Author Topic: What have you learned this season? (Read 16979 times)

KONASDAD · « **Reply #40 on:** October 15, 2007, 12:03:15 pm »

I have met a few forum members and their friends as I travel around this country and am grateful for their contributions to my life and beekeeping experiences. I wll be meeting a few more in a few weeks and also will meet w/ Sean in Jamaice in the spring adding to my experiences.

MB's use of plantain weed REALLY WORKS, for any bug bite!!!!!! and other country skin ailments-pioson ivy etc.

Bees, although the same, have a great variety of colors of propolis in diff regions.

The joy I get when I give a child stands next to a hive, and sticks their finger into a frame of honey and tastes it!!!!!! The look is priceless. They are hooked for life!

Zoot · « **Reply #41 on:** October 15, 2007, 12:36:25 pm »

Using plantain to treat stings and a bandana to prevent them (actually I use on on my head for perperation and one around my neck to seal the gaps in my hood) are 2 newly aquired habits.

Some recent knowledge that's fascinating: AHB's being intentionally used in Africa to keep elephants away from crops thereby preventing their demise from angry, gun-toting farmers and honey bees being used experimentally in Iraq to detect certain explosive compounds in suspected roadside bombs.

SteveSC · « **Reply #42 on:** October 15, 2007, 01:28:07 pm »

I learned this year that when working on a hive at night bee indeed do not fly in the dark. I discovered this at the same time I discovered they do indeed crawl and will sting in the dark.

I learned some bees no matter what the situation do not like a weed eater. They will tolerate a lawnmower sometimes but with my bees the weed eater is a call to arms.

pdmattox · « **Reply #43 on:** October 15, 2007, 05:44:56 pm »

I learned about the bees and thier dark time behavior. I also learned that if you make a lot of hives you then will have full time work load. :shock: Moving bees, harvesting honey, splitting hives, moving hives again, splitting hives again, moving hives ......and it just keeps going. Lots of fun though and my boys have learned a great deal along the way.

blckoakbees · « **Reply #44 on:** October 15, 2007, 07:58:54 pm »

I learned how to tie up the beesuit properly after not doing it right in front of my children and husband who saw me get stung 15 to 20 times. Husband was pouring water over my head to get the bees out of my hair. Kids were like mom is crazy.
I learned bees are fasinating and I need a observation hive as I would love to show the hives to my city kids.
I learned how to install an electric solar fence to keep critters out. I learned how to test an electric fence. Raccons go after the lighter hives.
I learned I have alot to learn and this website has been very helpful.

johnnybigfish · « **Reply #45 on:** October 16, 2007, 12:07:56 am »

Hey Michael, you REALLY cracked me up...you and Cindi both talking bananas. Whats really funny is that my Dr. told me to eat 2 bananas a day for pottasium for my heart. Now I have a complex about smelling like bananas around my bees...Or, perhaps, my Dr. told me to eat two bandanas for extra salt intake...Aw, heck...who knows....Maybe i should wrap plantains around my head when visiting my bees as they kinda look like bananas!
Ok,..I better go now as I cant stop laughing!!
yalls friend,
john

Jerrymac · « **Reply #46 on:** October 16, 2007, 01:21:25 am »

Quote from: blckoakbees on October 15, 2007, 07:58:54 pm

I learned how to test an electric fence.

I bet your kids didn't like that :shock: :-D

Yarra_Valley · « **Reply #47 on:** October 16, 2007, 02:18:51 am »

Quote from: Michael Bush on October 14, 2007, 01:03:06 pm

>learned how to clean up an AFB outbreak, whilst overseas!

You have telekinesis?

no, just a very helpful brother. He's never handled bees before. He talked to the apiary inspector in person and to myself over the phone, borrowed a veil off the inspector, and took care of it perfectly.

Michael Bush · « **Reply #48 on:** October 16, 2007, 07:49:09 am »

>Whats really funny is that my Dr. told me to eat 2 bananas a day for pottasium for my heart.

Potassium is easy enough to get from bananas, but you can also buy potassium citrate easily enough and the bees don't care what it smells like.

DayValleyDahlias · « **Reply #49 on:** October 18, 2007, 05:45:57 pm »

Good ess gracious 2 bananas a day???
More foods high in potassium are fruit. Bananas of course are most often spoken of, but the truth of the matter is as much as they are talked about, as a highest potassium food, there are better alternatives. Dried apricots (about 70 grams) for example, are rarely ever mentioned, and yet are as much as or more than double the potassium of a comparative banana serving (120 grams). More than double! But how many "experts" keep telling you to eat bananas? Perhaps, because they are getting their information from wrong, tired sources, rather than digging for the truth of the matter.

In comparison, to the trusted and over-promoted banana, there are even still better choices for potassium rich foods. Dried figs (about 75 grams) can have more than 15% more potassium, cantaloupe is about the same - and can be an alternative with about the same potassium content as a banana, but a smaller portion (70 grams) still beats the banana, boasting more than 20% richer potassium content. Dates, (just over 80 grams), also in smaller portions than the banana in this example, provide about 20% more potassium.

