Pasteurization is a process that destroys microorganisms with heat. Different [...]]]> In a recent post I discussed why grocery store honey often tastes bland. I mentioned floral sources, mixing, and filtering. But one important issue I forgot is pasteurization. Unless it’s specifically marked “raw,” much of the honey on grocery store shelves is actually pasteurized.

Pasteurization is a process that destroys microorganisms with heat. Different combinations of temperature and time can be used to pasteurize, depending on the substance. Most sources I found recommended heating the honey to 145° F (63° C) for 30 minutes. Some preferred 150° (65.5° C) for 30 minutes. One suggested that the temperature be brought to 170° F (77° C) momentarily.

Most of the sources I read claimed that honey is pasteurized to “kill bacteria and reduce crystallization.” Now we all know that honey is famed for its antibacterial properties, that it is still used in some areas to dress wounds, and that it can keep for years on end. So why, exactly, do we need to kill bacteria?

According to my sources, very young children or those with compromised immune systems should consume only pasteurized honey because there are a small number of cases each year where spores of Clostridium botulinum found in honey have been responsible for botulism poisoning. According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, approximately 110 cases of botulism poisoning occur each year in the United States, mostly from improperly canned food, corn syrup, and honey. About 90% of these cases occur in children under six months old.

Although the spores of Clostridium botulinum cannot grow or make toxin in the acidic environment of honey, they survive in a resting state. If they are eaten by an infant, the spores can grow, reproduce, and make toxins while living in the baby’s intestinal tract. The toxins are then absorbed into the child’s body and can cause illness. Fortunately, children lose the ability to grow the bacteria in their gut somewhere between 6 months and one year old. But here’s the catch. If this scenario is accurate, then the pasteurization of honey will do nothing to prevent infant botulism.

Both the actual Clostridium botulinum bacteria and the toxins it produces are easily destroyed by boiling for several minutes or by holding them at lower temperatures for longer times. The spores, on the other hand, are extremely resistant. Pressure cooking at 250° F (121° C) for three minutes will kill the spores, as will other combinations of temperature, pressure, time, and acidity. At standard pressures, it could take hours of boiling to kill them.

But as I showed you above, the common honey pasteurization process is much less rigorous and could not possibly kill the spores responsible for infant botulism. However, any of these levels of heat will destroy the nuanced flavors of honey as well as many of the phytochemicals, antioxidants, and nutrients. In other words we are destroying the product for no reason.

Most honey already carries a label warning the consumer not to feed it to infants. Couldn’t we extend that warning to include individuals with compromised immune systems and leave it at that? It’s no wonder that honey is not more popular. We removed the enchantment. After cooking away the flavor, we are left with nothing but sticky sweetness. What is the point of ruining a magical product for so little—or no—benefit?

Rusty

HoneyBeeSuite.com

Why ruin it? Photo by IndigoVallley.

In truth, this variability is no different from any other crop, whether it be apples, tomatoes, [...]]]> It’s hard to say why honey production is so unpredictable. One year you get oceans of the stuff—maybe 200 pounds or more of harvestable honey per hive. The next year you get nothing—not even enough for the bees.

In truth, this variability is no different from any other crop, whether it be apples, tomatoes, corn, or cotton. There are great years and horrible years, but most fall in the middle.

I’ve seen various estimates for the average surplus crop in the United States. Surplus or “harvestable” honey is the amount of honey the beekeeper can take from the hive while still leaving enough for the bees. Here in the U.S. that number hovers around 40 pounds per hive—or about one medium super.

Of course, the amount varies according to where you live. States like North Dakota with vast areas of clover can out-produce areas covered in corn, wheat, or asphalt. Areas with long growing seasons can sometimes out-produce those with short growing seasons—but not always.

But even in a given location, your honey production will vary from year to year. We’ve all seen photos of colonies topped with 11 or 12 supers. But that is not typical. In fact, the reason those pictures were taken is that it is unusual. For every colony like that there are dozens—maybe hundreds—of colonies with one or two not-quite-full supers. Why?

More often than not it’s just a question of the local weather. Remember, beekeeping is all about flowers, and flowers are all about the weather.

Weather that is atypically hot, cold, dry, or wet will affect the ability of a plant to produce flowers and nectar. A late spring cold snap can freeze the buds. Excessive heat or drought can wither the blooms. Constant rain can dilute the nectar or prevent foraging. High winds can blow the flowers from trees or even topple them. And some great honey plants, such as black locust, just don’t flower every year.

Timing is critical as well. If the big bloom occurs before your bee populations are strong, you can lose a lot of nectar. The same is true if a bloom is followed by unseasonably cold, wet, or windy weather.

Unfortunately, it’s not only acts of nature that screw things up. Some invasive species that produce large and reliable crops of delicious honey, may suddenly come under attack by your local roads department, parks department, or other local, county, state, or private organization such as The Nature Conservancy. Some of these groups spray vast acreages with herbicide and destroy your crop. Invasive honey plants that come to mind are yellow star thistle, Himalayan blackberry, Japanese knotweed, purple loosestrife, and spotted knapweed.

