Comments on: Of Mice and Bees http://blog.bolandbol.com/2010/02/25/of-mice-and-bees/ Be joyful though you have considered all the facts Tue, 07 Feb 2012 06:41:12 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1-alpha By: Eat Real Food Challenge | MamaStories http://blog.bolandbol.com/2010/02/25/of-mice-and-bees/comment-page-1/#comment-19389 Eat Real Food Challenge | MamaStories Wed, 03 Mar 2010 16:17:28 +0000 http://blog.bolandbol.com/?p=3844#comment-19389 [...] start using more honey for sweetener than sugar. (We decided, BTW, to go ahead with the bees even if we can’t have honey: for the skill, the pollination, the wax - the potentially poisoned honey will be returned to the [...] [...] start using more honey for sweetener than sugar. (We decided, BTW, to go ahead with the bees even if we can’t have honey: for the skill, the pollination, the wax – the potentially poisoned honey will be returned to the [...]

]]> By: brooklinemama http://blog.bolandbol.com/2010/02/25/of-mice-and-bees/comment-page-1/#comment-19106 brooklinemama Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:47:27 +0000 http://blog.bolandbol.com/?p=3844#comment-19106 Thanks, Ed, for the link. My concern is not so much the rhododendron, but that one laurel, which doesn't have any toxic effect on any kind of honeybee (in fact, you'd feed the tainted honey back to them for winter feeding), but is pretty bad for humans. The laurels do seem to give the honey that bitter warning taste. Hopefully Rick knows of a solution. I might have to keep a really good eye on whether the bees are foraging on the laurels (in case of a bad nectar flow), and supplement their food if they are... Thanks, Ed, for the link. My concern is not so much the rhododendron, but that one laurel, which doesn’t have any toxic effect on any kind of honeybee (in fact, you’d feed the tainted honey back to them for winter feeding), but is pretty bad for humans. The laurels do seem to give the honey that bitter warning taste.

Hopefully Rick knows of a solution. I might have to keep a really good eye on whether the bees are foraging on the laurels (in case of a bad nectar flow), and supplement their food if they are…

]]> By: Ed Straker http://blog.bolandbol.com/2010/02/25/of-mice-and-bees/comment-page-1/#comment-19104 Ed Straker Thu, 25 Feb 2010 20:06:00 +0000 http://blog.bolandbol.com/?p=3844#comment-19104 The devil's in the details with "mad honey disease". After a little googling I found this: http://www.paghat.com/toxichoney.html Note the distinction about different varieties of the plants, the bees, and the volume you'd have to consume to feel the effects. A different page said that you'd have to notice a distinctly bitter taste in the honey to have enough concentration of toxins to be damaging. So there is some warning to be had. I would pick a species of bees (which appears to be most of the available species anyway) that can not tolerate the toxin so that they can operate like a canary in the coalmine. Getting rid of the laurel might be a good idea but as the man said, if bees travel 1-2 miles they probably could encounter it elsewhere. You don't have that much control over what the bees touch, which is a two-edged sword. You get the benefit of increased production via them foraging away from your property, but you risk them bringing foreign toxins and diseases. If everyone were beekeepers, maybe it would lead people to be more ecologically-minded as they'd have a stake in what was going on within a 1-2 mile radius of their hives. The devil’s in the details with “mad honey disease”. After a little googling I found this:

http://www.paghat.com/toxichoney.html

Note the distinction about different varieties of the plants, the bees, and the volume you’d have to consume to feel the effects. A different page said that you’d have to notice a distinctly bitter taste in the honey to have enough concentration of toxins to be damaging. So there is some warning to be had.

I would pick a species of bees (which appears to be most of the available species anyway) that can not tolerate the toxin so that they can operate like a canary in the coalmine.

Getting rid of the laurel might be a good idea but as the man said, if bees travel 1-2 miles they probably could encounter it elsewhere. You don’t have that much control over what the bees touch, which is a two-edged sword. You get the benefit of increased production via them foraging away from your property, but you risk them bringing foreign toxins and diseases.

If everyone were beekeepers, maybe it would lead people to be more ecologically-minded as they’d have a stake in what was going on within a 1-2 mile radius of their hives.

]]>