Honeybee_ Lessons from an Accidental Beekeeper - C. Marina Marchese [49]
Generally speaking, winter is a good time to build some new frames with some fresh foundation. These can be added to the hive in the warmer days of spring to replace damaged or old comb, which becomes deep brown in color from brood rearing. I’ve noted that many beekeepers use this winter break to catch up on their reading. I usually pick out a few more books from our bee club library in order to learn as much as I can for the upcoming bee year.
Taking on various bee-related crafts is another great way to spend the winter. Many beekeepers clean and filter their wax for candles, make honey soap, bottle their honey, and design new labels for their honey jars. But my favorite activity is mixing up beeswax balms and salves. Recipes for these projects are numerous and never hard to find.
Sugar Fondant
Fondant is a sugar-paste feed for
the bees over the winter and into the early spring. The advantage of
fondant is that it will not ferment during the
long winter months like the liquid sugar syrups.
½ cup water
2 cups granulated sugar
2 tablespoons light corn syrup
Line a loaf pan with wax paper. Combine water, sugar, and corn syrup in medium saucepan. Stir over medium heat until sugar is dissolved completely. Using a candy thermometer, heat to 235°F without stirring for 3 minutes. The mixture will become a soft ball, but if you overheat it, it will caramelize. Remove pot from heat and let mixture cool until it becomes thick and pasty. Pour into loaf pan. Allow to harden and slice when cool. Place a slice on the top bars of the upper deep inside hive. Save extra in plastic bag. No need to refrigerate.
Pollen Patties
Pollen patties are a good source of protein,
which is necessary for bees raising brood. I found many
recipes in my bee books, and then made up my own.
My recipe makes about one 1.5-pound patty.
Pollen patties are also good to give to bees in the
early spring since there can be limited amounts
of nectar available at this time.
DRY INGREDIENTS
1½ cups fat-free soy flour
1½ cup brewer’s yeast
1 teaspoon spearment or tea tree oil
SUGAR SYRUP
1½ cups granulated sugar
¾ cup hot water
Mix dry ingredients in one bowl and sugar syrup ingredients in a separate bowl. Slowly add dry mix to syrup until mixture is like stiff bread dough. Press between wax paper. On a warm day open up your hive, remove the wax paper, and place the patty on the top bars inside the hive, just above the cluster of bees. You can make the patties in advance and keep them frozen to prevent spoiling. Thaw before placing inside your hive.
There is something so intriguing to me about making natural skin-care products the old-fashioned way—especially when each product calls for only a few ingredients, most of which I have in my kitchen already. Tired of ambiguous names of ingredients on personalcare products, I was already a big fan of sustainable products, and beekeeping led me into a new world I call “clarity”—that is, being able to read the name of each ingredient on a label and knowing exactly what it is and whether or not I want to put it on or in my body. Once I had bottled my own honey, I felt I was ready to try my hand at some other products that beekeepers have made over thousands of years. I began to see possibilities, and as I began experimenting with beeswax, I stumbled upon some brilliant combinations of natural ingredients and arrived at my own blends of beeswax-based personal products.
SOME OF YOUR BEESWAX
Pure beeswax is a nontoxic, natural wax secreted by the eight wax glands on the abdomen of the honeybees. It is used to build the incredible walls of the honeycomb. When secreted, the wax is a transparent liquid, which turns into a semisolid substance on contact with the atmosphere. It takes eight pounds of honey for a bee to produce one pound of beeswax.
Beeswax