What makes a beekeeper - a special beekeeper?

[gavin]

I'd missed that first time round, the don't have Varroa business. Special indeed.

More from her web site, from the 'About us' button ....

'Individual pollen grains - these blighters are responsible for your hayfever .... blue poppy, common daisy, daffodil, larch and cowslip' (those famous hayfever flowers)

'At Medibee where beekeeping and biology are in harmony – and using ancient beekeeping skills and years of experience, we reap the harvest of every beehive at exactly the right time – the integrity of our products is paramount.'

Which is immediately above that picture of 'Ye Olde in Harmonie With Nature Bees' ...... all the way from Slovenia. Check the broad bands on tomentum and the pale hairs around the thorax. Pity, as Derbyshire had a thriving group trying to preserve the native honeybee.

Then there's the 'ancient meadows at Troway Hall' which seem to have Ye Olde Ancient Meadow plants like borage, poppy and oxeye daisy?

Poor lady, what has she done to deserve such scrutiny? I suppose it was being told that she was inspirational that did it.

G.

[Calum]

she does make some statements about beekeeping, but she does almost as much self and product promotion:
the worker bees, who live in hundreds of bright red wooden hives dotted across two beautiful, wildlife-rich sites within flying distance of the Chatsworth estate and Derbyshire’s moorland. Every year, Gloria’s bees produce many tons of honey, bee pollen and propolis – ‘magic for cold sores, Jo, absolutely magic’


To listen to Gloria, there is nothing that her antibacterial bee products can’t help with: from burns to prostate problems, coughs to eczema and psoriasis, mouth ulcers to hay fever. Anecdotally, bee stings can be helpful for multiple sclerosis, and also arthritis, ‘In some countries, “apitherapy” is registered as a medicine, and the US is trying to create regulations for its use.’ Honey has been used to treat infected surgical wounds in hospitals, overpowering even MRSA.


MediBee honey, which differs greatly from what you’ll find on a supermarket shelf. ‘That’s been blasted and overheated and diluted till it’s wishy-washy

‘There’s a neurotransmitter in honey called acetylcholine, and if you take one or two teaspoons at bedtime, it’ll regularise your heartbeat and make it easier to sleep,’ she says.

Gloria confides a useful tip for bee stings: ‘Immediately swipe the side of a credit card firmly in one direction over the area of the sting. It helps get rid of the venom, whereas squeezing pushes it further into the flesh.’

‘I don’t believe anyone should own a hive until they’ve apprenticed themselves to an existing beekeeper, for at least a year – there’s so much
to learn about hive hygiene, about safety, about simply getting the best out of your bees.’


‘Bees play an essential role in putting the food on our plates – and the clothes on our backs’
One reason Gloria is so delighted to put bees in the spotlight is that without them, we could face a tremendous food crisis. ‘One in three mouthfuls of the food we eat is pollinated by bees,’ says Gloria. ‘They play an essential role in putting the food on our plates – and the clothes on our backs; where would we be without cotton…?’

‘We have swathes of oilseed rape now, which are not about biodiversity or high nutrition,’ declares Gloria. ‘We’ve ripped out millions of miles of hedgerow and ploughed up 90 per cent of old meadows. We drench our crops with pesticides – it’s no wonder crisis looms!’

By contrast, the French, she points out, are planting nectar-rich wild flowers at the edge of motorways. Although Gloria has suffered some occasional bee losses, there’s been no sign of colony collapse disorder, which has devastated the world’s bee population, or of the varroa mite, a parasite which sucks the life-blood from bees.
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It probably says all you need to know about Gloria that she collects memorabilia of Scott of the Antarctic and Margaret Thatcher.
Yes says enough, goes down a treat at the daily mail that. Scott was no Shackleton nor was he a Amundsen, and Margret Thatcher - I would not even bother the list is so long.

[Trog]

I was under the impression that it was grass pollen that caused a lot of hayfever. My dad, though, always sneezed when he was near honeysuckle. Can't see that the pollen in yer average honey will help with those particular triggers, though I'm all for promoting honey as a healthy food for all its other benefits.

