Springtime is just around the corner and very soon we'll be enjoying the sight of bees buzzing around in our gardens and parks. The history of these amazing creatures is fascinating and spans a very long time. To start at the beginning we need to travel back to prehistoric times!
If you've been reading our blogs you are probably aware that bees need to collect flower pollen and nectar to survive and that many plants rely on bees and other pollinators to reproduce. For this reason the history of bees is intrinsically linked to the history of flowers as both have evolved together over the course of millions of years.
While some of their natural history still remains a mystery, the evidence we have from fossils, bees trapped in amber and more recently DNA sequencing, has really helped our understanding of the evolutionary history and origins of bees as we know them.
140 million years ago there were no flowers on Earth. Common plants were ferns and other non-flowering plants which had evolved over a very long time from early water plants into land plants. The world would have been very green without any of the bright and colourful flowers we see around us now. The very earliest flowering plants would have relied on the wind, early beetles and other little bugs to pollinate.
The origin of bees starts when plants first evolved to produce flowers and it was the change in diet to nectar and pollen that lead to the evolution of bees as we know them. All the 20,000 bee species worldwide we see today share a common ancestor with wasps. That common ancestor is what we call the proto-bee. What makes the proto-bees different from the wasps was the furry thorax which all bees have. Our bee history starts with the very first flowers and the proto-bee, which was essentially a larger furry vegetarian wasp!
Flowering plants were around before bees but it was the bees that allowed them to thrive and dominate the plant world as they do today. During the early Cretaceous period there was a massive explosion of bees and flowing plants. It was this plant-pollinator interaction with early bees that changed much of the planets ecosystems around 120 million years ago.
During this time bees and flowers really solidified their symbiotic relationship and flourished because of it. Flowers became more colourful to attract bees, because they have relatively poor eyesight. However bees have a unique vision that allows them to see patterns in the ultraviolet range which a many flowers produce. As flowers evolved to attract more bees, the bees evolved to be better pollinators, developing hairier legs and bodies along with longer tongues to slurp up that nectar!
After the mass extinction event that killed the dinosaurs at the end of Cretaceous period, it was bees that allowed flowering plants to recover and thrive again. Today there are around 5,000 species of flowering plants, all of which require pollination. But the spread of flowering plants across the planet only happened when bees started to evolve into the perfect pollinators we know them as.
Flowers need bees and bees need flowers, neither can thrive and be successful without the other. Insects are by far the most effective way of pollination which gives flowering plants a big advantage over non-flowering plants. Pollination by bees allows more variation, quicker adaptation and better survival. Both bees and flowers have co-evolved to be completely dependent on each other and have been perfect partners for millions of years.
The main difference between honeybees and other bees is that most other bees are solitary. Where as honeybees are social, living and working together. All apis (honeybee) species come from a common ancestor 10-12 million years ago that were the first social bees living in complex hive society. As well as being social they have all evolved to have their complex dance language. The origins of these social bee societies are not really understood, however studies have shown that the environment may have played a large part. It seems that when living in colder and wetter places bees stayed solitary, in warmer places the bees became social.
The relationship between honeybees and humans goes back thousands of years The earliest known cave drawings and wall art of people collecting wild honey are from around 13,000 years ago. Honey is also described in Mayan scrolls and was being used in cooking.
The origins of a closer human interaction with bees dates back to ancient Egypt over 4,000 years ago and this seems to be when beekeeping originated. This was the point in time that humans started managing bees as a form of livestock for honey and beeswax. Bees were clearly very important to the ancient Egyptians as they were even depicted in hieroglyphs. This means beekeeping as we know it has a 4,000 year unbroken tradition. Looking back through human history it would appear that bees and honey has touched every human civilization in some way.
It is a very unique relationship that humans have with bees and it seems the fate of bees and us are completely intertwined. It's a strange thing to think about but without the evolution of bees as pollinators, we may not even exist.
Because of their evolutionary path, bees and flowers go together. You cannot separate them and one cannot survive without the other. Right now habitat loss is the probably the biggest threat to bees especially in our towns and cities. Many people have paved over their front gardens to have off-road parking and our back gardens are often neat lawns and patios.
It's not only in cities that we have problems, a lot of farming land in the countryside is covered in monocrops and while rapeseed fields can provide many species of bee with a bounty of pollen and nectar, once that crop is harvested it's gone leaving those same bees with a lack of food. Those fields of easily visible crops can also mean that nearby wildflowers can be severely under pollinated. Bees need a variety of flowers that bloom at different times of the year.
We desperately need to stop habitat loss, improve existing habitats and create new bio-diverse habitats so that our bee populations can live and thrive for millions more years to come. Planting wildflowers is important and we can all help, if you don't have a garden of your own you can spread seeds wherever you can. From the side of roads to your local park, from schools to the smallest pots outside your front door, we can all do something. If you've been collecting up our free bee-saving seeds over the winter, it won't be long before it's time to get planting!
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What do we mean by well-being and how is it different from our health? Well-being is certainly related to our health but it is a term we use to describe a more holistic sense of oneself. So in this case we are talking about using honey as a general boost for our whole body and mind- rather than treating an individual condition like a sore patch of skin. Well-being describes being in a positive state overall, both in our health and happiness. Honey is a wonderful natural healing and health aid, that has many amazing properties. In this blog we will explore the ways it can help with our well-being.
Chronic inflammation is the cause of many health issues from arthritis to Alzheimer's disease, and honey has been shown to have effective anti-inflammatory properties due to its phenolic and flavonoid compounds. Specifically honey includes several phenolic compounds that all are thought to contribute to the healing of the cells in the body. There is some evidence that honey may even help prevent cancers due to its high antioxidant activity.
Honey is also a natural immune booster and many studies have shown that daily consumption of honey can improve one's immune system. Honey can stimulate antibody production and its antioxidant, antimicrobial and antibacterial properties can help fight infections from viruses and bacteria. Just a single teaspoon of Just Bee Vitamin Honey contains 25% of your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, D, B6 and B12 to support your immune system. People with weaker immune systems are more at risk of serious diseases and general illness.
Getting good sleep is a very important part of our well-being, without it we can become irritable and fatigued. It can limit our ability to think clearly and can also cause anxiety and stress. Tiredness is probably the number one enemy of our well-being as it can affect so many areas of our lives. A good night’s sleep is essential in giving your body enough time to rejuvenate and keep your immune system ticking along in good health. Studies have shown that people who only get 6 hours sleep or less a night are far more likely to suffer from common colds and will often have a higher susceptibility to other viruses. There's a few reasons why taking a teaspoon of honey about 30 minutes before you go to bed might help you sleep better.
If you often lie in bed feeling hungry and then worry that you shouldn't be snacking late at night then honey might help, it can stop you feeling hungry and the sugars can help keep your blood sugar levels a little more stable during the night. It can also stop you waking in the middle of the night and feeling hungry causing you to get up and disturb your nights sleep even more. If you often have trouble sleeping then you might like to try our Just Bee Sleeptime Honey which is enhanced with valerian root and lavender. We've had extremely positive feedback from our customers looking for a natural way to help them get a great nights sleep. Sleeptime Honey is designed to help you relax and support your mind and body while you get a good night’s sleep.
