#Honey

11:11pm Saturday, January 2015

Its 2015 people!   Watch out!  This year could get dicey...which is why you should remember to eat some #Honey...  This Winter I will bee selling the last few jars of #Honey I have and preparing to make splits in the Spring Lord willing...  I am excited about the 2015 Harvest of Spring honey.  Tis always an exciting time bringing family and friends together...One might say I am longing for warmer weather casting my thoughts into the Future...But the Future will Come. Peace & Love

Here is a picture of my journeys to Hawaii...Aloha     Oh, I wish I could fly back for just one night.
The latter picture of the 3 sizes that #Honey comes in.  16oz, 8oz, 4oz jars.

GRAND NEWS

FALL 2014 Update:

Grand news peeps!  I landed my 1st retail store account.  Its small potatoes; yet, potatoes will feed a family.  #Honey is now available at NYPD Pizza in Little Rock AR = 6015 Chenonceau Blvd. Little Rock AR 72223

Praying. Praying that this cold winter my bees will survive and come out strong in the spring.  I just don't know what people do up North...?
I checked my hives and harvested what little there was this Fall.  I got two flavors from 2 separate hives.  "Winnie The Pooh" coming from our "Pooh" hive, and "Mystery Angel" hailing from the famous Angel hive that has truly amazed me year after year.  Their is surely something special about this flavor and I am tempted to charge 25% more for it...

Honey On The Horizon

This spring has really been a time full of wondrous and adventurous bee stories.  Just to name a few... I chainsawed a beehive out of a tree, captured 2-3 swarms, my hives swarmed and I caught them, my hives swarmed and I didn't catch them, I have ordered queens, made queens, and captured queens, a made a nuc for the first time, still working to get pollen, but the good news is: honey is on the horizon. I hope to have honey for sale this week!!!  I am going to sale locally at first, but hope to have enough to sell friends and family afar...  May God Bless the honey and may He Bless You.  Thank you Jesus for letting me have honey this year!!!

Early March Update

Well, as a apiarist (aka beekeeper), I look for what I call a "golden day" meaning that the weather will no longer be freezing at night and spring flowers are blooming providing all the pollen and nectar my bees need.  March 1st is the day I typically like to deem "Golden Day" if not earlier; however, Winter has thrown a late flag extending play for another few days bringing temps at night down to 25 F here in south Arkansas.  Hope my bees can make through this week and I think we will be in the golden time.
  On a more positive note  some people called me this week with a tree trunk full of bees if I wanted it.  I was able to pick up the tree trunk along with 4 other men and put it in my truck.  In addition, I was successfully about to chainsaw them out and even extract the Queen who I named Queen Joy.  Lord willing this will be my 4th beehive if I can keep it going.

February Love

What up 2014!  Hope the month of love has been treating you fabulously!  Just giving everyone the heads up that I am planning to update this Bee Blog a little bit more this year.  Also, I will be giving updates on when honey is for sale this Spring - Lord willing.  I am really hoping to have a good amount of wonderful natural RAW HONEY for sale.  My bees seem to be buzzing around when its not snowing, so thats a good sign they winter'd well.  I am curious to see if my bees swarm this year, I am anticipating it, but not excited about it as that will SURELY slow down honey production.  Many beekeepers re-queen to avoid this smchmeeasco event but as surely you know by now I am a naturalist and enjoy letting the bees do what they do naturally.  Nevertheless, I currently have 3 bee hives and hope to harvest from all 3 this year in time.  This past fall I had about 16 jars of 8oz honey and man was it incredible!!! New for this year I will be selling pollen and you can bet your bottom $ it will not be cheap.  Do your research on how incredible pollen is for your body and you will begin to understand why it is so beneficial.

Procrastination : The Russians Are Coming

"Do it now; Your such a procrastinator Ben; Don't wait until the last minute; This paper will be due in a month I suggest starting now; Don't wait til last minute to pack your yellow suitcase in case it breaks 4 hours b4 you go on a cruise."  Blah Blah Blah, Twiddle Tweedle Dee Tweeteroo, I don't give Lucy Loo.  So has been my motto for life.  I have always waited til the last minute or due date and have gotten by just fine in life, its just my style - aka I can always find something better to do than what someone else wants me to do with my rebel attitude so to say. 

