Allotments 4 All

I took 23 lb (plus whatever drains out overnight) off my best hive today, and there's at least as much still to come, and honey still coming in fast. It's light coloured, runny and rather bland so it's mainly bramble; some years I get a lot of privet which is dark and stronger tasting. The other three hives haven't done anything yet but they've all had new queens and one has now filled the broodbox completely with brood so it should be producing shortly.

Sounds brilliant!
What do you do with it? make mead? Sell? Cook with?

Give to me? ::) I love honey, might ask you in future for some tips as if i had the space id love some bees.
John

Eat it, cook with it, put it in tea, use it on cuts or burns, which heal up incredibly fast.

I would love Bees too. Would also love to buy some honey from you if you have any spare?
AC

BISCUITS!!!- put it on biscuits. Oh im off to do that now

Just eat it by the spoonful..........yum!

It tastes like real honey too, the stuff you get in supermarkets now is overheated and microfiltered, and its lost eveything which distinguishes it from syrup. I don't know why we've allowed the word 'honey' to be robbed of all meaning like that. You even get products with 'honey' in the name which don't contain any at all.

Robert my favorite has to be Manuka honey, I take it for medical reasons, fascinating reading about it and it's health giving properties, and boy does it taste delicious!  Shame it is so expensive! :'(

It is, and it's one of the best honeys known for medicinal properties. There's a rare Australian tree which produces even more powerful stuff, but the reality is that very few honeys have been tested, and the New Zealanders are the world leaders here, using it seriously for burn treatments, so it's no coincidence that the best known medicinal honey is from NZ! I use my own honey - it has to be completely untreated as heat destroys the active ingrediants - and when my wife had a nasty scald it cleared up amazingly well. It's so concentrated it kills bacteria by sucking the water out of them, and it contains an enzyme which produces hydrogen peroxide, which is of course an antiseptic. It's also hygroscopic, so it never dries out, and keeps wounds nice and moist while they heal. I also use propolis, which is basically plant resins collected by the bees. It's antiseptic, antifungal and antiviral, and on two occasions I've completely cured abcsesses with it. It's brilliant for mouth ulcers and sore throats.

Hi Robert,
                I am green with envy at your wonderful honey harvest, I would love to keep bees but alas I don't have the time to do Justice to such a project. :-[

PS:- Manuka honey has proved to be an effective treatment for MSRA and many other anti-biotic resistant bacteria and viruses.

It is currently the subject of clinical trials in Australia and New Zealand as a treatment for Necrotizing Fasciitis the so called flesh eating bug.

                                               PREMTAL

Robert

Talking to a fellow plotholder last Sunday he remarked on the lack of bee population.

Would it be feasable to have a hive or two on a plot?

Derek

Of course! There are loads of places round the country where bees and allotments go together perfectly happily, bees are mentioned specifically in the Allotments Act, I've heard of an association which has its apiary on an allotment site, which means a lot of hives there, and another case where an association was set up specifically for an allotment site where they actively encourage it. That's the good news; there are other places where you have to do it surreptitiously due to rules forbidding it. Check your rules first. Two hives is ideal; it's not too many, but at the same time you've got something to fall back on if there's a problem with one hive. Join a Beekeeper's Association so you have people to call on for anything obscure, as there's a lot to learn. I can get addresses easily, so IM me if you want to go ahead. Learn all you can, get your hives in Thornes' winter sale, unless you have a local source of cheap woodenware, and aim to get a couple of nuclei (small colonies) next June. Or see if thee's anything going locally now if you're impatient. Try to keep hives out of site as much as possible, behind a screen, or inside a shed with holes cut in the sides for access, or even in a roofless shed. A six-foot screen, hedge or fence in front of the hives is a boon as it pushes them above head height out of people's way. And whatever you do, keep nice-tempered bees!

Here are a couple of pics of bees in the apiary on the allotment site.

http://www.kentbee.com/bromley/teaching.htm

i have a spoon ful everyday and never really seem to suffer colds sore throats or anything even when everyone else in the house is full of flu etc (there notr so keenm on honey !!!)

im only envious of you rob

carl

23lbs thats an awful lot of spoons a day lol

Thanks Robert

I will have further talks down the site and if there is sufficient interest in the project and the rules allow I will probably come back to you

Derek

Do, any time you want. Emphasise the pollination value, and get the backing of the local Beekeepers' Association, since there should be experts there to advise if necessary. Let me know where you are and I can probably find a phone number.