For a relaxing early evening drink it's hard to beat a warm mug of milk and honey, it's the perfect way to unwind after a hard days work especially during these cold winter nights, preparing us both mentally and physically for the day ahead.
Honey may also be much easier than refined sugar on our digestive system. Due to its composition, regular sugar has to be ingested before being broken down. Bees add enzymes to honey, therefore the sugars are already partially broken down, making it easier to digest.
There is also research indicating that honey may help reduce symptoms associated with acid reflux. It suggests that acid reflux can happen due to radicals which damage cells lining the digestive tract. Consuming honey might play a role by limiting damage by removing free radicals.
Honey contains certain enzymes that can act as a catalyst in the digestion process helping to keep our overall digestive system ticking along smoothly. Honey contains anti-bacterial compounds that could prevent bacterial infections in the stomach. By boosting the immune system honey may help in preventing any stomach related disease in the future too.
Honey is good for the brain mainly due to its antioxidants that protect your neurons, boost blood flow to the brain and improve serotonin levels. There is also a group of plant antioxidants in honey called polyphenols that can help protect your brain from cellular damage and may help prevent memory loss, increasing both short-term and long-term memory.
It's well known that a lack of vitamins and minerals in your daily diet increases the chances of dementia. Honey can play an important role in making sure you get a daily boost of important minerals and vitamins.
Fluids are very important in helping maintain our immune systems- from moving nutrients around the bloodstream to lymph production for collecting and destroying bacteria. Warm water with a teaspoon of honey is delicious, warming and hydrating while also providing a welcome vitamin and energy boost too! Try a teaspoon of our flavoured honeys in a mug of warm water any time of the day, as an alternative to a cup of coffee or tea. It will help to keep you warm and hydrated while providing all the extra benefits of the honey.
As you can see a spoonful or two of honey a day can help boost our well-being. It can help us sleep well and improve our natural defences against illness. Honey can play an important role in helping us feel at our best mentally and physically. Of course honey is not a silver bullet and we still need to be mindful of our diets and overall health. However honey has shown be beneficial in so many ways, and for many people it has become an essential part of their well-being, both when active and asleep at night.
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As a special Christmas treat we are going to give you two recipes this week! Both are perfect accompaniments to any festive meal: delicious honey roasted parsnips and a pork stuffing with honey. I'll be cooking both of these on Boxing day to have with cold meat and mash potatoes, but they would be great as part of a Christmas day meal too!
Add a table spoon of vegetable oil to your frying pan. Finely chop the onion and the bacon rashers and fry on a medium-low heat until the onions are soft and the bacon cooked. This should only take 3 or 4 minutes, we don't want to brown the onion or make the bacon crispy.
Pop the oven on next, where we'll be preheating the oven to Gas Mark 4 or 180C (lower to around 170 for a fan assisted oven).
Remove the pan from the heat and stir the cranberries through the onions and bacon. Then add the panko breadcrumbs and mix it all together. Put aside for now and let the breadcrumbs absorb the excess oils and flavours.
Remove the skins from your sausages, the easiest way is to just cut them down the length with a sharp knife and it should peel away easily. Put the meat from the sausages in the mixing bowl and break them up a bit with a fork. Add the contents from the frying pan, along with a pinch or two of salt and pepper. Finally chop the fresh sage and add to the bowl too.
Give the mixture a good mix with a fork until it looks well combined, if you want to get your hands in at this point then feel free, it can be quicker and easier. Then add the egg and two tablespoons of original Just Bee honey. Continue mixing the now wetter mixture with a fork or your hands if you don't mind getting messy!
Lightly grease the inside of your tin or roasting dish with a little butter, then transfer your stuffing mixture into it. Add a few small blobs of butter to the top and bake on the middle shelf of your oven for 45 minutes. Turn the tin half way through cooking if your oven has a tendency to bake unevenly.
Once cooked remove from the oven, cover and allow to cool for a while as it will make cutting slices a bit easier. If you want to make the stuffing in advance then you can freeze the whole loaf. When you want to use it, defrost in the fridge overnight wrapped in foil, then just pop the foil wrapped loaf in the oven while cooking your dinner for 10 to 15 minutes to warm through.
Preheat the oven to Gas Mark 6 or 200c (lower to 180c in a fan assisted over).
Cut the parsnips into finger sized pieces. Depending on their size you can half or quarter them to get them all roughly the same. If you want to peel them then you can using a potato peeler, but I never bother- especially if they are on the small size.
Add the parsnip fingers to the tin and drizzle over 3 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Give them a little toss around and pop them on the middle shelf for around 20 minutes.
Remove the parsnips from the oven and season them with a pinch or two of salt and freshly ground pepper. Sprinkle over ½ a teaspoon of dried thyme and finally drizzle over 2 tablespoons of honey. Give them another gentle toss before returning to the oven for another 10 minutes or until they turn a lovely golden colour. Serve directly to plates and enjoy!
We hope you enjoy these recipes and you all have a wonderful Christmas. We also want to thank you for all the kind comments and messages about the recipes we've shared this year. We are already getting excited about all the new ones we've been developing for next year!
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Mocktails (non-alcoholic cocktails) have become very popular in recent years, especially for people that are looking to reduce their alcohol consumption or need to avoid it on a night out when they driving. Why should the designated driver have to drink orange juice or cola all night while others are enjoying all manner of exciting cocktails? A good mocktail will give you all the fun and flavour without the alcohol. The best mocktails are a special blend of ingredients and flavours, and not just a familiar cocktail blend with the alcohol left out.
A mocktail is not only for nights out, they can be enjoyed at home any time of the day! These are just three of our favourites. We've used a selection of our honeys to add a delightful sweetness and gorgeous flavours along with the honey notes.
A delicious and refreshing old fashioned lemonade with a twist.
This mocktail is made in a large pitcher
First we need to make a rhubarb and honey syrup. Cut the rhubarb into slices and add to a medium sized saucepan, then add 120ml of water, a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Once boiling reduce the heat and allow the rhubarb to simmer for around five to six minutes.
Sieve the rhubarb juice, dispose of the solids and return to the saucepan, add 100g of Lemon & Ginger Honey. Heat gently while stirring until all the honey is dissolved into the rhubarb juice. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a jar, jug, mug or anything suitable you have to hand. Then chill covered in the fridge for at least an hour.
When you are ready to serve, grab your pitcher and add the honey and rhubarb syrup, 100ml of lemon juice, 500ml of water and stir until mixed, then add a handful of ice cubes. Feel free to garnish with any spare fresh rhubarb sticks you have and or slices of fresh lemon. To serve pour into tall ice filled glasses.
A winter fireside coffee and cream treat.
If pink lemonade is just a little too summery for you this time of year, then this mocktail might suit you better and would be a real treat for visitors over the festive season that aren't drinking alcohol. This mocktail is made individually, so the actual amounts you'll need will depend on your own tastes, how many you are making and how generous your glass size is! But if you have the following ready you'll be set to go!
