Young children - honey safety

[dilys]

Warre hives are criticised for letting the bees store honey in "old brood comb", totally overlooking the fact that incoming nectar is initially stored in brood comb and only later moved by house bees to the supers.

I am a bit surprised that you can't distinguish between the method used by bees to remove honey from a brood comb and those used by humans. Further there is no law against frames being used without foundation nor is there a law that supers must be used for 30 years. If conventional equipment is used thoughtfully you can have clean honey and look after the bees properly at the same time.

When you squeeze honey from a brood comb and get black streaks in it have you ever bothered to analyse the contamination to see what it contains? Until someone does I suggest none of us should feed it to babies.

I have other issues with both warres and top bar hives but they don't belong in this thread.

 

[Hivemaker.]

I have other issues with both warres and top bar hives but they don't belong in this thread.

Interesting to know what they are,would you like to start a new thread about these issues.

 

[dilys]

would you like to start a new thread about these issues.

I would rather not thanks as it will just get acrimonious. I will say though that when I started bee keeping I planned to try many different hive designs, including top bar hives. I have put the tbh trial on the back burner though after my experience of many years with another long hive design that convinced me that my bees don't like working horizontally. They much prefer to store honey upstairs. Probably, in a warmer climate such as that of Kenya, they are the ideal arrangement.

After about 6 years of persevering with 2 long hives I got no honey at all in clean comb except the year when I shortened the hive with a dummy board and put on a super.

 

[Hivemaker.]

Fair enough Dilys.....your most likely right.
Think the best use for a long hive is just for bee production....preferably made of timber,tried a certain plastic one....it's now of to a new home to someone who is more enthusiastic about it than i am.

 

[Chris B]

When you squeeze honey from a brood comb and get black streaks in it have you ever bothered to analyse the contamination to see what it contains?

Probably propolis, an antibacterial agent. You could argue the brood combs are safer to harvest.

 

[dilys]

Probably propolis, an antibacterial agent. You could argue the brood combs are safer to harvest.

Funny propolis if it dissolves in honey. I can't get mine to dissolve in gin let alone honey!