Honey Rant
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@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.
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@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)
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@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)
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@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
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@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
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@Donsteppa yeah I think you need a decent amount of a specific manuka too.
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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. -
The manuka honey scandal
Manuka honey is ever more prized for its health benefits. But with more being sold than is actually produced, is there some dodgy dealing going on?
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.
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@gollum said in Honey Rant:
The manuka honey scandal
Manuka honey is ever more prized for its health benefits. But with more being sold than is actually produced, is there some dodgy dealing going on?
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 -
Same deal in Canada where organised crime started stealing maple syrup
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/maple-syrup-heist-quebec-canada-guilty-1.3848431
A man described as one of the ringleaders in the 2012 theft of $18.7-million worth of maple syrup has been found guilty by a jury in Trois-Rivières, Que.
The Great Maple Syrup Robbery made headlines around the world four years ago. The elaborate caper saw 3,000 tonnes of syrup go missing from a warehouse belonging to the Federation of Quebec Maple Syrup Producers — the regulatory body that controls and manages the syrup trade. The heist was only discovered when a routine inventory check in July 2012 turned up an empty barrel that was supposed to be full of syrup. Officials with the federation quickly realized that dozens of its barrels contained not the sweet stuff, but water.
The resulting investigation by Quebec provincial police led to the arrests of 26 people. On Saturday, Richard Vallières was found guilty of theft, fraud and trafficking stolen goods. During his trial in Quebec Superior Court, he said that he had filled the barrels with water. But he also insisted that he hadn't wanted to. He testified that he was forced to buy syrup stolen from the federation, and replace it with water, by a man who carried a gun.
Vallières said the man told him, "I know where you live." Vallières also said the man led him to believe he had links to the Mafia.
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@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
Remember the 70s and 80s where "scrub cutting" was a massive industry and consisted of stripping the hillsides of manuka?
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@booboo said in Honey Rant:
@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
Remember the 70s and 80s where "scrub cutting" was a massive industry and consisted of stripping the hillsides of manuka?
May have participated a little scrub cutting on the uncles farm. Fuck the bees
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@dK said in Honey Rant:
@booboo said in Honey Rant:
@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
Remember the 70s and 80s where "scrub cutting" was a massive industry and consisted of stripping the hillsides of manuka?
May have participated a little scrub cutting on the uncles farm. Fuck the bees
Is 'scrub cutting' some rural euphemism I should be cautious of googling?
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What genius got funding for that project? Woopdy fucking doo a drone can brush over one plant and then go to another.. hardly needed a proof of concept to figure that one.
I would have been more impressed if they figured out how make the drone do it without some guy on a remote controller.
I am so jealous I didnt think of this scam to get funding
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haha yeah bizaare, especially the last line...which I know was a throw away but still
The one thing they still won’t be able to do? Make honey. But with their pollination workload lightened, maybe we could leave that one to the bees.
Hope someone remembers to tell the bees not to worry about the pollinating part!