Start with a nice sized whiskey glass or short tumbler and then fill about a third of way with freshly brewed strong coffee, add a ½ a teaspoon of Just Bee Turmeric+ Honey and stir until dissolved. Add a drop or two of both the peppermint and vanilla extracts. Then add a few chunks of ice.
Next we are going to 'float' some double cream on top, so hold an upturned teaspoon over the glass (you can rest the handle on the edge to keep it steady) and pour a couple of teaspoons of fresh double cream over the back of the spoon. This will help the cream disperse across the top of the drink and allow it to 'float' on the top. Give the drink a very gentle stir and you should be left with impressive looking swirls. Perfect for sipping by the fireside on cold evenings!
A brightly coloured fruit delight!
This delightfully refreshing mocktail is the perfect non-alcoholic drink for seeing in Christmas or the New Year. The red colour is really wonderful and looks really festive! It's great for the kids too, a much healthier option than cola and more exciting than fruit squash.
This mocktail is made in a large pitcher.
First add the cranberry juice and pineapple juice to a medium sized saucepan, heat gently on a low heat and stir in the honey until it has dissolved. Allow to cool a little then add the honey and juice syrup to a jug or something suitable and chill covered in the fridge for at least an hour.
When you are ready to serve and add a handful of ice cubes and the fresh cranberries to your pitcher. Pour in the mixture from the fridge and finish off with a few slices of fresh orange.
Simply add a jar of Just Bee Honey into a saucepan, then using the empty jar, add a jarful of water. Heat gently until all the honey has completely dissolved into the water, then once cooled pour it all into an airtight container, jar or bottle and store in the fridge.
You can use this honey syrup as a replacement in any cocktail or mocktail recipe that calls for sugar syrup and why wouldn't we want to replace sugar syrup with delicious honey syrup?
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We should be in no doubt that the supermarket would look very different without bees. Bees are responsible for pollinating almost 20% of all flowering plant species worldwide and approximately 400 different types of plants that we use as food sources. In total that's around a third of everything we eat every week. With more people moving towards a plant based diet, it's likely that for many people that number is actually much higher. It's not just food where we would notice a difference in the supermarket either, so join us as we take a walk around a supermarket in a world without bees.
Before we even get to the food, we would certainly notice a difference in the clothing section of the supermarket as cotton production relies almost entirely on bee pollination. If it were possible to pollinate small cotton crops without them, then you certainly wouldn't find that cotton in inexpensive supermarket clothes. So no cotton t-shirts, pyjamas, summer dresses, cotton socks or denim jeans. In the bedding section there would be no cotton sheets, pillow cases or duvet covers.
You may see natural alternatives like hemp (because it is wind pollinated) but that would almost certainly be more expensive. It's more likely that most inexpensive clothing would be made from man-made fibres as most other plant fibre alternatives also rely on bee pollination to be viable.
Things would also look very different in these aisles. Plant-based soaps, conditioners and creams contain many ingredients that rely on bee pollination to exist. Citrus fruits like lemons, shea-butter, beeswax and obviously anything with honey in would not be available. Cotton wool would likely be replaced with some type of cellulose product, but that would have to come from a plant that wasn't reliant on bee pollination too and would also be far more expensive.
The trees that we make common aspirin from are also pollinated by bees, so those would vanish over time. There are also some prescription medicines that use compounds obtained from bee pollinated plants. So again we would be reliant on possible alternatives that would be more expensive and difficult to produce if they were found. Any kind of herbal medicines or remedies would likely vanish from the supermarket shelf too as most herbs rely heavily on bee pollination.
In this section of the supermarket we would see a huge difference in the products available. Apples are one of the most affordable fruits that we all enjoy. Without bees to pollinate apple trees this would no longer be the case. Apples in particular require cross-pollination with other varieties that are not closely related to yield a full healthy crop of fruit. Without bees this could be done by human hand, but it would make little economic sense for producers that sell to supermarkets. This would also affect other products around the supermarket like cider, apple pies and apple juice.
Citrus fruits would be almost impossible to find too. Fruits such as oranges and grapefruit rely on honeybees and bumble bees for pollination. Whilst some varieties of citrus fruit are self-fertile and capable of pollinating themselves without bees, the actual yields are greatly improved by the presence of bees. Without them the cost to produce a carton of orange juice would be significantly higher.
While it's not essential for lemon trees to be pollinated by bees, bee pollination plays a big part in the ease in which lemon crops are produced for retail. It's estimated that lemon production would fall by 80% without bee pollination. So again they would be much harder to find and far more expensive.
Other fruits that rely on bee pollination include blueberries, watermelons, cranberries, and cherries. Even just a significant reduction in bee numbers could cause these products to become rare and expensive - without bees at all they would be impossible to find in our supermarkets.
The vegetable aisle may fare a little better without bees, we would still see some vegetables like potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, parsnips and turnips and most beans and peas. But it would still look very different with a lot of our favourites missing. Broccoli and asparagus would both disappear from the shelves along with cauliflower, cucumber, aubergine, kale, lettuce, peppers and butternut squash. Everyone's Christmas favourite brussel sprouts would disappear too along with our Halloween pumpkins.
It's estimated that around ½ of all oil production relies on bees for pollination; that includes common cooking oils like sunflower and rapeseed, nut oils and many essential oils used in fragrances etc. Sunflower oil production would be virtually impossible without bees pollinating the plants. The same can be said for oilseed rape crops, which is where our common vegetable oil comes from. In the supermarket we would see a huge drop in availability and massive price increase for most common cooking oils we buy, if they were available at all.
Tea comes from plants that are pollinated by bees, so no bees, no tea in the supermarket. This would obviously be a big problem for us Brits! If you are a coffee drinker you might be a little less distressed wandering down the tea and coffee aisle but you will still notice a change. Robusta varieties of coffee rely on bees for cross-pollination of the plants, so those would go along with any coffee blends that use them. Some coffee varieties can be self-pollinated but even in those cases the presence of bees can dramatically improve the quality and size of the coffee beans, without bees they might not be a viable crop. All coffee would be more difficult and more much expensive to produce, the varieties available would become very limited and what was available would see a very dramatic price increase.
Dairy cattle feed contains a lot of plant products which are highly reliant on bees for pollination. Without them milk could be significantly more expensive to produce, if milk was available in our bee-less supermarket it could cost a lot more than now. The increased costs of milk production would effect the price and supply of most cheeses, yoghurts, milk chocolates and ice creams too.
If that happened then we might seek out a milk alternative. A popular alternative currently is nut based 'milk'. Unfortunately products like almond milk would completely disappear as the California almond crop requires billions of bees for pollination every year. Brazil nuts and macadamia nuts would also be impossible without bee pollination.
Of course without bees there would be no honey on the shelves and you wouldn't be able to order any more of your favourite Just Bee Honey either! One of our favourite baking and cooking products would be gone and bee keepers would have no bees to look after. We would not see honey in skin remedies, shampoos or other cosmetic products.
