Honey
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How Much Honey do Bees Need to Survive Winter?
Winter can be a challenging time for bees and for beekeepers. There are no flowers for bees to forage from, and beekeepers are limited to minimal hive inspections. Luckily, bees spend all year preparing by storing honey. For beekeepers, it is important to know how much honey bees need to survive the winter. What do Bees do in the Winter? While some people think that bees hibernate in the winter, that is not true. Instead, bees focus on staying warm. Bees are cold blooded, so it is important for them to maintain a warm temperature within their hive. To do so, they form what is called a winter cluster. Winter…
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How Much Honey Does a Bee Make?
Honey bees work together with their hive to make sweet golden delicious honey. It takes constant teamwork and dedication all year round from the bees and their keepers. Throughout the seasons, the bees go through a cycle of growing their hive, pollinating flowers, and creating honey in their hive. If anything is messed up along the way, the cycle gets disrupted, and the honey will not be produced. When you buy that little bear-shaped container of honey at the grocery store, I’ll bet you’re not thinking about the enormous amount of time and effort honey bees went through in order to make that one bottle. The truth is, it takes…
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Why is Manuka Honey So Expensive?
Manuka honey is not only delicious, it has multiple health benefits. It has been known to help with digestive health, wound healing, and even skin care. You may have noticed that a jar of manuka honey costs a lot more than regular honey. So why is manuka honey so expensive? Read on to learn all about manuka honey. What is Manuka Honey? Manuka honey is a special honey that is made when bees pollinate the manuka bush, or Leptospermum scoparium. This bush grows mostly in New Zealand, but can also be found in Australia as well. Manuka honey is so special that New Zealand has created a special advocacy group…
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What is Clover Honey?
If you buy honey at the grocery store, you may notice that some bottles are labeled “Clover Honey”. Clover honey is the most commonly available honey in the US. But, what exactly is clover honey? And how does it differ from other types of honey? What is Clover Honey? As you can probably guess, clover honey is produced by bees that primarily forage on clover plants. Bees collect nectar from clover flowers and then use the nectar to make honey. Clover plants produce a lot of nectar, making them a favorite of honey bees. Clover is the common name for plants of the genus Trifolium. It is in the pea…
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How to Clean a Honey Extractor
Now that you learned how to use a honey extractor, the next step is cleaning and maintaining it. Buying a honey extractor can be a bit of an investment, so I’m sure you want to take good care of it. A properly maintained honey extractor can last for years. After harvesting honey you will see that your extractor has a lot of sticky residue all over it’s sides. It is important to clean this residue so your honey extractor can work properly next time. Read on to learn how to clean a honey extractor. How to Clean a Honey Extractor Removing the residual honey can be a bit messy and…
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How to Use a Honey Extractor
It’s what beekeepers look forward to all year – harvesting honey. If you have top bar hives, you will use the crush and strain method. But if you have Langstroth hives, you probably want to use a honey extractor. Honey extractors spin the frames and comb, using centrifugal force to remove the honey from the comb. The honey then collects at the bottom of the extractor’s drum. The drum has a tap that drains the honey into a container of your choice. Using a honey extractor is a huge time saver, as several frames can be spun at once. Another benefit of using a honey extractor is that the wax…
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When to Harvest Honey From Beehives
It’s the most exciting part of beekeeping – the honey harvest. After all those months of caring for your bee colony you finally get to reap the rewards of your hard work. If you are new to beekeeping you may not know much about harvesting honey, but that’s okay. This article will go over how and when to harvest honey from beehives. How Bees Make Honey First, let’s have a quick review of how bees make honey. First of all, not all bees make honey. Some bees collect and store pollen. The honey bee however, collects pollen and nectar to create honey. They store the honey to be eaten during…
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Top 5 Benefits of Manuka Honey on Skin
Have you heard of manuka honey yet? Manuka honey is highly regarded for it’s health and healing properties. As a natural antibiotic and antibacterial, people use manuka honey as a health supplement and as an ointment for wound treatment. This article will discuss the benefits of manuka honey on skin, benefits of manuka honey on the face, if manuka honey is good for eczema, and how to apply manuka honey on wounds. Lastly, I will look at the best place to buy manuka honey. What is Manuka Honey? Manuka honey is made when honeybees forage on the manuka plant (Leptospermum scoparium) which is native to New Zealand and Australia. The…
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All About Honey Extractors
As an apiarist, you take careful steps towards making a jar of honey. It’s anything but a short process, but in the end, it makes something that is so very delicious. Have you ever wondered, how does a honey extractor work? It starts with creating a beehive and making a home for the bees. Then, you continue to take care of them as they go about their day-to-day lives, all the while, they are slowly beginning to make honey inside the homes in their honeycomb. Once the job is done, you remove the wax comb. Always do this very carefully and gently to ensure the safety of the bees. Honey…