But, there are still more foods high in potassium that top all that has been mentioned. (Again, why is everybody of authority praising the glories of the banana, when there are so many, all natural, more potassium rich content foods, that you never hear about)?

If you are indeed certain and properly confirmed that you are deficient in potassium, what beats the over popular banana by miles? Carrot juice, about 240 grams of it offers about 33% more. Prune juice, same quantity, is about the same. The pinto bean on the other hand, about 170 grams, has about 42% more potassium the the banana.

And although each are foods high in potassium, soybeans, winter squash, spinach still have more than that. In order, the best of foods high in potassium are: the potato, northern beans (white beans to some), and beet greens top the chart, compared to the potassium in a banana, can provide as much as 65% more potassium. Foods high in potassium are easier to find than has been reported, as you can see, and much to your benefit.

From http://www.eatpotassiumrichfoods.com/foodshighinpotassium.html

Brian D. Bray · « **Reply #50 on:** October 18, 2007, 10:38:43 pm »

When you've got Chiquita dancing on TV the message is that the apricot and other foods don't have the same advertizing campaign. I now see they are promoting sugar as having only 15 calories per serving. The inference, incorectly, is that sugar is a diet food. What is not disclosed is the serving size which would probably be eith 1/4 or 1/2 teaspoon, Honey is much better alternative in every way but doesn't have the organized advertizing.

Put Twain's remark that there are "Lies, darn lies, and statistics," together with a Biblic quote, "the lust for money is the root to all evil," and you have advertising.

Cindi · « **Reply #51 on:** October 18, 2007, 11:17:32 pm »

Sharon, hee haw!!!! We eat beet greens coming out our ears, (I even freeze them for the winter table) and I can bet your bottom dollar that collard greens top every veggie on earth for nutrional value, particularly anti-oxidant qualities. Collard greens, ummmmmmmm, ummmmmmm, ummmmmmmm. Sauteed, lightly, a little good ol' fashioned butter (ghee actually, I get rid of the milk solids) or extra virgin (cold pressed) olive oil, along with garlic picked right out of the soil, young, sweet juicy garlic. I pick it all year long. Wintertime the small bulbs, spring the larger bulbs, summer bulbs with many clove in that bulb, :) ;) :) Oooooh ya!!!! Have a wonderful and beauty of a day. Cindi

Michael Bush · « **Reply #52 on:** October 19, 2007, 08:28:05 pm »

>Sauteed, lightly, a little good ol' fashioned butter

Or bacon fat...

Cindi · « **Reply #53 on:** October 21, 2007, 01:40:05 pm »

I love the flavour that bacon fat can add to foods sauteed. I have not a single issue with using bacon fat now and then. The amount of pleasure that I get from that flavour anulls any "fatty" issues, so what, live a little, enjoy life, enjoy those things that we love to enjoy. I am currently in a sugar mode, I always find in the wintertime I like to have a little candy now and then, summer I have no cravings for sugar, but I really like caramels and tootsie rollls. Oh dear, off topic, again!!!! Oh brother. Have a wonderful and beautiful day in our life. Cindi

JP · « **Reply #54 on:** October 21, 2007, 02:46:13 pm »

My favorite candy bar use to be 5th avenue, until they took out the almonds. Reeses makes a bar very similar but with peanuts, my favorite now. Also, yrs ago Hersheys I believe it was made a bar called chocolite, it was awesome! I miss that one surely.

Jerrymac · « **Reply #55 on:** October 21, 2007, 03:12:47 pm »

I use to like pulling the cork out of bottle caps to see what prize I might have won.

qa33010 · « **Reply #56 on:** October 22, 2007, 01:08:54 am »

I learned that colonies in my area that are not on a crop (mine) are about a month behind for late season harvest, even though they work all the time.

I learned I still don't have a clue:? and it don't look better for the future. The more I learn the less I know... :-P

Brian D. Bray · « **Reply #57 on:** October 22, 2007, 08:55:06 am »

>>The more I learn the less I know.

Ah, the sure sign of developing wisdom, recognizing your own ignorance.

johnnybigfish · « **Reply #58 on:** October 23, 2007, 11:24:41 pm »

Hey, Jerry!
Do you remember pulling the cork out of the cap and making a badge to put on your shirt?The cork inside and the cap outside with the shirt material in between? NOW THOSE were the days!
your friend,
john

Gena · « **Reply #59 on:** October 25, 2007, 01:15:20 am »

I've learned that
- I (think) I know more this year than last year - mistakes and failure are just stepping stones
- That the breathing you learn to do during birth is actually for when a bee is in your ear canal
- when you duct tape a penny over a sting it swells less
- getting stung in the head before a social function does not make for good spousal relations
-little kids are in awe when you tell them about the girls
-mediums work better for brood for me than deeps (too heavy)
-bees really don't like weedeaters
Sincerely,
Gena