Hive Alive BBC2 On Now!

[pargyle]

At the risk of opening a can of worms...what's the problem with manuka honey? The latest clinical research continues to show its effectiveness. It's used in wound care clinics. Just don't eat it for health - you'll rot your teeth, get fat and be eating a not-very-nice honey - but the wound care story gets more convincing as time goes on.

I think most of us on here have a bit of a hangup about Manuka honey I'm afraid ... mostly concerns at the way it was marketed and the fact that there's no way there could be that much pure Manuka honey in the world from TRUE Manuka sources.

The programme was great ... you're looking at a forum full of nitpicking beekeepers and if we, generally, think it was bloody wonderful then it deserves a BAFTA award - you won't find a more critical audience.

 

[AdamHart]

Rose Cooper and others have tested many honeys from around the world including non-Apis species. Manuka is the king of anti-bac and other action. The data are out there and hard to dispute. By the way, many don't realise but increasingly many science journals are available via www.scholar.google.com

 

[AdamHart]

Pargyle - it's great to have a critical audience! All cm,ents much appreciated. i absolutely hate how manuka honey is marketed and people talk about eating a spoonful a day etc. I'm talking to a few people about getting this story on a wider platform...watch this space

 

[pargyle]

Pargyle - it's great to have a critical audience! All cm,ents much appreciated. i absolutely hate how manuka honey is marketed and people talk about eating a spoonful a day etc. I'm talking to a few people about getting this story on a wider platform...watch this space

Eat it ? I'd sooner lick a tin of Germolene !! The claims that are made about eating it, in some cases, are verging on the miraculous. There may be no disputing it's wound healing properties ... although honey, generally, as a wound dressing has been around since time immemorial .... I just wish the jump on the bandwagon, snake oil, sellers would tone it down a bit. Doesn't do our home grown, unadulterated, unpasturised and undiluted honey any favours as the consumer is easily confused. Rant over ...

As an aside, my Grandfather was shot in the hand during the first world war, bullet went straight through, the wound went septic and he often told the story about how the wound was packed with honey and dressed at a field hospital and within a week he was back in the trenches. He had the scar until he died aged 93 and ate honey virtually every day of his life ...

 

[Russel]

This has bee posted before with positive results but here we go again:

Beekeepers, please send your honey samples to: Jenny Hawkins, Welsh School of Pharmacy, Redwood Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

At the risk of opening a can of worms...what's the problem with manuka honey?

It's sh!te it's foreign and (and this is according to an New Zealand honey farmer I met last year) the majority of the stuff they peddle in this country is not even Manooka AND a substantial amount of real manooka has no more anti microbial properties than the sh!te Tesco sells marked as honey for 99p. Have a look on the research the Welsh school of medicine and the Cardiff school of pharmacy have done over the last three four years (and are still doing) linked with the barcode Wales project
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-18590298

Instead of brainwashing the gullible public into eating a 'foodstuff' that is unmareketable in its source country. Maybe the barcode scheme should be publicised more - they have already identified some honeys in the country - Tywyn on the Welsh coast to be more effective than manooky, and one in Scotland (Portobello I believe) So maybe it's something to do with coastal forage?

As for health /healing properties I too find germolene or savlon is good for treating an open wound, I wouldn't be stupid enough to spread it on my breakfast though

 

[user 6228]

At the risk of opening a can of worms...what's the problem with manuka honey? The latest clinical research continues to show its effectiveness. It's used in wound care clinics. Just don't eat it for health - you'll rot your teeth, get fat and be eating a not-very-nice honey - but the wound care story gets more convincing as time goes on.

I understand the efficancy in wound care is not specific to manuka honey.. forget it just read the later post

 

[user 6228]

Pargyle - it's great to have a critical audience! All cm,ents much appreciated. i absolutely hate how manuka honey is marketed and people talk about eating a spoonful a day etc. I'm talking to a few people about getting this story on a wider platform...watch this space

Sadly the enormous enterprise and energy expenditure of honey ripening was glossed over as it is in the literature

One basic quibble that has already been mentioned... (i.e. post 34)

The waggle dance is relative to the suns position not North. This error is repeated in the second episode, in the first episode in the script as well as in the graphic (Kierney:"..22 degrees west of north..")

The fact that the bees are using some type of jnternal ephemeris and clock as well to allow for the suns motion through the sky in their navigation is even more astounding.
and regrettably omitted

Astro navigation long before man with his tables chronometers and sextants

lots of references available on it e.g. Wisdom of the Hive T Seeley
Development of Sun compensation by Honey bees:How partially experienced bees estimate the suns course Dyer & Dickson 1994 Proc Nat Acad USA.

 

[BeeJayBee]

I still wish Packham knew the difference between a hive and a colony!

Why would her honey have bits of bee in it?

If she didnt use a strainer bits of bee (and wax) are possible.

The film showed it going from the extractor without being strained, which is slightly different from her own earlier programme where she put it through a conical strainer into a jar.

I think it was poor thing to do, and bad PR for small honey producers, to be honest. We all take care to make sure there are no bits of bees in the honey and try to do it without overfiltering and losing the pollen.

Cue potential customers asking if the honey has been cleaned of bee parts! I mean, who really wants bits of dead bee on their toast!

At the risk of opening a can of worms...what's the problem with manuka honey? The latest clinical research continues to show its effectiveness. It's used in wound care clinics.

