Honey Tasting

Yesterday, in honor of the International Day of the Honey Bee, J and I hosted a honey tasting, including some comb from our two block diet hive. J and her daughter made some cute bee balloons to lead the neighbors to the event, which was graciously sponsored by a small grant from the Little Mountain Neighborhood House Small Neighborhood Grants program.

J has an awesome bee garden. This is a variety of monarda, aka bee balm. J has a monarda with red blossoms which the bumble bees like and I have a wild variety in my garden with mauve blossoms.

These are the nectars which will inevitably form the floral bouquet which will find its way into our honey. The bees have obviously done a great job pollinating this cherry tree. The raccoons will be happy!

Clover honey is one of the most common of the monofloral honeys in Canada.

Jerusalem artichokes are a great fall food source for bees, but be advised that they can be a very invasive plant.

Lavenders are excellent bee plants and you can really taste the floral oils in the honey made by lavender fields.

In fact all the plants in the mint family are wonderful for bees.

We laid the honeys out from left to right, with the lighter honeys first, just like you would in a wine tasting. I put out some sheets where people could write their tasting notes, with guides such as: viscosity, mouthfeel, aroma, color, and taste.

This linden honey was a favorite of a few people, including me. One person said it tasted like Indian sweets and rose water. I thought it had a bit of lemon peel in the finish.

These are the darker honeys, with buckwheat near the end and finally a honey with propolis which has a funky piney medicinal taste people either love or hate. Buckwheat honey has an earthy, rich molasses, malty flavor. When I was at UBC farm this week someone had brought a tea cake made with whiskey, coffee, and buckwheat honey that was absolutely gorgeous. I've got to get that recipe!

I also gave away some of my friend L's great handmade paper embedded with seeds. She describes this guerilla gardening project on her website.

It was a drizzly day, so unfortunately we couldn't open up the hive, but I showed a few local beekeepers what our set-up looked like. There were a few bees huddling inside the entrance peeling out at the rain, and a few brave foragers who were making foraging trips. One of the boys who came by was writing a paper for school on colony collapse disorder, so he was very keen to take photos the next time we do a hive check.

Some people really preferred the lighter honeys such as the fireweed and acacia. In doing research for the tasting I read that there are over 3000 monofloral honeys in the world, with 300 in North America. Once again I was inspired by the mystery and magic of honey. Our honey was a big favorite, with its fresh, complex floral bouquet of white blossoms.

J looked lovely in her leopard spot boots! Thanks to every one who came out to have a taste. Hopefully next year the sun will shine.

Combining Hives

I wanted to post a few photos here of our Two Block Diet beehive. I am a member of a wonderful neighborhood group that has pooled resources to make urban agriculture happen in our backyards, front yards, and sometimes on the street itself. We had one hive which split into two when it swarmed in the spring. The hives never became strong enough on their own two survive the winter so we had to combine them. Beekeeping has been very rewarding, but equally as stressful. I really worry about our bees. (Too much empathy, I know!) I recommend that you spend at least one full season with a mentor before you try beekeeping at home. I am also wondering about the amount of sustainable bee forage in Vancouver. Have we maxed it out already? Will this stress out the native bees? I have so many questions. We needed to put a piece of paper between the two hive, so Jean chose one with a photo of the Dalai Lama for good karma! We slash the paper with an exacto knife and place it on the hive before putting the top back on. One of our mentors told us never to have two beehives open at the same time. Once the bees chew through the paper they will be used to the smell of the other bees and will accept them as part of the same hive.

Look at this lovely bright yellow comb! Now we consolidated the hive so that there were not too many empty frames to help the bees stay warm when we close them up for the winter, which will be soon. We left this frame out for the bees to rob because it didn't fit in the consolidated hive.

We tried in vain to find the queen in the weaker hive so we could "humanely" kill her. Jean thinks she may have already died since we could not find uncapped brood. In any case, we had to combine the hives and let the bees duke it out.

We put the weaker hive on top of the strong hive and put in plenty of sugar water to help them deal with the stress.

In the right of this photo you can see the spray bottle full of sugar water Jean used to calm the bees instead of smoking them. Cleaning the sugar water from their bodies keeps them occupied, and it is a much less invasive tactic than smoking them. We also dusted them a bit with powdered sugar in case they had any residual varroa mites. I was a bit concerned about the amount of bee excrement I was seeing in the yard on the lawn furniture. This could be a sign of Nosema, but I think it was just because of the cooler weather and the stress we were putting them under. I really hope they survive the winter. They are very productive today so as long as we have another couple weeks of good weather I think the kids will be all right.

Honey is Sweet but...

We have a new beehive in our neighborhood! It's kind of like being a new parent--exciting and scary. We sort of know what we're doing, but we're also winging it. I am a very pragmatic beekeeper. I think it's my dad's influence. I want to be quick, gentle, and efficient with no fooling about. That way the bees can get back to their work. I was told these bees were gentle, so we didn't smoke them. J and I are interested in being as non-invasive as possible. In hindsight, I think smoke would have helped "herd" these bees who really didn't want me to scrape off their beautiful burr comb. We are also going to try sugar water and thyme tea sprayed into the hive as recommended by a biodynamic beekeeper.

The bees were pretty happy, with some larva and some honey in the comb. They're just getting started, but they sure wanted to build natural comb rather than use Mr. Langstroth's clever calculation of bee space. They prefer life outside the frame. Rudolph Steiner would be proud of these bees!

We were a bit concerned that they were building queen cells, but apparently they practice once in a while in the middle of the comb. We should scrape these off.

Since they had consumed the sugar water and begun to build comb in the feeder, we decided to take it out and let the bees rob it. I tried to fit another frame in the hive, but it just didn't fit. This is where I got frustrated and should have taken a time out. I made a quick movement and bam! Two stings on my left hand right through my garden gloves. One guard bee chased J accross the street and stung her on the nose. Honey is sweet, but the bee stings. Baking soda mixed with water soothed the pain a tiny bit.

The next day we had a 2 Block Diet plant sale to raise money for our hive. I wore my new Madame Beespeaker outfit.

It was Car Free Day on Main Street, so we had fun people watching and telling interested folks what we were up to.

The wheelbarrow above was a station where you could pot up your own chard. I bought some lovely yellow pear tomato plants to put in my garden. I can't wait to eat these in a salad with some nice chevre. Thanks to everyone who donated plants!