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