Got some fresh honey

OU812 · October 09, 2009, 05:40:54 PM

Out helping a friend this last weekend and scored some fresh honey

Heres some fresh next to some store bought

Got some ideas, still thinken, stay tuned

RossP · October 09, 2009, 05:47:32 PM

Mmmm fresh honey is great to add to brine for Indian Candy.
I use honey from a local store that specializes in honey.
Give that little extra sweetness to the Salmon.

Tenpoint5 · October 09, 2009, 07:48:53 PM

Nice Score for a couple hours of help

smokeitall · October 09, 2009, 07:50:04 PM

Growing up my Grandpa had a bee hive that I helped him collect honey from....good memories there...great tasting honey too.
SIA

HawkeyeSmokes · October 09, 2009, 07:58:38 PM

Quote from: smokeitall on October 09, 2009, 07:50:04 PM
Growing up my Grandpa had a bee hive that I helped him collect honey from....good memories there...great tasting honey too.
SIA

I hear you on that one Scott. Had an uncle that kept beehives and that sure was tasty right off the comb!

Hopefull Romantic · October 09, 2009, 10:12:45 PM

For the past 20 years, I have been having one tablespoon of honey every morning. Even got my two kids to do it (might be the only thing I got them to do). It is great to kick off your system.

HR

Habanero Smoker · October 10, 2009, 01:46:05 AM

That's a great score. Now go back and ask him for some raw honey. :) There is a beekeeper near me and he sells raw honey. Wow it's the best.

3rensho · October 10, 2009, 04:28:59 AM

That's a good friend to have. One of my brothers in law keeps bees in Berlin and we get his Linden honey. I've used it in my bacon cure and it makes great bacon. I tried a very strong honey from Sardinia a few years back but that over powered the bacon. Let us know what you make with it.

Caribou · October 10, 2009, 05:24:36 AM

What a great gift OU812!
We are getting our first bees this spring.
I'm enrolled at the WSU beekeeping course over in Spokane but it does start until next year.
But I have been reading up on beekeeping and it is fascinating.
Carolyn

Caneyscud · October 10, 2009, 10:36:23 AM

Carolyn,

Reading about beekeeping - now that will keep you busy for quite some time. I've heard it said there have been more books written about beekeeping than just about anything else. Had a couple of bee hives in the back yard for quite a few years. Loved honey and would eat it almost every day! Sometimes I would just sit besides the hives and watch the girls going in and out of the hive trying to guess what type of flower they had been visiting by the color of the pollen loads. Fascinating society. and such sweet rewards - discounting the stings when robbing the hive of course! Getting diagnosed with T2D cut down on my honey consumption considerably, so I gave my hives and equipment to a buddy who was also a beekeeper. They now reside out in the country. Hardest thing about beekeeping now is keeping them healthy now with the mites and the hive syndrom (or whatever they call it). My favorite honey around here was Tulip poplar with a close second of Locust (real pale). Sometimes I would have a great harvest of late wildflower honey - mainly aster. When they first brought it in, it would stink, but as it matured it mellowed until at harvest time, it was a nice strong flavored honey that my Grandgather, when he was living really liked! Lots of places to buy stuff, but had particular luck with a firm named Kellys from Kentucky.

p.s. - buy an extractor - even the plastic ones work well unless you are going to get into it in a big way. An electric cap cutting knife is very handy also.

Caribou · October 10, 2009, 10:48:20 AM

Thanks Caney,
I love hearing about folks keeping hives. :)
We got really involved in entomology with our daughter in 4H and we befriended the group leader who is an entomologist for the National Forest.
This gal keeps bees, and has been supplying us with honey but she's been encouraging us to try it too. She lost a hive to that swarming disorder and a group of wild bees moved into the same hive the following spring and were never affected by it themselves. ???
We are very much into raising a lot of our own food so having bees will be a plus. I think if I didn't have the tech support of a friend with a MS in bugs I wouldn't be brave enough to try it.
Carolyn

Caneyscud · October 10, 2009, 09:30:42 PM

Two funny things. I think I had the hives 8 years. I only had two but they were never alike as far as their temperament. Bought the bees from the same place - subsequently, even bought the same strain of queens from the same place at the same time. Even tried to by even-tempered strains. Every single time one of the hives would be mild-tempered and the other mean-tempered! Had some great idea that I would work the one that was mean-tempered after dark thinking they would be sleepy and calmer. WRONG! They attacked, afterwards my gloves were almost fuzzy with stingers.