It's not an exaggeration to say that we rely on bee pollination to sustain the food system that we sometimes take for granted. Bees aren't the only pollinators in the world, others such as butterflies, ants, birds and beetles all play their part, but none of these can replace the bee if it were to disappear. Bees are the most efficient pollinators for many of the products we buy weekly in our supermarkets and without them doing their hard work, most of it would just be impossible to produce.
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There are many flowers that are edible and some like cauliflower and broccoli we might already be eating quite often, even if we don't really think of them as flowers! If you have a herb garden, the vast majority of flowers that appear on your herb plants can be eaten, and generally taste similar to the leaves that we more commonly eat. For this blog though, we'll be concentrating on what most people think of as decorative flowers, you might be surprised to learn that we can use these to add dramatic colour to salads and unique flavours in our baking.
A few words of caution before we start. It's important to know where your flowers have come from and to make sure they haven’t been sprayed with poisonous chemicals because they weren't sold with the intention of being eaten. I would highly recommend growing them yourself so you can be sure and NOT munching into a bunch of flowers you were given as a gift from your significant other!
It's also possible that you may discover that you have an allergy that you didn’t know about. It's not likely but it's always possible when we try any new foods for the first time. It might be best to try a very small amount of any of these flowers first just to make sure.
With that out of the way, let’s eat some flowers!
It seems only right that we should start with the wonderful tasting Honeysuckle. Honeysuckle flowers are sweet and floral, with a taste that is actually very similar to honey. You can add the flowers into a salad or use them to add some unique sweetness to a dessert. I've used them to add some colour and interest to a fairly plain vanilla cheesecake and they looked and tasted amazing! Honeysuckle is also commonly used in teas, you could even try adding them to a warm honey drink.
Anise hyssop blossoms have a really interesting liquorice-like flavour that is sweet and slightly floral. They are extremely versatile and you can use these flowers as a replacement in almost any instance you'd usually use a common herb. It's a great alternative to mint in many dishes, a nice addition to rice and great on potatoes. You could also use it instead of rosemary in a lamb dish. You can use the whole flower head if you chop it up well, but I prefer to just pull the blossoms off.
Nasturtium flowers are a great flower to add to your dishes because they come in a variety of colours from bright reds to beautiful yellows. They are also nutritious with high levels of vitamin A, C and D! They are among my favourite flowers to add to a salad because they taste a bit like a radish or slightly more peppery watercress. If you like those flavours in a salad then you'll love these and wonder why you never used them before. They are amazing with a boiled egg too!
This flower is also known as bee balm and is very easy to grow in your garden. It has a slightly sweet flavour that reminds me of a cross between oregano and mint. It also has a fantastic purple/magenta colour that looks amazing on a plate! Just pull the petals off and add them to your dish- I love these with tomatoes especially. For a simple but impressive starter dish just slice up some mixed varieties of tomato, add some tangy citrus dressing and scatter over some wild bergamot petals!
There is a lot of culinary uses for marigold petals, so much that we could write a book on that alone! Not to mention the different varieties have quite different tastes, but generally marigolds have a peppery and citrusy flavour that works really well with fish. However you can find recipes that use marigold petals as wide-ranging as breads and cakes right through to soups and stews. They can be used to add a vibrant yellow colour to dishes and even dried for use as a less expensive saffron alternative!
Borage is another flower that's really easy to grow for yourself in your garden. The blue flowers are very attractive and taste delicious. They have quite a subtle taste that's similar to a cucumber but a little sweeter. This makes them ideal to put in salads and that cool splash of blue looks really unique. It will definitely impress your guests! They taste great with cheese too, for a party appetizer that will get everyone talking, just add some cream cheese to small crackers and put a borage flower on top! Bees really love borage plants too so we highly recommend growing these for yourself and your local bees!
I can clearly remember being told off by my Grandmother for picking the flowers off her fuchsias when I was a small child. They look like cute little fairy ballerinas and my sister and I would play games with them in her garden. Little did I know that we could have eaten them too! All varieties of fuchsia are edible and taste pretty good, but some have a slightly acidic taste and a little bitterness. I would recommend a variety called Swingtime that is sweet, delicious, and it also has a really attractive red and white flower. I tend to use fuchsias as an edible garnish on lots of things because they just look so wonderful. You can put them on top of rice dishes, soups, salads, desserts or anything that you think will benefit from a little fairy ballerina pizazz!
You are probably aware of chamomile tea, so it won't be too much of a surprise to learn that you can eat chamomile flowers too! The best variety to eat is 'common chamomile' (Chamaemelum nobile) as it has a really nice flavour that is weirdly somewhat like the taste of an apple! Chamomile flowers look like daisies and will make a really cute addition to a child's ice cream dessert. Because of their flavour they also work great when added to cereals or oatmeal breakfasts too... in fact anywhere a little apple flavour would work you can use these flowers. A berry crumble or custard pudding topped with some chamomile flowers is probably the perfect autumn dessert, especially if you can pick the berries for free too!
There are many other edible flowers that we don't have time to talk about today but these are certainly some of our favourites! We hope this will inspire you to start your journey into using flowers in your kitchen for something other than looking at! It's a really fun and inexpensive way to make your meal times a little more unique and interesting. You might be surprised how many plants you have growing in your garden already that you can make part of your meal time!
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You are probably all familiar with the term 'swarm' as a simple collective name for a group of bees. However it's not entirely accurate to say that most groups of bees you see are 'swarming'. In the language of bee keeping swarming is a very specific bee behaviour and a swarm is used to describe bees that are in that process.
A swarm is actually a group of bees out looking for a new home! It's part of the life-cycle of a colony and the way a bee colony grows and reproduces. As we touched on in our 'Life of a Queen Bee' blog last year, there are circumstances where the queen bee will leave the hive and take up to two thirds of the colony with her. When that happens that is what we call a swarm, put simply it's a large group of bees that are following the old queen to look for a new home.
The remainder will stay and raise a new queen bee, so when a colony casts off a swarm, it is reproducing. For bee populations to stay large and healthy swarming is absolutely necessary. A swarm will usually settle within 15 minutes of leaving the old hive and will wait there until scout bees return to the swarm to let them know that they have found somewhere suitable to live. That process can take up to several days, which is why we often see a swarm clustered on a tree, out building, or even a lamppost in urban areas.
The scout bees need to find a good location and when they find a potential new home they will return to the cluster. The scout bee will communicate the locations distance and direction to the other scouts by performing a 'dance' of sorts. The other scouts will all follow these directions to see the location for themselves. If they agree on the new home they will fly the whole swarm to the new location and start a new colony. This cycle will continue on and on with the colony expanding and reproducing its genetics leading to a large healthy bee population in the area.
You are most likely to see a swarm during a warm, sunny, summer afternoon, especially if there has been some bad weather beforehand. With the weather so changeable at the moment, the likelihood of seeing a swarm is actually higher than usual right now, but swarming behaviour is usually far less common after the end of July.
