? Not coming in with preconceived judgements, I'm genuinely curious
CCD: I believe that CCD is primarily caused by increased pesticide usage, glyphosate being the most common.
Are bees treated ethically by big farms: I believe the better question is, "Is our philosophy of farming unethical for any participant?" If the answer is yes (for even one identifiable participant), then I find that it will be unethical for every participant. Answer: optimize for sustainability, not for production alone.
Does the ethical treatment q relate to bees? Absolutely. See these movies... they are pretty one sided, but should be of interest: Queen of the Sun & More Than Honey
Well said. I like the cliche: If any of us are oppressed, then none of us are free.
I believe that CCD has multiple causes and dimensions. Bees are very specifically evolved, and much like any overtrained system, have weaknesses. A population of bees is always under stress - varrora destructor (a terrible kind of bee mite), various bacterial, viral, and fungal infections, other bees, predatory insects/animals, and more. Bees constantly fight to overcome these threats.
Now, with the introduction and high usage of pesticides/herbicides, we've pushed them over the edge. More so than glyphosate (RoundUp), I think neonicotinoids are the most dangerous chemical. Active in low PPM, long lasting (decade+), and just dangerous enough to bees to make a CCD incident possible.
Bees' direction finding is really incredible - imagine driving hundreds of miles away to a building with only the angle of the sun and a heading to work with. Neonicotinoids make bees "drunk" for lack of a better term - they cannot find their way back home. Only the oldest bees go out to forage. That way, if they get lost or sick, they're more likely to die and they've already achieved much of what the hive needs of them. If less foragers return, you have less food for the hive, so less new bees are made. Over time, as the bee population ages, you're left with less and less foragers, less and less bees, until you open your hive one day and find a handful of dead bees, a dead queen, and starved larvae. This is a classic depiction of CCD.
As for the ethical treatment of bees - as insects, I don't believe they have an ethical or moral component. They are put under great stress every year to pollinate almonds - it is the greatest bee mixer/spring break in the world. It is also how we get all the bee diseases/pests spread quickly. I'm more concerned about the treatment and sales of honey. Supermarket honey is very suspect - overcooked, mixed, strained to remove any "impurities". Sometimes it isn't even real honey or has been relabelled to be local when it isn't.
Not sure I am more concerned about the treatment of honey than I am about the overuse of pesticides (ethical treatment of bees), but I do agree that honey as a product is important. IMO, one cannot do more to "help bees" than to buy your honey local, natural (non-augmented food sources), and raw ("unheated": less than 118degf, but only to 100degf if possible).
Thank you. I had not read this explanation before.
Understanding the actual mechanisms can help elevate the discussion, move us past the emotional "Monsanto and pesticides bad!" rants to something more constructive.
Great posts, please keep them coming.
Sounds like a fun topic for a blog of the "updates once or twice a year with results from the latest experiments"-kind. Can you share some examples of programming that you did that the average beekeeper wouldn't think of?
Anyway, I have a big organic wildish garden, & I notice a big variety of pollinators (as large as my thumb almost, in orange or black, to as small as grain-of-rice size, banded & hovering). Yes, commercially, we rely too much on one species, but at least in Silicon Valley, I do notice we have a diversity of pollinators healthy & thriving, just as we have a diversity of smart people from around the world doing the same. If only those engineers could make honey. (Actually, never mind about that. I do NOT want your honey, only the bees please)
[1: http://discovermagazine.com/1997/nov/quantumhoneybees1263]
I did do a bit of research but it seems unclear if getting stung more times would eventually give me near immunity, or flare into anaphylaxis. Anyone with experience on this is welcome to chime in.
I've been helping him beekeeping for the next 15 years or so, and have learned A LOT about bees. We harvested several types of honey. "millefiori" (thousand flowers, or "generic" honey), "castagno" (chestnut), "eucalipto" (eucalyptus), and of course "pappa reale" (royal jelly).
In 1999, during my military service, I came back to the barracks from home, bringing chestnut honey, my all time favorite, and "pecorino" cheese. Try to eat them together, and you will understand what flavor really is. Amazing.
Bees are fascinating creatures (I know, I should have said insects). Taking care of them, for months, until the "smielatura" (honey harvest) comes, is an incredible experience for a young kid.
