Mead/bee-related

[coffeefueled]

I've been struggling to work out where this should go, but while it's brewing-related I think it's off-topic enough to fit snugly here.

Both me and my partner are big fans of mead, and have made a few gallons of mead, metheglin and melomel in the past. Unfortunately, as I'm sure everyone's aware, honey is rather pricey and while using it for homebrew has good results (so far anyway) it's costing us quite heavily now that we're trying to make larger quantities.

So we hit upon the obvious solution requiring the minimum amount of work. Clearly the best way to get honey is to make it ourselves. Since we lack the equipment, we figured instead we'd set some bees to making it. Our first hives are going to be moved in tonight, and hopefully over Winter 2015 we'll have some mead bubbling away, and only have had to shell out for the yeast. :)

Really this is just to share (or boast, depending on your viewpoint, but I'm not sure taking on the welfare of a few tens of thousands of livestock is something to boast about) and see if anyone else has done this sort of thing. Assuming we're not stung to death tonight (and assuming that people are interested - please let me know if you are) I'll put up another update to say how it all went. Any suggestions, thoughts, comments, questions or otherwise more than welcome.

 

[Goodwin]

Great to hear you are venturing into the world of Apiculture! I am a also beekeeper and would be interested in how you get on. If you need any advice PM me. Get a copy of Ted Hoopers Guide to Bees and Honey, believe me it is the best beekeeping book ever.

 

[Jsp22]

Interested to see how you get on. Have you got any photos of your hive?

 

[Poly Hive]

Nice to see some other bee folks on here. If you read Bee Craft than you may know my nick...LOL

My breeder hive has produced just over 200 lbs of comb honey from the limes. :)

Attending a Bee Farmers meet I had a chat with a retired BF who had also made mead commercially. I had a prob at the time with identical batches one of which worked out pronto in some three weeks and one that fidddle faffed about for months. I told him this and he looked a bit thoughtful then pronounced: "I know, bit of a bugger innit, specially when the batch is 500 gallons!" I should add the location was the home apiary at Buckfast...lol

Poly Hive

www.poly-hive.co.uk

 

[Manxnorton]

A very interesting read, thank you.
With being brought up for some time around the coast of Northumberland, mead has fascinated me for some time.
it is now time that I tried my hand at it, but locating Honey at a reasonable price can be shocking.
ATB
Brian

 

[Poly Hive]

Good honey costs money

it is that simple and quite rightly too. It is a craft product which costs pretty serious money to produce. If I factored in my time and fuel my honey probably should be at £10 a pound. and I kid you not.

PH

 

[Jsp22]

What should I look for in a good mead honey? I have made a mead with fruit using the cheap asda green stripe honey. I enjoy a good quality mead but not sure where to start with choosing the honey?

 

[Poly Hive]

Look for a honey from a small producer. Good honey has not been over heated or filtered to the nth degree like most of the commercial stuff.

There is really a choice between Heather honey and blossom, both have their own characteristics with Heather having a more powerful flavour. Also more expensive. In the blossom field there are literally hundreds of different flavours if not thousands as it depends on which flowers the bees have harvested. I have seen Hawthorn honey in the middle of a frame which was mainly oil seed rape! Hawthorn is very dark and OSR very light so it was obvious.

PH

 

[melyn]

Good luck with the bees, a fascinating pastime.
Sadly I lost both my colonies in the spring of 2011, although the bee inspector had said the previous summer that they were in good health, and they had ample reserves of stores over winter.
When I first started, in the early 80’s with two hives, there were lots of wild colonies in trees and buildings locally, and very quickly I had 8 hives. Owing to other commitments at the time, I was unable to devote enough time to my growing stock, so I had to scale down. Then unfortunately varroa arrived & the beginning of the end.
I have seen very few honey bees for the last few years, but this year numbers have noticeably increased-fingers crossed.
I made some mead on a few occasions, used the washings from the cappings and utensils etc, from memory it took a long time to clear.
Just two suggestions
1. Keep it simple. Too many beekeepers fiddle faddle, bees do not like too much interference.
2. if the bees are loitering around on their doorstep KEEP AWAY. They get very bad tempered when they have nothing to do.
P.S
The illustrated encyclopedia of beekeeping Roger Morse & Ted Hooper also v. good