A swarm of bees can be stunning to see in flight and beautiful to look at in a cluster. In flight, they will look like a large black cloud of bees and while that could appear threatening, a swarm of bees are not on the attack. Bees in a swarm are usually more passive than usual as they don't have any honey or brood to defend. They will be simply looking for somewhere to cluster for a while or on their way to their new home! In the unlikely event that you find yourself very close to a swarm in flight, don't wave your arms around or be a nuisance to them, just let them go about their business. If you don't bother them, they likely won't bother you either.
If you find a swarm cluster in a problematic or inconvenient place, such as right outside your front door or, as recently happened in Manchester, on a table at a popular café, we'd recommend visiting the British Bee Keepers Association website and logging it on the swarm collector map. You'll find a lot of useful help and information there and in some cases you might be able to find a local beekeeper to come and relocate the swarm for you. If you see a swarm cluster out in the countryside you can just leave it alone knowing that they will soon be off on a new adventure themselves!
While swarms are a natural and essential part of the bee life cycle, most beekeepers will try and control swarming for obvious reasons, they are losing a large portion of their bees!
There are a few steps that can help beekeepers keep their bees around without resorting to undesirable methods. Firstly by adding extra boxes on top of the hive that allow the colony to expand to its full potential. It creates space for new comb to be built and more room for the queen to lay eggs. Eventually the colony will still get too big for the hive, but it can prevent them swarming early and too often.
By far the most effective way is to create what beekeepers call a split, there are many ways to do this but often a developing queen bee from an existing colony will be added to a new hive along with some bees, pollen and honey. This split is a made to allow the colony to expand in your own hives and can prevent them swarming off somewhere else!
Of course bees still swarm and that's something all good beekeepers accept, they may even come and collect your swarm and move the bees to their own hive so the cycle can continue and we can continue to enjoy the honey!
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This week's blog is a handy guide to some of the best public wildflower gardens that you can visit this summer. We've tried to cover as much of the UK as possible so hopefully there will be one not too far away from you. Many of these gardens we have visited ourselves and some have been recommended by family and good friends of Just Bee. There are many places that we won't be able to cover here, so please feel free to offer your own suggestions in the comments below!
Wisely is without a doubt one of the most incredible gardens we've ever visited. It's a large 240 acre area that's divided into several themed garden spaces. Highlights for wildflower seekers would be the Wildlife Garden and the Hilltop area which are both full of incredible wildflowers and pollinator friendly plants and flowers. Another highlight is the Back to Nature garden which is designed for families and children to 'play, discover and relax in' and will certainly be inspirational for any young person with little green fingers! Wisely is home to one of the largest plant collections in the world and it's worth making the time to spend a whole day there as there is so much to see and enjoy. There are several wonderful cafes and restaurants on site too selling freshly made seasonal dishes and bakery treats as well as a large garden centre selling everything you can imagine (and probably can't!)
A family ticket for 2 Adults and 2 Children is under £50 and visitors in receipt of Universal or Pension Credit can visit for just £1!
For current information and to book in advance visit the RHS Garden Wisely website.
For a wonderful day out in South Wales we would recommend this lovely and diverse botanic garden. Dedicated to the research and conservation of biodiversity and sustainability, there are many garden areas to see and explore. Unsurprisingly, one of the highlights for us is the amazing Bee Garden that is home to half a million honey bees and the highly enjoyable and educational 'pollinator trail'. Also on our must see list is Cae Trawscoed, a traditionally managed hay meadow so rich in wildflowers that it is just a pure delight to wander through.
We recommend a whole day to experience everything on offer here, the cafe in the stable block offering hot meals and snacks also comes highly recommended.
Family tickets are under £50, while carers and under 2's are free.
For current information visit the National Botanic Garden of Wales website.
My family and I visited Heligan while holidaying in Cornwall and it was the genuine highlight of our week. The Estate and gardens had so much to explore, it felt like it could have gone on forever. Woodland walks that were absolutely delightful and wildflower meadows that were breathtaking and beautiful. Spread over 200 acres we would encourage everyone to wear good shoes/boots and fully explore the whole area over a day. Following a path with no idea where it's going is part of the fun. Heligan is also home to a rare breeds park and many other animals that kids will adore. The Black Honeybee observation hive is also a fascinating must-see for any budding beekeepers!
Family Admission for 1 Adult and up to 3 children is £45, 2 Adults and up to 3 children is £58. Children under 5 are free. We think the overall experience is worth every penny. If you would like to visit the Lost Gardens of Heligan more than once in a week you can also upgrade your day admission tickets to a weekly pass for no extra charge, which is perfect because once you are captured by its beauty you really won't want to leave!
For more information visit The Lost Gardens of Heligan website.
Clumber Park is a magical National Trust site that covers 3,800 acres of parkland, gardens and woodland. Add to that the 83 acre serpentine lake and there's a lot to see and explore! There are many suggested trails and walks you can follow or you can just wander around as free as a bird taking in the wonderful plants, wildflowers and wildlife. One of the best things about Clumber Park is that it's a dog friendly National Trust site, so if you are looking for somewhere to wander with your four legged friend at your side then Clumber Park is highly recommended. They even have a dog friendly cafe called Central Bark!
Admission is only £5 for adults and family tickets start at £7.50. Less than 60 miles from Manchester or Leeds and even closer to Sheffield, it's the perfect place to visit from the North West or the Midlands.
Start to plan your trip by visiting the Clumber Park National Trust website.
Believed to date back to the 18th Century, the gardens at Pitmuies were one of the first gardens to open to the public through Scotland’s Gardens Scheme in 1931. While there may be larger and more well known gardens in Scotland, we feel Pitmuies Gardens offer something quite unique and wonderful. As well as the two main gardens, the field at the front of the house known as 'policy field' is a lovely grass meadow full of grasses and wildflowers. If you follow the driveway down beyond the house you'll find yourself at the Black Loch, where if you are lucky you might see some fantastic wildlife too! The woodland garden in early spring is the place to see thousands of beautiful snowdrops, they are a real sight to behold! Pitmuies Gardens are very peaceful and picnicking is welcome, and benches are located throughout the gardens and walks. There are also some tables by the black loch, which is a great place to enjoy your lunch.
Admission is only £5 for Adults and accompanied children are completely free. Pitmuies is privately owned, so please respect the owners privacy and property at all times. There is a toilet in the Kitchen Garden but you will not find toilets or bins around the gardens, so plan well and make sure you take any rubbish away with you. You will be asked to kindly keep to the paths through the gardens and children will need be supervised accordingly. Depending on your child's personality and age they may prefer to go somewhere else where they can run around free, so these gardens may not be suitable for everyone. Pitmuies Gardens are however the perfect place to have romantic afternoon stroll with your spouse or partner!
Find more information at the Pitmuies Gardens website.
We hope you will be able to visit one of these gardens this summer, let us know where you have been below and other places you would recommend! Remember, you could always start your own wildflower garden meadow with our bee-saving seeds (still) free with every order at Just Bee Honey!
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There are many ways to make a suitable bee hotel for your garden, in this blog we'll show you a couple of different ways that you can create a perfect space for solitary bees to live and breed. While we all call them bee hotels, they are in actual fact more of a 'bee nursery' as they are usually used as a safe place for solitary bees to raise their young.