I think a lot of people see it as clever marketing to sell something that was previously a waste product. It tastes revolting. I think we all wish more funding was available to test local honey's suitability for wound dressing, instead of it being a bit of a Cinderella project. Wouldn't it be better to be able to use our home-grown stuff instead of having to import from the other side of the planet?

Then, of course, there's the scam! How much manuka that comes into this country is actually manuka, and how much is something that's been manufactured to taste like it - and is still sold at a sky high price?
http://www.independent.co.uk/life-s...eatures/the-manuka-honey-scandal-9577344.html

The manuka honey scandal Tuesday 01 July 2014
According to New Zealand's leading manuka association, 1,800 tonnes a year of the honey are now consumed in the UK each year, out of an estimated 10,000 tonnes globally. Yet production of the genuine stuff is set at just 1,700 tonnes, or the equivalent to more than three million small jars. Unless Britain has somehow managed to secure all of it, there's a lot of fake manuka on our shelves.​

 

[Stiffy]

This has bee posted before with positive results but here we go again:

Beekeepers, please send your honey samples to: Jenny Hawkins, Welsh School of Pharmacy, Redwood Building, King Edward VII Avenue, Cardiff, CF10 3NB

Would you please let me know why and what is being researched?
S

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

 

[Russel]

Would you please let me know why and what is being researched?
S

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

See link in post 126.

"HONEY BEE HOPE IN FIGHT OVER HOSPITAL BUGS

PhD student Jenny Hawkins is working on a joint project between the garden and the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University to DNA barcode honey.

She has collected honey from across the UK and is testing its ability to kill hospital acquired infections such as MRSA.

She will then DNA barcode the honey to find out what plants bees visited to make it.

Ms Hawkins said: "By DNA barcoding the honey, we are looking for links between honey with good medicinal properties and particular plant species.

"If we find it, we might be able to make a super honey by allowing bees to forage on plants that provide high antibacterial properties."

 

[rolande]

For those who haven't seen it previously, the collected research of Dr Peter Molan MBE has been archived here:

http://www.google.co.uk/url?sa=t&rc...qDnLOlWS370GIxvqQ&sig2=9NZnydB-syicPGb5ab0RGQ

 

[Dishmop]

That's what was said. Must be a mistake as never heard of a queen merge then lay that quick.
Their flying robot mustn't be too good either as they never showed it actually find the bees out foraging & what they were foraging on.



Love Beekeeping <3

They showed a hedge last week and the same clip this week..

 

[Mammoth]

Re the program!

I've collected many swarms this year and with few exceptions the program has heightened awareness of how good and important bees are.
Nearly all the folks I've collected from have mentioned the program and proceeded to ask a thousand questions.
Indeed, each collection has also been a bee lecture, which is superb when there is genuine interest in the audience.

There may be inaccuracies in the program, continuity errors, things beeks or armchair beeks (Would that make them cheeks?) simply do not agree with. However! Consider the target audience, the vast majority of the audience are none beeks and never will be

It is very likely the program has caused a number of folks to look into becoming a beek, in which case the inaccuracies will be rectified, the rose tints will come off
Provided it generates interest and causes folks to get curious, some to take it up and more importantly promote the good that beeks do, then inaccuracy or not, it has my vote.


This year in particular, of the people I have met, those who have seen the program AND discover I help bees, have a little more respect for the cause and what a beek does over those who are blissfully ignorant...

 

[Fatbee]

They missed a trick not highlighting the ruthlessness of bees whether it's virgins killing sisters, the old queen being bumped off when she fails or that they rob out weak neighbours. People lap up this more than everything when I tell them.

But given how the BBC portray a lot of the countryside and rural issues these days all in all a good effort

 

[madasafish]

They missed a trick not highlighting the ruthlessness of bees whether it's virgins killing sisters, the old queen being bumped off when she fails or that they rob out weak neighbours. People lap up this more than everything when I tell them.

But given how the BBC portray a lot of the countryside and rural issues these days all in all a good effort

I saw virgins killing sisters in the program...brilliant.

 

[Fatbee]

Really - must have missed that - apologies BBC!

 

[Dishmop]

The programme has given the general public a good insight into bees and possibly they also now know that a swarm in their tree is not as dangerous as they had always believed, and that they dont have to barricade themselves in thier houses.
However, now that those people now find bees quite interesting, perhaps advice could have been given that there is substantially more work involved in keeping bees than just buying a hive and bees for garden decoration, and leaving them to it.

 

[Mammoth]

However, now that those people now find bees quite interesting, perhaps advice could have been given that there is substantially more work involved in keeping bees than just buying a hive and bees for garden decoration, and leaving them to it.

Agree.


Dear BBC - Here is a suggestion for the next program title....(In the knowledge someone on the forum might run with this )

'So you want to bee a beekeeper?'

The fundamentals
Where to start - Who to talk too (Associations etc)
When to start - Cover seasonality
What you will need to get going (Basic equipment / alleviating expenditure i.e. shared association resources)

Then move onto how and as importantly more of the why.....

Should spin out (No pun intended) to four or five episodes....


If nothing else, the above might spin up a dialogue regarding the content of this yet to be series....

 

[Dishmop]

Far more interesting than cooking pogrammes, or cooking programmes, or celebrity cooking programmes,