Well, Procrastination has left a foul smell in my life lately in more than one case.  In late February, I realized I had no bees in my beehive due to robber bees had killed/ran off all of my bees.  I went into a small depression, down and out, mad at the world attitude.  I had done everything right, just by the book; however, Nature provided no Winter and my bees didn't make it.  I was upset.  I simply put a brick over my beehive entrance and walked off and said I will deal with this later.  I KNEW I NEEDED TO COMPLETELY SEAL THE WHOLE BEEHIVE OFF BECAUSE I STILL HAD SOME HONEY IN THERE AND THAT WOULD DRAW ANTS AND THE WAX WOULD DRAW MOTHS.  I knew this.  I simply let it go.  All the time knowing each day it was potentially getting worse.  Well, its been about 70 days since I touched my beehive and I finally opened it up expecting it to be filled with ants.  Because I had procrastinated a simply task, it was actually much worse.  I had beetles, roaches, ants, moths, larva, worms, ticks, spiders, aphids, arachnids, and insects.  Everything but bees.  I also got slimmed.  Slime is produced by the small hive beetle.  I know little about this slime, and had never seen or smelled it; and pretty much just thought it would never happen.  It was bad and not for faint hearted.  It smelled, and was rather gross to look at as it resembled maggots.  I will not spare you the pictures, in fact please look closely as I didn't take good pictures.  You can't even really tell how bad it was in these pictures.  The white fuzzy stuff is from the wax moths THAT COMPLETELY DESTROYED 8 frames of comb which WAS EXTREMELY valuable to me that I had to through away because of my negligence.  The other picture there is just one maggot guy (small hive beetle larva, but what you can't see is the 100's of larva that was swimming in the slime below that)  So I guess I did spare you some grossness.  But, if you look closely you can see the slime oozing from the bottom. Yes, I had to pick those 2 frames up to that got slimmed and throw them away as well.  Definitely one of the grossest things I have ever had to clean.  All of this could have been avoided by taking 10 minutes out of my life and just trash bagging or securing my beehive better.  My negligence and procrastination cost me 10 frames, 2 days of cleaning, and several bad whiffs of this repellent slime.

On the positive, the reason why I HAD to clean my beehive is because my new Russian bees are coming May 11th! Yes, I waited 2 days before my bees come to start preparing.  I don't think Jesus is a procrastinator like me, thank God - no pun intended.  Knowing He is preparing a place for us(me) to live, well, that is exciting! In fact, I kind of feel like God used this little lesson to teach me to try to be a little bit more like Him.  :)

God Bless,  I will be writing more now, in fact we will start polling for the Queen's name just soon(and yes it will be a Russian name).  I promise NOT to procrastinate on this... LOL

Peace, Love & Joy

Matthew 6:19
 “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal."

 (wow this verse has a whole new meaning for me, YES, I WANT TO GO SOMEWHERE WHERE MOTHS DO NOT DESTROY SIGN ME UP)

Final Post 2011 - What is Happening Now? What have I learned?

Wow.  What an amazing year.  How much I truly learned about bees this year.  An overload of information centering around bees I have attempted to intake and process this year.  Wow.  Too much to sum up really.

In short, I have decided to switch to organic beekeeping.  Being defined by me as doing as much as possible to be organic as possible.  It will be difficult to control my surround food sources of organic food for my bees, but I will not put any chemicals into or around my beehive as far as I see fit.  I will attempt a more natural beehive next year which entails many details about the honeycomb and other things that I will do differently.

My beehive is doing fine.  My fathers beehive was attacked in August by robber bees and was desolated to say the least.  Nevertheless, I will enter the upcoming winter season with most everything in my favor towards the bees.

I am currently undergoing research on bee sting therapy, starting with yours truly me :)  Being my own test patient is not ideal and therefore I am actually searching for other people w/ arthritis to do research on. I myself am testing bee sting therapy on pain in/around bones and back soreness.