Solitary bees, as their name suggests, are not hanging around in large swarms or in a hive packed with hundreds of bees. For this reason they are often the perfect buzzy guests for our smaller gardens and will do an important pollinating job throughout the year.
You may have seen many elaborate looking bee hotels for sale in garden centres, but these can be quite pricey and, let’s be honest, the bees don't care what it looks like or if it has a cute looking roof. As long as you follow a few simple rules when you make and position your bee hotel then you can have a successful hotel with very little effort. Of course you are free to customise and decorate your own bee hotel to your hearts content!
It should have holes (or really tunnels/tubes) with an inside diameter of between 2mm and 10mm, this will make sure your bee hotel can accommodate guests of all sizes. Ideally, we would like the majority of the holes around 4-5mm with fewer smaller and larger ones.
The wood you use must be untreated - the chemicals used in treated wood such as fence posts could be harmful to your guests.
Place the hotel in a warm and sheltered place, facing as southwards as possible. As an example, in my own garden, our bee hotel faces roughly south east, with a little wind protection from a shed, and that has been fine. It should be positioned off the ground around knee height ideally but anywhere up to waist height will be suitable.
The tunnels inside the hotel must be open at one end and closed at the other, they should be a minimum of 10cm deep, but ideally as deep as you can make them.
Make sure the entrances are smooth with no splinters or sharp edges, bees will not enter them if there is a chance they could damage their wings.
When hanging or placing your bee hotel, it should be secured and angled slightly downwards to stop rain running into the holes.
This is the quickest and easiest way to create a bee hotel, as all you will need are suitable materials and tools. The log hotel is just an untreated log (or just a thick lump of wood) with holes drilled in one end. It can almost be any size or shape as long as you can drill into one end at least 10cm. You will need a suitable drill (preferably an electric one) and a range suitably sized wood drill bits and some coarse sandpaper.
Once your supplies are gathered carefully drill into the wood at one end as deep as you can without coming out of the back; we'd recommend holding the log in a workmate, large vice or some kind of DIY clamp. The drilling patten doesn't really matter, so you can either just drill random holes of different sizes or get creative with a nice pattern.
When you are happy with your holes, get as much sawdust out of the holes as possible, then run sandpaper around the entrances to get rid of any jagged or splintered areas. That's pretty much all there is to it! Then all you need to do is find a spot to keep it, you can either hang it on a fence or place it on a raised flower bed for example.
This is the type of bee hotel you will commonly see being sold at garden centres and shops. If you want to make your own, they are fairly simple to make for anyone with basic hand tools.
You will need some wood, a plank to make the frame, and something to use as a back board. Of course, exactly how much you need will depend on how big you want to make your hotel. I found a small piece at my local timber yard for the frame that was around 70cm x 1.5cm x 15cm. This turned out to be plenty thick enough to be robust and the 15cm width will allow the tunnels to be that deep, which is great.
For the back I used some thin plywood that I found in the shed that I think was the back of a wardrobe at some point! Be creative and see what you can find, your local B&Q, timber yard or reclamation yard will often have offcuts and scraps of wood that they won't even charge you for.
You will also need some bamboo canes (or similar dried stems) and most garden centres will have these, just make sure you have some that are large enough internally for bees to get inside.
First cut your plank into 4 pieces to make the frame. To join the 4 pieces into a frame I used small wood screws, first carefully drilling pilot holes so the wood didn't split. If you prefer you could glue the frame together- as long the glue is animal safe once dried. Then I attached the plywood back using little tacks. It's important to put a back on it to seal the ends of the hollow canes we'll be adding next. I left a little extra backboard at the top and bottom so I can screw it to a fence post.
You should have what is essentially a shallow box, with one open side. Next with a small saw, cut lengths of bamboo to the depth of your hotel (in my case this was 15cm) and start packing, them in. I would recommend using the straightest pieces you have and then just keep going until they are tightly wedged in, using some small bits to help fill the caps. Clean up any rough bamboo ends with some sandpaper. You can also add a roof if you prefer by screwing 2 pieces of wood to the top of the bee hotel to make a triangle shape. This triangle shape can then be filled with more tubes, bamboo canes or pine cones.
You can either nail or screw it to a fence/fence post, it doesn't really matter how you do this as long as it is secure, there are all sorts of metal brackets at DIY/Hardware stores that we can utilize if you don't have anything suitable. As before make sure it is slightly angled so rain doesn't run into the holes.
You may see bees visiting at any time up until around late September, but keep an eye out for holes that have been sealed up with leaves or mud. That is a sure sign that bees are using your hotel to raise the next generation of bees. You may even see the young bees emerging if you are lucky!
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After some cold and wet weather, summer certainly has felt like it's on the way lately with some lovely sunny spring days and a very welcome rise in temperature. There have also been plenty of bees buzzing around my back garden already. Even my little bee garden which was left dormant over winter (and in a pretty sorry state, I have to admit) has started flowering again before I've even had a chance to do anything to it!
This is the time of year to hopefully forget about flu remedies, sore throats and not getting enough vitamin D! Let's all enjoy the wonderful spring weather and celebrate all the brilliant ways we can use honey over the coming summer, as it won't be long now!
Honey has become an indispensable ingredient at our summer barbecues. From sticky honey glazes on chicken and sausages; to a delicious sweetener in our cool long iced teas. There's something about the taste of honey while eating and drinking with friends outside in the summer sun that just feels so right. It's even better if there's a few bees buzzing around the garden too!
Honey has also become a constant ingredient in many dips and salad dressings. My favourite is the honey and mustard garlic dressing from this recipe post last year. I always have a bottle made up in the fridge as it's just perfect with so many things! Check out all our posted recipe ideas to get your next summer barbecue buzzing with the taste of Just Bee pure honey.
If you want to make some versatile sauce for use on burgers, hot-dogs or just to dip your chips in, why not try this easy to make BBQ sauce recipe.
250g Tomato Ketchup
100g Brown Sugar
60ml Apple Cider Vinegar
4 Tbsp Just Bee Honey
1 Tsp Salt
1 Tsp Smoked Paprika
1 Tsp Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Onion Powder
1 Tsp Black Pepper
Just add all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a bubble, then turn down the heat and simmer gently for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and allow to cool before transferring to a glass jar or bottle.
You can store this for a couple of weeks in the fridge.
In the sunny summer weather taking care of your skin is just as important as it is during the cold winter months, maybe even more so. Honey is a brilliant natural product when it comes to skin care. Not only does it act as a gentle cleanser, removing dirt from clogged facial pores, it will also leave your skin smooth and silky soft due to its natural moisturising and skin nourishing abilities.
If you suffer from dry or flaky skin in the summer you can make a simple but effective all natural exfoliation product by mixing some honey with rolled oats and massaging it gently into the affected areas. It will gently remove dead skin cells and leave your skin soft and smooth ready for moisturising.
If you are lucky enough to live by the beach then the combination of salt water, sand and heat from the sun can leave your hair feeling extremely dry and dishevelled. To make your hair feel soft, smooth, and rejuvenated, simply mix 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil with 2 tablespoons of Just Bee honey and apply directly to your hair and scalp. Leave on for 15 minutes and rinse out with a mild natural shampoo. You'll be amazed how wonderful your hair feels and the skin on your scalp will be soft and deeply moisturised.
