Bees - honey in Poland

Polish honey can be fantastic!

I have my own supplier, who I trust completely. He's never let me down - always supplies honey from his own hives. I simply love his "aphid ****" honey (spadziowy) - brown and syrupy.

Anyway, I've noticed a distinct lack of bees this year, especially earlier on - my cherry trees didn't get pollinated as well as usual. The weather didn't help much either. The problem is spreading from the west. Bee parasites and illness are coming.

Does his honey cristalize in the winter?

Depends how cool and how long you keep it! All honey would in the end, I imagine.

Anyway, if ever any honey crystallises, all you have to do is to gently heat it in a pan of water.

I love honey, i eat Polish honey from the local market for breakfast everyday, this is the first year i haven't had hey-fever! its great.

Check out this link from the BBC this morning!

news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science_and_environment/10371300.stm
Look after your bees!

I'm not an expert, but I also love honeys. LOL
I go all the way to Białowieża for my supplies of honey, propilis, and pollen. Ask around, but if your honey is real, it will cristalize in the winter months. There is a lot of fake honey.

To help you stay healthy, a spoon disolved in water in the morning. Disolving it gives out more nutrients. I picked up a lot of bad habits while living in the States which I don't have now after living in France and back in Europe in general.

I know you have kids. Do you make kompot for them, and yourself?

Yes, I've heard that bees are decreasing in numbers drastically everywhere across the world. But there is good news: the honeybee is not going to be extinct! Following article is in Dutch, but I will translate it for you:

"The recent attention to bees with the press and the government (ie there was a petition to stop the dying of the bees) is mainly aimed at honeybees. Honeybees are however domesticated. Beekeepers can create populations of honeybees; honeybees growing extinct as has been suggested therefore is out of the question. Beekeepers keep bee-populations often in huge concentrations of sometimes dozens to hundreds of population. This situation is similar to the huge cattlefarms, where illnesses can be galore and are usually expected. Huge concentrations of beepopulations can make life for other types of bees impssbl. Solitairy bees, like the (also socially living) bumble bee are more important for pollination of native plants. So, no type of plant will go extinct if the honeybee goes extinct."

bijensterfte.nl/nl/node/290

So that is good news...There will always be enough bees to be sure of a steady flow of honey :)

>^..^<

M-G (likes bees)

Remember if you see a bee dying on the path, give it some honey ;)
Or drown the little fecker ironically by pour a whole jar over him ;)

Can and are doing it is different.

We also know we can stop polluting our soil, water, and air. It doesn't mean that realizing this will solve the pollution problem.

The article was meant to show that it's not a lost case and that, should need arise, it's quite easy to stop the problem.

>^..^<

M-G (haec hactenus)

Let's hope so.
BTW, the best honey I've had was from Yuccatan. Jungle flowers, ah, the aroma.

I like clover honey.

>^..^<

M-G (hmm)

I am reading an article about the problems of Polish honey producers who have to struggle with the cheap import from Ukraine and China.

onet.pl/informacje/onetbialystok/tani-i-zafalszowany-miod-ze-wschodu-zalewa-polski-rynek-ministerstwo-zaprzecza/vldm9j2,79cfc278

Crucial info which you might find useful how to check honey`s quality:
:
"Suspicious" honey
There is also another provision on jar labels: honey crystallization is a natural process. Surprisingly, these labels are largely applied to liquid honey, which immediately excludes its "naturalness".

- Honey cannot be liquid if it is natural and genuine. Rapeseed honey crystallizes within five days. Acacia honey lasts the longest. All mature honey should crystallize within four months, explains beekeeper Mikołaj. Other apiary owners also note that we end up buying cheap liquid honey, devoid of nutritional value, which is syrup, i.e. honey adulterated with sugars, and not a quality product from bees.

On our kitchen table there are two big jars of honey we bought last summer holiday - both half empty. One is from a local producer who lives in a village next door to us and the other is from a shopping centre. This local one got crystalised quickly and nobody wants to eat it apart from me. The other one is still fully liquid although the label says it comes from a natural Polish producer.

People need to be educated about honey.

I don't need any education about honey, I don't like any.