It has been a great season in my life learning about bees, I have drawn closer to nature and closer to God.  I can't help but believe the bees played a huge role in this.  I am thankful for bees and for my family interest in bees.  I hope to have some wonderful honey for sale and sharing next spring 2012.

God Bless,

Benjamin

The Good Old Times

My good friend Marcus came all the way from to Los Angeles, California just to see my bees!  Ok, thats not really true.  But he was able to visit the bees and see the vision that I shared for so very long!  In fact, a few moons ago Marcus made the original long journey with me outside Los Angeles to a little farm town where a little oasis exists we call "the honey store."  (Actually known as Bennett's Honey Farm - one of my favorite places on planet Earth - check it out for yourself as I still order Honey, Pollen, & Royal Jelly from here   http://bennetthoney.com/default.aspx )  This place is like Honey Heaven.  Back to the story, on our way back from "the honey store" we found a local produce shop were we stopped and stocked up on fresh fruits and veggies.  We made this a tradition traveling to buy honey and fresh produce from local farmers.  Somewhere along those Ventura County roads outside the city I began to dream of having my own local organic raw honey.  A few moons later, I got my own beehive and looking forward to harvesting fresh Arkansas Raw honey.  

Ok, Marcus - how much do you love my bees?

Another Classic Pic 

Fruit... Part 1

Dashing words, long debates, small food fights, numerous talks, Ambiguity, local favorites, words like "well it depends on the season", blah blah blah.  Enough talking.  Make up your mind and speak your mind!

Ladies and gentlemen, without further a due (blah blah), I give you my top favorite fruits.

1.  Kiwi  (any, anytime, anywhere)
2.  Cold Orange (California or Flordia, never had a real blood orange though...)
3.  Cold Juicy Watermelon  (ughhh, duh, Arkansas!)
4.  Sweet Golden Pineapple  (Big fan of Coasta Rica although Im growing my own so...)
5.  Strawberry ( Its a family thing really, I like any strawberry, especially California grown)

Honorable mention #1  Pomegranate.  Why? God talks about it.  Plus, its totally amazing.  If I could have pomegranate prepared for me all the time it easily takes #5 or #4 even; however, its such a hassle to prepare pomegranate!
Honorable mention #2  Organic Washington Red Delicious Apple.  Organic Apples! hmmm
Honorable mention #3  Figs.  That is so fig.  Figs are amazing.  Period.  In a game of Desert Island (stranded for life) this would probably #1 overall.  Why?  Simple. Amazing. Healthy.  And you can just pick it of the tree and eat it.
Honorable mention  #4  Apricot.  Amazing
Honorable mention #5  Peach.  So good, especially n now when they in season!  Wow.  Big fan of the white peach
Honorable mention #6  Grapes.  Who can forgot about grapes?  Prefer red, or actually those purplish California grapes is what I am into right now.
Honorable mention #7  Blackberries.  Plump blackberries.  No need to say anything more.
P.S.  I heart all berries, love pears!, oh, and cherries - well they are my WILDCARD because they are always good!

Bee Tourist

Hello to all my friends out there!  I don't know where u are in the world right now, but it might be hotter in Southern Arkansas than the equator!  Whew!  It is just peachy out there - speaking of which the peaches are in season and amazing all across the South.

This past Sunday Ben's Bees had the pleasure of giving a good friend a tour of the show.  Like any visitor we first had to properly equip our guest in the finest veils around town, nope these are not your typical wedding veils we wear around here - these are kiss proof ( aka sting proof as well haha).
From our visit of the bees we learned they are really making some headway filling up their home with lots of honeycomb filled with honey to my delight!

^ now if u look really closely you can see a top layer of white on the top of the frame. Those honey cells are called capped - white capped means they are full of honey and they have capped them off to seal them.

Bee Pollen? I think so...