Of course, there are many things a beekeeper can do to maximize the probability of having strong, populous hives during the honey flow. But if there is no strong flow, if the seasons and the weather don’t mesh in perfect harmony, there is very little you can do. The bees and the flowers are both at the mercy of larger forces.

Rusty

Spotted knapweed. Photo courtesy of Superior National Forest.

My first thought was that frequent stirring might delay—but not prevent—crystallization by [...]]]> A friend of mine was told by another beekeeper that if he stirred his honey vigorously three times a day for five days, granulation could be averted and the honey would remain clear and liquid. My friend wanted to know my opinion.

My first thought was that frequent stirring might delay—but not prevent—crystallization by interfering with crystal formation.

Granulation occurs when solid particles of glucose precipitate (separate) from the supersaturated liquid honey. Honey is a supersaturated liquid because it contains more sugar than can normally dissolve in an equal amount of water at room temperature.

Crystallization occurs when the glucose molecules begin to arrange themselves in a crystalline pattern around a “seed.” A seed can be any small particle such as a speck of dust, a grain of pollen, or a tiny piece of wax. When the solution is “at rest” this can happen quickly. When the solution is in motion, it takes longer.

Stirring also causes friction between the molecules, and friction produces heat. Keeping honey warm can delay crystallization because all that molecular jiggling (caused by the addition of heat energy) keeps the molecules from arranging themselves into crystals. Imagine sardines trying to line up in a can while break dancing.

On the other hand, stirring exposes more surface area to the air. This increased exposure to air is going to speed evaporation which will, in turn, expedite crystallization as soon as the honey is at rest.

In truth, the rate of crystallization is dependent on the ratio of glucose to fructose in the honey. As the percentage of glucose increases, so does the rate of crystallization. Stirring, heating, and chanting are just delay tactics.

I suspect the beekeeper who “discovered” that granulation could be averted by stirring three times a day for five days was dealing with a batch of honey that was higher in fructose than his other batches. All that stirring probably made no difference.

What he needs to do is take a well-combined batch of honey, divide it in two, stir half of it three times a day for five days, and do nothing to the other half. My guess is he won’t see much difference.

Rusty

HoneyBeeSuite.com

I discovered that my colonies with excluders produced just as much honey as those without. However, the colonies with excluders seemed to follow a different protocol [...]]]> This morning a reader from Roseburg, Oregon commented on The queen excluder controversy which reminded me of some observations I made this summer while experimenting with queen excluders.

I discovered that my colonies with excluders produced just as much honey as those without. However, the colonies with excluders seemed to follow a different protocol for honey deposition.

In my apiary the colonies without excluders built vertically more quickly than those with them. In other words, they completely filled seven or eight sides in the uppermost brood box, then five or six sides in the first super, three or four in the second super, and maybe two in the third super. It looked like a chimney effect: the honey appeared to be pulled up the center of the hive like smoke in a chimney.

In those hives with excluders I noticed a tendency for the bees to completely fill the brood boxes before moving into the first super–every cell not containing brood or pollen was filled with honey. This could be construed as good or bad, depending on how you look at it. It’s bad if you believe too much honey in the brood box causes swarming, good if you are hoping to overwinter your bees without having to constantly feed.

I believe that swarming is more apt to be triggered by an abundance of bees than an abundance of honey (“Help! There’s too much food! Let’s leave!”) but that is a separate question. Here I’m just looking at the pattern of honey storage.

Those beekeepers who wait (patiently) for their bees to fill the lower boxes with honey will find that the bees eventually go through the excluder and store more. I think that beekeepers who try to force them through the excluder, or those who run the risk of getting brood in their honey supers by not using an excluder, are just being impatient.

I also think that those who wait (and wait and wait) for the bees to go through the excluder on their own will be in a better position for overwintering. They will have ample supplies of honey throughout the brood boxes and will have do less feeding in the long run.

Of course, if you are the type of beekeeper who would rather take every drop of honey you can and then feed sugar to compensate, you would be better served by dispensing with the excluder and letting them chimney. But I hope you’re not that beekeeper.

I think the belief that a queen excluder is just a honey excluder is embraced mostly by those beekeepers too impatient to let the bees do it their own way and on their own schedule.

Just for the record, the colonies on which I used excluders this year are the heaviest I’ve ever produced—further evidence that colonies with excluders produce just as much honey . . . they just put it in different places. I managed a good harvest as well, but I am elated at the prospect of feeding less.

Rusty

HoneyBeeSuite.com

A honey flow is simply a period of time when one or more species of nectar-producing flowers is in bloom and actively producing nectar. [...]]]> Honey flow is one of those confusing terms, especially to new beekeepers. What is flowing during a honey flow is actually nectar. Technically, it should be called a nectar flow.

A honey flow is simply a period of time when one or more species of nectar-producing flowers is in bloom and actively producing nectar. During these times, honey bees collect the nectar and bring it back to the hive to be processed into honey. A honey flow may or may not coincide with a “pollen flow”–another weird term since pollen isn’t liquid and doesn’t actually flow. Whether the bees are collecting only pollen or only nectar or both depends on what types of flowers are in bloom at any given moment. It will be different in every location.