Check out our blog on honey facemasks where you'll find a mask for dry skin. It's a great way to moisturise and rejuvenate skin that's been dried out by a few days on the beach! I like to apply this mask after coming back from the beach, before getting in the shower to wash all that sand out my toes!
Honey cocktails are one of my favourite treats in the summer, honey does a brilliant job of balancing the sour notes from citrus fruits and the sharpness of drinks like gin and vodka. However honey can be difficult to mix into cocktails, and for that reason in all my honey cocktails I use a home-made honey syrup, which is really easy to make and will stir (or shake!) more easily into your favourite summer tipple.
Simply add a jar of Just Bee Honey into a saucepan, then using the empty jar, add a jarful of water. Heat gently until all the honey has completely dissolved, then once cooled pour it all into an airtight container and store in the fridge. There are many recipes that you can use this honey syrup in and it can be used as a replacement in any cocktail recipe that calls for sugar syrup.
To get you started on your summer cocktail adventure, here's my favourite quick and easy Margarita!
100ml Tequila
75ml Orange Liqueur
50ml Just Bee Honey Syrup
50ml Orange Juice
25ml Lime Juice
Put a handful of ice into a cocktail jug, pour the ingredients in and give it a good stir. Enjoy responsibly!
Over the summer many of us will enjoy cycling, rambling or simply getting out for a nice walk in the sun. Staying hydrated is a must and taking a bottle of water or two along with you is always a very good idea.
You can make a very simple energy drink by dissolving 2 teaspoons of honey into a sports/cycle sized bottle of water. You'll still get all the hydration from the water with the added boost of energy from the honey. I've used both our Valencia Orange and Lemon & Ginger varieties to make some flavoured honey water and they were really tasty and effective on my long nature walks!
These are just some of our favourite ways to use honey in the summer, comment below let us know what yours are!
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The passing of Queen Elizabeth II last year was a defining moment in the history of our country. Regardless of how you feel about the monarchy as a whole, I think many of us felt a desperate sense of loss and more than a little uneasiness for the future. The tradition of beekeeping has long been a part of Royal Family life, not only has King Charles been active in beekeeping for many years, but as Prince of Wales he has a long history of highlighting the plight of bees and urging for their protection and welfare.
It's common knowledge that there are beehives at Buckingham Palace, but did you know that there are hives at many of the other royal estates too? King Charles is huge a fan of bees and he is known to have many beehives at his Highgrove House country home in Tetbury. The beehives there are integrated into a large organic farm and the gardens are said to be filled with plants and flowers that are attractive to pollinators. Some of the honey the bees produce can even be bought by the public from the Highgrove Gardens website.
The official Clarence House Twitter account has also posted often about the beehives at the London Royal residence, urging summer visitors to Clarence House to look out for the beehives there.
As the Prince of Wales, King Charles did a lot of invaluable work through his support of initiatives and projects for the environment, often with a focus on the importance of bees. He has spent time visiting schools across the country encouraging children to get involved by taking on projects like planting flowers and creating bee-friendly areas in their schools. He's also visited community apiary projects, universities and beekeeping groups to show support and encouragement. For those involved in such projects his attendance and support provided a lot of media attention that they sadly might not have got otherwise.
If we go back ten years the issue of neonicotinoids use was barely on anyone's radar, other than perhaps beekeepers who were the first to notice the impact their use was having on their hives. Charles was someone who was raising awareness of the effect they were having on bees very early on and his intervention is something many beekeepers are extremely grateful for. I'm sure in some part it was his highlighting of the issue in front of the world's media that helped push the agenda into the corridors of the EU which finally led to a significant reduction in their usage.
Both King Charles and his wife Queen Consort Camilla have been involved in the charity Bees for Development since they met the charity’s representatives in 2015 during a visit to Monmouth. It was a very pleasant surprise when Camilla became their first president on World Bee Day 2020 and we hope Her Majesty will continue in this important role now she is Queen.
Bees for Development was set up with an aim to help people in poorer countries around the world become self-sufficient through beekeeping. They do this by promoting sustainable beekeeping to combat poverty, build livelihoods and benefit the local biodiversity. The general principle of alleviating poverty by facilitating self-sufficiency reminds me of the old saying “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a lifetime.” and this very much rings true with the ethos of the charity.
To quote Bees for Development “We all get so much from bees as they pollinate food crops and wild plants. Honey bees enable people to make a living through working with nature, harvesting honey and beeswax, while helping to preserve biodiversity. Beekeeping is low cost, sustainable, and has the greatest effect on those who have the very least.” Bees for Development has now worked in more than 50 countries worldwide, undertaking beekeeping project work on behalf of organisations such as the United Nations and managing local and initiatives in countries such as Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana and Uganda.
Supporting people out of poverty through beekeeping is such a fantastic and simple idea, we think this charity deserves our attention too and we are very glad that they have the support of our King and Queen Consort.
Camilla also has her own charity honey, produced by the bees in her Wiltshire garden at Ray Mill House. The honey is sold by Fortnum & Mason, London in a limited edition each year and all proceeds go to a charity she is a patron of. This year there is even a special 'Coronation Edition' of the honey! It is quite clear that both King and Queen have a huge passion for bees, honey and beekeeping which we think is brilliant!
It's understandable and unfortunately inevitable that Charles' ability to be involved in some of these activities will become limited now that he is King. While some people had concerns about his past activism on global warming and pesticide use, as beekeepers and being involved in bee saving projects ourselves, we were always thankful for his words and the attention they gave to the issues. We hope that he and Her Majesty will continue to keep their eyes on the ongoing problems that face bees around the world and will speak up when they have that opportunity. We also have no doubt that their love of bees and the attention they deserve will be passed on to Prince William and Princess Kate who will hopefully pick up The King's work in this area that he devoted so much time to when he was Prince of Wales.
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There was an article on The Guardian last week, reporting that a lot of honey across the UK and Europe contains sugar syrup. Understandably, our customers are concerned about this and expect better!
We created Just Bee to be a little different from the major honey companies. We were tired by the endless reports of fake honey, dubious practices and honey that tasted like syrup. So we set out to make the best tasting and highest quality honey products that have a positive impact on bees, the people we deal with and the wider environment too.
It all starts with the honey. Before sending anything out, we make sure it meets a strict Just Bee specification. This includes taste, consistency, provenance and some fancy technical parameters. We thoroughly check all our suppliers to ensure we are receiving the highest quality ingredients. We look for accreditations, high food safety standards, and of course nice people to work with :-).
A series of tests are performed on our honey to ensure it meets the Just Bee criteria. We are testing for the freshness of the honey, its authenticity (i.e. no sugar syrup), the consistency, the vitamin levels and the antibacterial levels. Yes, that’s a lot of tests, but we take our honey very seriously and want to make sure you are getting the best quality product!
