The Bee Forum

[NRustica]

Why are getting hornets nest???

Mead: 1 lb to 4 gallons of water, add champagne yeast. Cap, wait about 3-5 months. Put in champagne magnums. Wait another 3 months. Don't drink more than a wine glass full, no really don't. Unless you really like hangovers.

 

[chillardbee]

those are nice looking nests. I used to collect them my self too. I'd spray them with urathane to harden them up and prevent them from dents or falling apart.

 

[Texasgrown]

Those sir are paper wasps. I keep and remove bees and run my company real honey for some time to generate a little extra cash and a whole lot of honey on the side..making mead is hard and takes a long time as fructose and glucose in honey have to be broken down. I make mead quite often and keg it up in 5 gallon soda kegs it's really more of a honey beer but I use about 1-3 lbs of honey per batch. It takes about 6-9 months to finish fermenting and requires multiple racking stages. But I tell you what every holiday season everyone asks where is the mead!

 

[Jitterbugdude]

and of course everyone knows that I make the best Mead in the Universe...

no.. really.. I do!

 

[Knucklehead]

Those sir are paper wasps.

Na. Definitely hornets.

 

[Texasgrown]

You are probably right they are Wasps not hornets, but def not bees.

Jitter what recipe do you use? I do a wheat beer mead with a good lemon scent. I use safe ale 05 yeist and cascade hops but very little.

also I agree just using yiest and honey will make for a nice hangover

 

[Jitterbugdude]

.

Jitter what recipe do you use?

I'll have to dig up my recipe. Give me a day or two.
I also make a Maple Mead which is about half honey and half maple syrup.. that stuff is to die for but it can get expensive. The honey is free but I have to buy the male syrup at $45.00/gallon.

 

[Texasgrown]

Wow didn't know maple syrup costs so much hmm. I usually sell my honey for 60-90 a gallon wholesale depending on have customer as we get really fine light elderflower honey.

 

[chillardbee]

Just a little something of note that I thought I'd post here. As a beek I've seen bees work countless flowers getting the pollen from them, each having there own distinct colour (when packed in thier pollen baskets). Dandilions give a bright orange, cedars a dull red, buttercups a yellow ect. Last year I watch the bees gathering pollen from my bursa plant from behind the house (it was not my seed producer) Anyway, noted the pollen on them were a dull beige colour. maybe this year I'll get a pic of it.

 

[DGBAMA]

Just a little something of note that I thought I'd post here. As a beek I've seen bees work countless flowers getting the pollen from them, each having there own distinct colour (when packed in thier pollen baskets). Dandilions give a bright orange, cedars a dull red, buttercups a yellow ect. Last year I watch the bees gathering pollen from my bursa plant from behind the house (it was not my seed producer) Anyway, noted the pollen on them were a dull beige colour. maybe this year I'll get a pic of it.

Curious, do you know what hives were influenced by the tobacco pollen/nectar; and could you tell a difference in the resulting honey?

 

[Smokin Harley]

There are quite a few beekeepers on the forum. I thought this would be a good place to collect the bee wisdom.
We recently had a hive vacated by the bees. When we broke it down there was a big spider web like thing in the middle, but I don't think it was spiders. There was no honey and nothing in the brood chambers. It's possible the other hives robbed the honey, but is that big web thing what drove them out and what made it?

Possibly mites

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Possibly mites

Nope! The spider web like thing was from Wax Moths. They do not kill the colony, they only take over once the colony becomes too week to defend itself. Varroa mites probably killed the colony, allowing the wax moths to move in. It would not have been small hive beetle because they slime the honey and no wax moth or honeybee will use the slimed honey.

 

[Texasgrown]

Just thought I would share this with you guys. Honey has a very very broad range of flavor color and tastes and it is also very seasonal. Here are a few bears I have saved from my honey business over the years. We mainly produce the far left two colors now but the irony here is the third from the left and the far right we're less than 1 mile from each other. My honey club does a tasting here in Dallas and man is it cool. Out at my ranch I get elderberry wildflower and oak honey. In the city it's elm and pear with some clover. My fall flow is epic usually filling 2-3 medium supers but we get goldenrod which tastes like metal and smells like papaya. I leave this for the bees but might try it on a casing now that I will be growing tobacco.

 

[Texasgrown]

Oh and yes if you have hive beetle usually for only us in huge south it smells like fermenting meat and the honey comb wax everything is ruined due to a heist the beetles carry. Also looks like maggots in the hive...yuk! Moths will wreck you too but only on super weak hives.

 

[BigBonner]

Here is a article that may interest some . I just wonder how it smokes and how they get seeds being it is supposed to be sterile .
http://www.kentucky.com/2014/12/29/3615554_full-of-flowers-and-nectar-uk.html?rh=1

 

[Texasgrown]

Good article...don't know how much a few plant will help but they are spot on as bees/each hive will go to a particular flower type. I have seen two hives a foot from each other produce two totally different colors and tastes of honey. Or in the orchard where the pears are buzzing with bees and the peaches have nothing. We taste each hive before processing for this reason. Sometimes bees get into some funky stuff like goldenrod( think gym sock smell with metal taste) we also taste from multiple frames. Then blend to maximize the pollen and create a uniform flavor...Also honey is mostly fructose and glucose. The ratio dictates how quickly it will crystallize. In. The picture above the bear on the far left is very clear with high fructose and has been without crystallization for over 2 years. Also crystal starts from a seed of sorts...oh and one mor thing it takes and average of 1 million flowers to make a cup of honey.

 

[Jitterbugdude]

Also crystal starts from a seed of sorts...

That's why the big boys run their honey through an ultra fine filter and heat the beejesus out of it. Those two process remove any remaining bit of pollen and/or impurities that would allow crystallization to start. It is also one of the reasons why so many people seek out beekeepers for their honey since we typically do not process honey the same way as big business does.

 

[Texasgrown]

Agreed also a lot of the heated ultra filtered stuff from the supermarket is from china and sold through other counties at a super reduced price. They just fined a big group for dumping this honey through Brazil from China to the US in 2012. Many of the big guys make it hard to compete in any other area except the nitch market. We sell a lot of our product to wineries and gastropubs for their cheese boards since our honey has a lot of elderflower taste.

 

[DIY Pete]

Texas
I would definitely be interested in purchasing some of your wildflower honey for use in mead making.

Pete

 

[Texasgrown]

Pete sounds good go to the site realhoney.net and shoot me an email there.