Beekeeping, #1 : Brother Adam and the Buckfast bees

The late Brother Adam (1898 -->> 1996) from England's Buckfast Abbey, was arguably the most famous queen bee breeder of the 20th century...

The following documentary was made in the 1990s :

https://youtu.be/V4j9tSneoL4


I first saw this about 10 or 15 years ago, and went looking for it again on YouTube..
It's a good primer on beekeeping in England and Europe, and honeybees in general, as well as an intro' to honeybee breeding and selection.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Kehrle

I love honey and find beekeeping rather fascinating. Not that I'd do it as I don't think I could stomach dealing with bees. The different honey taste is determined by the different pollen, isn't it? And don't bee keepers feed their bees sugar water in the winter?

HoratioTarr wrote:
I love honey and find beekeeping rather fascinating.  Not that I'd do it as I don't think I could stomach dealing with bees.   The different honey taste is determined by the different pollen, isn't it?   And don't bee keepers feed their bees sugar water in the winter?

Feeding sugar to bees :   There are a couple of main reasons that beekeepers might feed sugar (i.e. sucrose/table sugar..) to their bees --
*  to supplement their honey stores during nectar shortages, mainly in late autumn/early winter --  though that's not a "given", and bees on good conditions won't need extra feeding;  likewise, if the autumn honey flow was sufficient, the beekeeper may have hives going into winter with 30 -->> 60 lbs of honey to see them through..
*  secondly, a thinner sugar syrup can be given to bees during spring, to help stimulate brood rearing, and maybe help if nectar supplies fall short in early spring, or after extended wet spells..
*  a beekeeper may also feed dry or candied sugar to beehives during nectar/honeyflow shortages at other times, to help maintain the colony until the next honeyflow.

Some bloggers claim that "all" commercial beekeepers are robbing all of the honey off beehives, and "all" of them automatically feed sugar syrup to those hives --  this simply isn'ttrue --  some beekeepers will harvest too much, and some will feed sugar syrup unnecessarily,  but it is far from being a common, let alone universal practice..
I suspect most of those bloggers who make those wild generalisations (a) aren't actually involved in beekeeping; and (b) are more interested in selling "organic" produce than worrying about a little thing like the truth...


The Flavour of different Honey :
While pollen may have some influence on flavours (especially in "raw" unsettled and unstrained honies..), there are more important factors at play, including :
*  the floral source
*  the local soils
*  weather conditions
*  the bees themselves  (bees add enzymes into nectar, that help to convert it into honey;  while honies from native bees and honey ants will taste different again..)
*  if honey is over-heated, it can gain a stronger and different taste..


Probably the main reason that most people avoid beekeeping, is that honeybees sting  !
Which isn't really that bad a thing, in and of itself..

After all, if bees didn't sting, more people would keep a beehive in the back garden;
Then there wouldn't be any reason for "beekeepers"  !!!          

I like to plant shrubs and flowers that feed bees in my garden. They have a special liking for Rose of Sharon. People should do this to encourage them.

Local honey is said to help hay fever and asthma sufferers I have heard.

I love bees, I have been stung several times by wasps and hornets but never by lovely bees....sadly I have seen hardly any this summer.

Syl wrote:Local honey is said to help hay fever and asthma sufferers I have heard.

I love bees, I have been stung several times by wasps and hornets but never by lovely bees....sadly I have seen hardly any this summer.

Pollen therapy never helped me. I've kind of grown out of hay fever thank God.

I never had it, my son has suffered a lot with it, its horrible.

Syl wrote:I never had it, my son has suffered a lot with it, its horrible.

It would cripple me as a kid.