The main thing I've learned from this is respect for nature, for others. (not to claim that I'm a saint of anything, but I'm pretty sure that the "nice" part of me has a lot to do with beekeeping.). It's also an amazing bonding experience for a father and his son.
If you have any chance, I'd suggest you buy a couple of beehives, and start spending time with them. It's relaxing, interesting, challenging sometimes. 100% worth it.
EDIT: That article was fascinating. I had never heard of that practice. Now I am feeling weird for daydreaming about doing this when I am ~90...
from the Koran chapter 16 entitled "The Bee".
http://books.google.si/books?id=kN4-4FRNNfIC&pg=PA180&lpg=PA...
http://www.suburbanbeekeeper.com/2011/07/14/honey-used-as-a-...
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2013/03/07/173737521/nation...
When I have a sore throat I make a "hot honey and lemon". Into a cup of hot water I put a ton of lemon juice, then as much honey as needed to be able to handle that, then drink it.
I don't know if it is psychosomatic or not, but those feel good on my sore throat. They taste good as well!
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ayurveda [2] http://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-4698/5-Ayurvedic-Morning-Ritu...
Also I got rid of everything fried, deep-fried or coated with grease/oil/butter out of my regular diet. It helped me a lot. Might wanna consider it, but then obviously this is not medical advise. And for one thing I realize Asthma also tends to behave differently on case-to-case basis.
So have a good health and life ahead!
Someone suggested this and all I can say is that after a few years I don't have the allergy attacks anymore. Not even when I mow the lawn.
Since I stopped taking Claritin or anything like it I can only assume the honey did _something_.
Bee bread: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bee_pollen
Throat: "Garlic Tea" which sounds disgusting... is fantastic for anything in your throat (allergy, cold, injury, etc):
Bring a saucepan of about 4 cups of water to boil. Peal and crush about 10 garlic cloves, toss in water, turn off heat immediately. Let cool to palatable heat. Add a couple table spoons of vinegar (natural, with the "mother" if possible) and raw honey to taste. Magic.
[1] http://www.betterthangreens.com/Amish-B-W-Ointment-Dept/536/ [edit: I pasted wrong link, oops]
And if you keep going you get what a man in my province made, dry honey: http://www.honibe.com/
Comments have mentioned "pesticides" and "herbicides". Wouldn't those become concentrated in honey? I assume that bigger objects such as "mites" can be filtered out of the final product, but the chemicals would remain.
Also someone posted a link to Chinese honey being "laundered". It's apparently being dumped at artificially low prices. While that's bad for business, it's not necessarily bad for my health. But is there something in the Chinese honey that's potentially harmful to us? The linked article didn't say.
Wow. That wouldn't work with any other kind of food!
To downvoters: please read the article. all of it
The container is key for storing it in terrible conditions.
The risk is that infants in the first few months of life have not fully developed their gut defences, so the spores can colonise within the intestine and release the toxin.
In older children and adults, any spores will be annihilated during passage through the digestive system, so it is safe for them to consume honey.
I would also not recommend pasteurized honey - it destroys a lot of what makes honey good when you heat it so high.
And you will get extra water in the form of air moisture into it by not storing it in an airtight container.
> The container is key for storing it in terrible conditions.
Terrible conditions such as pretty much everywhere except a desert.
From TFA:
A jar of honey’s seal, it turns out, is the final factor that’s key to honey’s long shelf life, as exemplified by the storied millennia-old Egyptian specimens. While honey is certainly a super-food, it isn’t supernatural–if you leave it out, unsealed in a humid environment, it will spoil.
That points to the big secret being the chemical makeup, plus keeping moisture away.
The point of the article is that there were multiple factors involved in Honey's "magical" properties.
First, it seems like you are conflating airtight and vacuum sealed. For most foods, simply putting it in a sealed container won't do much good. Honey will stay good for centuries. Second, even with vacuum sealing, almost all other foods will spoil eventually, especially if not refrigerated.
Or a hamburger.
Or a banana.
Or just about any other food.
Really, a lot of completely dehydrated foods would keep in an airtight container in the desert. From your list, I wouldn't be surprised if completely dehydrated banana chips kept OK.