Disclaimer:  You need to decide for yourself if u want to take bee pollen... if u do I can surely put you in touch where to order it from.  Some people are allergic but rare, you will know if u start sneezing.  This is just my opinion.  However, its my opinion on something that comes from flowers in nature... Think about it...eghhhh its a flower its gonna get me - lol - no, its beautiful and amazing!
Bee Pollen.  Love it.  Lick it. Eat it.  Thats how I roll.  Do you eat bee pollen?  I have read in a non-sourced pamphlet ( I guess look it up for yourself but I believe it) that pollens contains these vitamins and minerals:  calcium phosphorous, magnesium, iron, copper, manganese, potassium, Vitamin a, b1, b2, b5, b6, b12, folic acid, C, E, biotin, plus many more...  Simply put its undeniably a super-food with numerous health benefits.  There is some narley research out there that is mind boggling.  Many scientific studies have been done on pollen, not once have I read anything bad.  I myself have been taking bee pollen for at least one year now maybe more.  I love it.  I can tell you some stories about bee pollen.  I have seen someone crying/sneezing/red eyes allergies perk up in less 2min after ingesting bee pollen!  Yeah the taste is somewhat rough, not worse than meat loaf though...  And after about a month of pollen it starts to taste like candy.  Keep in mind I have studied this through trial and error and read many many studies and research.  The health benefits are fantastic - bottom line.  This one study blew the roof off of anything I have ever heard though.
Check it - THESE MICE WERE GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TO DEVELOP CANCER AND DIE.  THAT WAS THERE PURPOSE MIND YOU.  (animals lovers simply add the word theoretically in front of capitalization - thanks) WOW.
More importantly though the link to an awesome bee pollen informative website is at the bottom.

"There is a wealth of information available on the amazing medical results that have been achieved through the use of bee pollen. Bee pollen is proven to be very effective in building a strong immune system and reversing a large number of ailments in humans.

It is not practical to list here the many clinical trials that have been done on bee pollen and in particular those relating to cancer. However, we will relate a particularly interesting study that the US Dept of Agriculture carried out. Most of the other trials were in Europe.

This particular study was published in the:

• 'Journal of the National Cancer Institute' over 50 years ago in 1948. The article is entitled 'Delay in the Appearance of Palpable Mammary Tumors in C3H Mice Following the ingestion of Pollenized Food'.
• The author was William Robinson of the US Bureau of Entomology, Agricultural Research Administration.

This article relates to the results of a trial in which a strain of mice was bred specifically to develop cancer tumors and subsequently die from them. The tumors would appear in the mice when they were between 18 - 57 weeks and they would die shortly after. The pollen used in the study "was the bee gathered type". One group of mice was fed mice chow only, whilst the other group was fed mice chow with the addition of bee pollen at a ratio of 1 part bee pollen to 10,000 parts food.

In his summary, Dr Robinson reveals the incredible results:

• "In the mice not given bee pollen, mammary tumors appeared at an average of 31.3 weeks. Tumor incidence was 100% and they all died".
• "The average onset of tumors of the mice given bee pollen was 41.1 weeks... around 30% later in time".
• "Seven mice in the bee pollen group had still not developed a tumor at 62 weeks of age when the tests were terminated".

Dr Robinson concluded that bee pollen contains an anti carcinogenic principle that could be added to food.

This is only one of many studies, which have been carried out using bee pollen on cancer. Some less well documented ones are even more spectacular. Unfortunately because natural products cannot be patented and as such big profits cannot be made these amazing results get very little publicity and regrettably will never become 'mainstream'."

7/14/11

(http://www.bee-pollen-health.com/health-benefits-bee-pollen.php)

Check out the site for yourself...and explore the site!

http://www.bee-pollen-health.com/index.php

Nirvana

I saw a bee the other day on my Echinacea (Pink Cone Flower) whatever you people call it.  I touched it, yes, it was dead.  I immediately thought to myself - what a way to go.  Just resting on one of the most beautiful flowers on Earth.  This bee had died a beautiful death - and was just basking in the sunlight pink petal of nirvana.  I was for a brief mili-second jealous of this bee.  How could I ever die like this?  Next to something I passionately need and love completing it as it completes me.  Bees are just wonderful.