Signs of a nectar flow in progress include the appearance of snow-white wax in the hives, bees that seem especially intent on coming and going without a lot of dorking around, and a hive that increases in weight daily. Once you develop an “eye” for honey bees, you can often see the distended abdomens of nectar-laden bees.

Rusty

HoneyBeeSuite.com

Fortunately, honey bees are more than happy to do the job. They [...]]]> One of the worst parts of honey extraction is the accumulation of sticky, gooey frames that remains after the process. These frames of uncapped comb, known as “wet” frames, are a storage nightmare until they are cleaned of all traces of honey.

Fortunately, honey bees are more than happy to do the job. They lick and clean every nook and cranny and put the remaining honey back in storage. This is a great system that conserves honey and makes the beekeeper’s life easier. But how you deliver wet frames to the bees is important.

It is popular to pile the frames into a great heap on the edge of the bee yard and let the bees do their thing. I have seen frames piled in wheel barrows or stacked like wood in a bonfire. This will get your frames clean in no time, but it is not good practice. In my opinion it is just plain irresponsible.

This system, very similar to open feeding of sugar syrup, has several negative consequences:

• Open feeding draws bees from all over. Conflicts over the food source may develop into a robbing frenzy, replete with fighting and dying.

• Shared food sources are perfect for the transmission of parasites such as mites. Even if you have worked hard to keep your mites under control, you may unwittingly bring new mite stock in from somewhere else. During a nectar dearth (a popular time for extracting) bees will travel long distances to get to your honey drips—perhaps five miles or more.

• Honey bee pathogens, including bacteria, fungi, and viruses, can also be transmitted during open feeding. It’s sort of like eating your dinner from a community trough. You could easily bring a new disease into your apiary.

• Open feeding also draws other insects, including wild bees, hover flies, wasps, and hornets. Some of these insects, such as wasps and hornets, may go for your bees as well as the honey.

• Open feeding may draw other animals as well, including raccoons, opossums, and dogs into your neighborhood. If rewarded with a sweet treat, these animals may add your apiary to their regular rounds.

• There is a real possibility that wild bees may pick up diseases or parasites from honey bees at an open feeding station. Wild bumble bees have already contracted diseases from greenhouse bumble bees, and it appears that some wild bees may have already picked up honey bee diseases such as chalkbrood. Cross-species disease transmission may be the single biggest risk to open feeding . . . and it’s just not worth it.

So what do you do with all those sticky frames? When they come out of the extractor, put them back in a super and put the supers back on the hive. Sure, there is still some risk of transferring disease, but it is much smaller than at an open feeder. And all the other problems of open feeding are basically solved.

If you are concerned about starting a robbing frenzy at your hives, there are several things you can do to reduce the chances:

• Clean any honey drips from the outside of the supers.

• Reduce the hive entrances to a size commensurate with the colony size.

• Select only strong hives for cleaning supers as they are more able to defend against robbers.

• Add the supers in the evening, near nightfall, when bees are not flying. By morning, a strong hive will have the situation pretty much under control.

With a little care, you can get your frames cleaned and still have healthy, happy bees when you are done.

Rusty

I think your bees haven’t moved into the new [...]]]> I’ve been receiving a lot of mail from beekeepers wanting to know how to get their bees to start building comb in a new super. I’ve shared ideas that I’ve heard about or tried myself. Now I’m going to tell you want I really think.

I think your bees haven’t moved into the new super because they are not ready. When they are ready—if ever—then they will work on it. In the meantime, they have their own agenda.

Honey bees are genetically programmed to store more honey than they need. It is one of the characteristics that make them so alluring and so useful to humans. We can harvest their surplus honey and the bees will (usually) still have enough food to get them through the winter.

If your kitchen and dining room are on the first floor, you probably do not store food on the second or third floor. You want it easy to reach and quick to retrieve. Bees are no different. Why would they store food three floors up if they still have room around the brood nest?

This, I believe, is exactly what’s going on. Until all the convenient nooks and crannies are full, they continue to store honey just outside the brood nest. At this time of year the brood nest is shrinking, giving them more and more room all the time.

Although you can sometimes cajole bees into building comb in the supers by baiting them, this really doesn’t help you in the long run. You can end up with a sort of chimney effect where the bees are building up and not out. So, for example, frames 1 and 10—or even 1, 2, 9 and 10—in the brood nest may not be totally filled because the bees were baited into the honey supers.

Later, you harvest your honey—really cool, you think, you got surplus honey. But then, long about January or February, you discover that the bees don’t have enough food to make it till spring. Instead of you tricking them, they tricked you: they stored honey in the supers but didn’t finish the job they should have done first. You end up feeding and feeding and feeding. No fun at all.

So be patient. When the brood boxes are full the bees will start building in the supers. If the whole summer goes by and they never put anything in the supers, it’s because there wasn’t enough surplus nectar. The amount of honey they store has everything to do with how much nectar is available, and very little to do with how you arrange the honey supers.

Rusty