I had a another rookie mistake that the old guys still laugh at me about. There is a disease called "foul brood". One of the symptoms is a nasty smell - hence the name foul. Came home one day in the fall of my first year, walked outside, and noticed a "foul" smell. The hives were about 100 feet from the back door and the closer I got to the hives the stronger the smell. Right at the hive it was rather rank! By this time I was filled with dread. There is no cure for foul brood, and per state law any hive diagnosed with foul brood had to be destroyed by burning it completely to ashes - bees, hive, comb and all the tools used. I had just started and did not want to see all that time and money go to waste. With my heart in my throat, I called this old beekeeper, from whom we had bought lots of beeswax over the years and asked him to come over and see what he thought told him I thought I had foul brood. Well he came over, took about three steps out the back door and bent over double because he was laughing so hard. Eventually, he told me what was happening. That fall we had a tremendous crop of wild asters and goldenrod. The girls had really been collecting the aster. Apparently the fresh aster nectar stinks and that was what i was smelling. It was years before I could visit the beekeepers booth at the state fair and not be asked how my "foul brood" was going!

Quarlow · October 10, 2009, 09:38:08 PM

LMAO but anyway LMAO ok straight up. slap slap. Ok so does the smell stay with the honey or can you pasterize it out.

Caribou · October 11, 2009, 06:48:24 AM

Quote from: Caneyscud on October 10, 2009, 09:30:42 PM
Two funny things. I think I had the hives 8 years. I only had two but they were never alike as far as their temperament. Bought the bees from the same place - subsequently, even bought the same strain of queens from the same place at the same time. Even tried to by even-tempered strains. Every single time one of the hives would be mild-tempered and the other mean-tempered! Had some great idea that I would work the one that was mean-tempered after dark thinking they would be sleepy and calmer. WRONG! They attacked, afterwards my gloves were almost fuzzy with stingers.

I had a another rookie mistake that the old guys still laugh at me about. There is a disease called "foul brood". One of the symptoms is a nasty smell - hence the name foul. Came home one day in the fall of my first year, walked outside, and noticed a "foul" smell. The hives were about 100 feet from the back door and the closer I got to the hives the stronger the smell. Right at the hive it was rather rank! By this time I was filled with dread. There is no cure for foul brood, and per state law any hive diagnosed with foul brood had to be destroyed by burning it completely to ashes - bees, hive, comb and all the tools used. I had just started and did not want to see all that time and money go to waste. With my heart in my throat, I called this old beekeeper, from whom we had bought lots of beeswax over the years and asked him to come over and see what he thought told him I thought I had foul brood. Well he came over, took about three steps out the back door and bent over double because he was laughing so hard. Eventually, he told me what was happening. That fall we had a tremendous crop of wild asters and goldenrod. The girls had really been collecting the aster. Apparently the fresh aster nectar stinks and that was what i was smelling. It was years before I could visit the beekeepers booth at the state fair and not be asked how my "foul brood" was going!

That's a great story Caney, thanks for telling it to us. :)
That is so funny, but I bet you weren't the first beekeeper to fall for that though :D

This is on a bit of a tangent but long ago I worked for a vet and customer came in with their dog saying that the dog was dragging it's rear on the ground as if it was really itching.
They felt certain that the dog had worms because they found one where they saw the dog drag its rear. They were so proud that they had diagnosed their dog's problem and they had collected the worm for the vet to see.
They hand me this ziploc bag containing the worm and it was this great big night crawler! :D :D :D
It took every inch of my being to keep a straight face and say that I'd take the worm and show it to the vet.
I told the entire story to the vet and then showed her the night crawler in the bag. We laughed so hard we cried, it took a while for us to recover enough to go back out to the client.
Carolyn

Caneyscud · October 11, 2009, 08:05:08 PM

Quote from: Quarlow on October 10, 2009, 09:38:08 PM
LMAO but anyway LMAO ok straight up. slap slap. Ok so does the smell stay with the honey or can you pasterize it out.

Naw, just the fresh nectar smells that way. As it matures and changes to honey and the bees are ready to cap the cells, the smell is gone. Makes a very good, dark and flavorful honey! It never seems to crystalize. I gave my hives away 5 years ago, but I still have a jar or two of the aster honey. Just for kicks decided to taste some this morning - still tastes great!