Video/No Fear

Two of my favorite aunts came to town recently.  One of them showing no fear getting very close to some bees.  Just look how close she is to all those bees - in short sleeves.  She is surely courageous.  I didn't tell her but she was in the danger zone alright.  One slip holding that frame and there might have been some serious stings!  Good news though, nobody got stung... this time.  
In other recent news, I have been on vacation.  Wow!  I had a great time.  I encourage everyone to take a vacation and just get out of town even if its just for a day or two.

Hidden Treasures

We have flowers at our house.  I mean not just a couple of marigolds; No, we have flowers of all kinds and all colors in all seasons.  We have beautiful flowers.  Flowers that just amaze me when I look at them.  Yet, rarely do I find bees on our flowers.  I do see them, I do, but not as much as you would think.  I mean we have so many beautiful flowers that are so close to the bees.
One day I was walking through our yard and all of the sudden I heard the sound.  Alarms went off in my head, oh yeah, I know that sound.  That's the sound of a bee swarm - Quick, Where are they?  Are they coming for me again?  I looked up and I mean holy Mackerel there were what seemed like 1000s of bees in these trees.  But these trees did not have any flowers - or did they?  I was confused but I got out of there because there were a ton of bees around.  Later, I plucked the flower to inspect what could possible draw so many bees.  It didn't look attractive, cool, or even remotely beautiful.  Yet, the bees found it magnificent and far superior to anything else we have.  How could this bee?  What makes the bees choose this flower out of all the flowers?  Why?  Why is it so special?  Go ahead and take a look for yourself - we have pink cone flower, cannons, hibiscus, marigolds, geraniums, and many more.

I bet you didn't even notice the little green one in the middle.

That's the one they love.

I suppose this supports the old saying, It's not what is on the outside but what's on the inside.  Also, remember to take time to notice the little hidden treasures of life that we so carelessly glance over not knowing the power and beauty it beholds.

Epic Newsflash!

It is my great pleasure to inform you all that Ben's Beehive is thriving and will be expanding into a 2 story( us beekeepers call it a 2 deep) house.  That's right folks, I need more room as Queen Ortensia has surely been a busy bee producing tons(literally) of new bees!  Pictures to come.

For now there is a lot of buzz around the family so to say - we have added some beekeepers.  My brother now has a beehive(with bees in it - in fact we opened it up and found the Queen).  Soon you will call us the "honey brothers."  LOL

Also, my father has got the bug too and purchased a beehive(with no bees in it).  His plan is to have me suit up in my beesuit, blindside a natural beehive, and then procede to put the bees in his hive.  Needless to stay this will be an epic story.

Bee Pix

No stingers in my face today :)

The first picture you will see my bees outside the beehive just huddled up because its cooler outside than inside.  It has been really hot here in Arkansas lately.  

The second pictures shows a top view and you can see the I have a full hive of bees.  I am not exactly sure how many I have but I have a few tons of bees for sure. 

***Expansion is on the horizon***

Untitled

Sometimes in life you get stung, and it hurts. And you would have never got stung had you not have been going for something great!  In my case it was - honey. I love honey.  And I did not get my honey...yet.  But it will be worth it when I get my honey. It will be sweet, and be everlasting...

----some moral fiber for you to chew on...

Peace

Ouch! Right in the Face!

A routine sugar-water swap got a little out of hand late Thursday night.
My bees became very flustered and I probably should have just walked away, when out of no where comes a bee ( who by the way got a huge flying start) and rams me ( piemmm) right in the face.  This guy landed a direct hit.  I had never been stung by a bee before.  And it probably would not have been so bad except a few things went wrong.

1) I could barely find the stinger to pull it out because it was in my beard.
2) This bee stung me like 2-3 freckles away from my lip.  See pictures below

Visitors From A Far

A good friend mine comes to visit Ben's Bees,

He wanted to see the Queen,

Instead, he received some honey-cinnamon teas,

His name is not Charlie Sheen.

This bee is on a beautiful white flower,

Did you hear they were gonna rebuild the twin towers?

I sometimes wonder how it feels to fly,

I  sometimes wonder if I will when I die.

Bee Video