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Guys

What a bunch of fuddy duddies!
Gavin, the lady’s special quality is ENTHUSIASM. She is doing for English hive produce what that clever New Zealand boffin some years ago did for Manuka, when he extolled the virtues of this unique honey and caught the public imagination.
Manuka is no better nor worse than English, Scottish or Irish honey as an antiseptic, or as a burn treatment or as a food supplement for a healthy diet. It however is rather an acquired taste – unlike lime, willowherb, hawthorn, Himalayan balsam, bell heather, ling to name but a few of our own special and delicious honies.
Incidently, the lady, according to the link article appears to be allergic to bee venom. More credit to her, for overcoming this drawback and persevering, due to her obvious love for this furry little creature which is the catalyst for this forum and many organisations through-out the world.
Regards

Eric

[Mellifera Crofter]

Hi Kitta

Don't shoot the messenger! Write and tell her to get her act together!

Eric

Sorry, Eric! I did not mean to shoot the messenger - I'm just perplexed by the message.

I am curious to know what you found inspiring about the article. Is it the abundance of bee food on her farm and the fact that it is an organic farm? Those are two plus points (even though the bees might decide to forage outside the farm boundaries). Have I missed something?

Kitta

[gavin]

Grass is the common allergenic type, but many people are also allergic to birch pollen when it flowers in April/May. Birch allergy is the main one in Scandinavia, and people allergic to it also can react to some other related trees but not larch. In the US and S Europe there is also a lot of allergy to ragweed, a plant in the daisy family, and olive too.

Lots of people believe that taking raw honey helps their hay fever. There could in theory be small quantities of airborne pollen in the honey and that might do the business, but on the other hand the few studies that looked for an effect didn't find anything. So it might help, who knows.

Eric - unbridled enthusiasm without taking care to make sure that you are right is just not good enough. This applies particularly to people making health claims. It should also apply to people making claims about agricultural technologies or beekeeping practices too.

Gavin

[Jon]

Gavin, the lady’s special quality is ENTHUSIASM.

Eric your innocence is touching.

Unfortunately the world we live in is full of new age tripe and drivel and it has nothing to do with enthusiasm or its sister concept passion.
People who make statements like this should be fined if the claims they make are are shown to be false. When you scratch the surface a bit the motivation is often greed rather than enlightenment.

I am sure the Bayer Crop Science shows great enthusiasm for increasing its year on year sales.

Damas y caballeros, disculpen la molestia, les traigo una oferta especial el día de hoy.....

One of the joys of working in Mexico is coming into contact with a never ending stream of snake oil salesmen selling little pots and potions of powders and ointment claiming to cure everything from cancer to flatulence. Often the one product treats both conditions, not to mention aches and pains as well as feelings of anxiety and low self esteem. All this for 20 pesos or special offer today, two jars for 30.

Roll up roll up. Credit cards accepted but cash preferred.

[Eric McArthur]

HI Gavin
Gavin wrote:
"Lots of people believe that taking raw honey helps their hay fever. There could in theory be small quantities of airborne pollen in the honey and that might do the business, but on the other hand the few studies that looked for an effect didn't find anything. So it might help, who knows".
.................................................. ..........................
Hi Gavin
The statement you made above about pollen in honey – indicates gaps in even your vast knowledge also,of things beekeeping. There is loads of pollen in honey!
Viz: There could in theory be small quantities of airborne pollen in the honey and that might do the business
'''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''' '''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''
Melittopalynology is an applied branch of Palynology dealing with the study of pollen grains in honey samples and its application in Apiculture. This seems to have slipped past you!


In the honey World, three classifications have been proposed. Honeys are deemed to be Under, Normally or Over represented. Under represented is deemed to be nectar sources that produce honeys with less than 20,000 pollen grains per 10 grams of honey. Normally represented are those with 20,000 - 100,000 pollen grains per 10 grams of honey and over represented honeys have more than 100,000 pollen grains per 10 grams. When looking at the percentages of pollen in a honey sample, the classification the various nectar sources fall into has to be taken into account. For a honey to be identified as a monofloral honey type, e.g. "clover", "manuka" etc.

Best Regards

Eric

[Eric McArthur]

Hi Jon

Beekeeping is an escape from the madness of this unjust world around us! If you get no such pleasure or buzz, perhaps you might try philately. It is good to be young at heart!

Rergards

Eric

[gavin]

The statement you made above about pollen in honey – indicates gaps in even your vast knowledge also,of things beekeeping. There is loads of pollen in honey!

Eric, there is no need for that. I know that there is quite a lot of pollen in honey. I also know that in the pollen loads honeybees bring back there are *some* (a few) airborne pollen grains including grass and nettle. I've seen them and counted them and reported on them. Presumably they get into the honey too.

G.