Every new batch of honey is taste tested by our founder Joe before approving it – it’s a tough job, but someone’s got to do it! We are looking for honey that is a light amber colour, has a medium strength and sweetness and a profile which balances well with our active ingredients. Most of our products use a blend of wildflower and acacia honey. Wildflower honey means the bees have foraged on a variety of flowers, blossoms and other plants. This gives a rich flavour which is consistent all year round. Acacia honey is a lighter honey, which adds sweeter notes.
Hopefully this statement provides reassurance to our customers, and we will continue to be ultra vigilant in sourcing our honey.
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When we look inside a beehive we hope to find a whole colony of healthy bees and lots of delicious honey! But aside from the obvious have you ever wondered what exactly makes up a beehive and how it functions? From the outside they may just look like a big wooden box, but there may be more going on inside than you might imagine. Honeybees do a need safe and dry place to live, but a beehive isn't just a home for bees to live in. Beehives were developed to provide protection for a colony but also to make honey collecting much easier and enable beekeepers to successfully manage their colony of bees.
In some places around the world the elements of a hive might have slightly different names but the vast majority of beehives all still work in the same way and have the same basic boxes and frames that are, in most cases, simply stacked on top of each other. The boxes being what you see from the outside and the frames are what hang inside and are what the bees build the wax in to store honey and for the queen to lay her eggs in.
Starting at the bottom we have the hive stand and the bottom board, the stand is exactly what it sounds like and can be quite high or short depending on where the hives are placed, think of it as a table to put your hive on. Its purpose is to raise the hive to a good working height and away from the ground. Think of it as the hives sturdy legs.
The bottom board is what we'll consider the first part of the actual hive. The bottom or floor of the hive can be solid or what's called a screened floor. A screened bottom may have a sticky insert that can be useful for Varroa mite pest control and also help with ventilation. Depending on the time of year, area, or conditions either can be used.
Another part of the bottom board is the main entrance and exit for the hive. A key part of the entrance design is that it must be small enough for the bees to defend easily, a big gaping hole that could allow predators in would be no good at all. It should also offer protection from the weather, especially strong winds and heavy rain. Sometimes beekeepers will use wooden entrance reducers internally to help stop unwanted guests and even metal 'mouse guards' if rodents are a particular problem. The bottom board will often have an extension or ramp to give the bees a handy a place to land and take off. The entrance of the hive is a small but very important element, bees need to be able to easily and safely return with their collected nectar and pollen or you won't be getting any honey at all!
The size and shape of the entrance to the hive is fully formed when the next part of the hive, the brood box is placed on top of the bottom board. Inside the box you will find several brood frames, this is where the queen bee will lay her eggs which will develop into new bee larvae. Many consider this to be the heart of the beehive. These frames are also where the nurse bees care for the developing bees and the worker bees store the pollen and honey that will feed the developing larvae. Some bee keepers will simply refer to this as a deep box, either way it has the large frames that house the colony and will contain the provisions of honey that they need to survive. A beekeeper will never remove honey from this area of the beehive. Depending on the size of the colony, there might be two or more of these larger sections placed on top of each other.
On top of the brood box beekeepers will usually use a thin metal (or sometimes plastic) mesh sheet called a queen excluder, the holes in the excluder are large enough for all the worker bees to pass through but not the queen bee. This is to stop the queen from laying eggs in the areas above where beekeepers will collect the honey from, it also means the honey can be collected from above without ever disturbing the queen bee.
On top of the queen excluder sheet are the honey supers (short for superstructure). Any box that is an addition to the main brood box is considered an 'extra' to the hive, thus by adding them we are creating a superstructure on top of the main hive structure. The frames inside the honey supers hold the wax foundation that the bees will build the honeycomb on and it's these frames where the bees will store their extra honey that we can collect without disturbing the brood box. A honey super can come in different sizes but they are almost always quite a bit shallower than the brood boxes. It's possible to stack as many honey supers on top of each other as needed. If you have a large colony of bees producing a lot of honey then 2, 3 or even 4 may be used on a single hive. There will usually be around ten frames hanging in each honey super.
The inner cover goes on top of the honey supers and creates a ceiling for the beehive. The inner cover usually has a hole or notch in the top which offers air circulation and an additional place for the bees to exit and enter the hive if they please.
The outer cover or outer lid goes on top of the inner cover and is essentially the roof of the beehive, like a roof on our homes it protects the hive from the wind and rain and helps insulate the beehive. A very common type of outer cover is called a telescopic cover and is made of metal which is usually galvanized zinc or aluminium. It has sides that hang over the top of the honey super to help protect it.
Beekeeping is a very rewarding and educational experience and we would encourage anyone with enough outdoor space to consider keeping a bee hive as a hobby. Most areas will have local beekeepers and beekeeping clubs who would be only too happy to help you through the process. If you don't have the space then consider creating a bee hotel or just a bee friendly stop off point in your garden, patio or window box using our free bee saving seeds!
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While it's true that honey and refined sugar do share a similar make-up for the most part (both being largely made up of fructose and glucose sugars) there are some important differences. In the case of regular white sugar it's almost 100% these two sugars combined in an almost exactly 50/50 ratio with very little else other than a few tiny amounts of trace minerals. Honey made by bees from nectar typically contains around 40% fructose and 30-35% glucose sugar. Water, small amounts of other complex sugars, minerals, vitamins, and antioxidants will be what largely makes up the remaining 25-30%. High quality unfiltered honey will also contain small particles of pollen, bee propolis and beeswax.
Natural honey contains flavonoids, phenolic acids, ascorbic acid (vitamin C), tocopherols and glutathione, among other compounds. Antioxidants occur naturally in honey due to its origins in flower nectar and the antioxidants present will depend on the type of flower the bees visited while collecting nectar.
Just Bee vitamin honey is also supercharged with important Vitamins and Echinacea. Each teaspoon of our honey contains 25% of your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin D, C, B6, B12 to help support your immune system. Along with honeys unique texture, health boosting nutrients, and antioxidants that are found naturally in honey, this makes our honey a very different product to sugar. Sugar has no added nutrients, while honey contains amino acids, vitamins, minerals, carbohydrates, and antioxidants.
In simple terms, while honey is largely made up of the same fructose and glucose as sugar, it also contains other compounds that make it better choice for most people.
While honey clearly has benefits over refined white sugar, there is still a lot of sugar in honey, so as with any sugar it might be beneficial to limit your intake to some degree. We believe strongly that honey is the best alternative to sugar. A big benefit that honey has over sugar is that it tastes far sweeter while containing less fructose and glucose, so you can use less to get the same level of sweetness. Since using honey regularly I've gone from putting two heaped spoonfuls of sugar in my coffee to ½ a teaspoon of honey.
Many artificial sweetener products found in the supermarkets contain chemicals like aspartame, saccharin, and sucralose and are offered as a sugar substitute. But many of these products come with their own concerns including that they may increase our sugar cravings and can also cause disruption to gut bacteria. They also have zero nutritional value so are known as 'non-nutritive' sweeteners, meaning there is no nutritional benefit to consuming them. Compared to consuming a smaller amount of honey and the nutritional value we get from it, that seems like a far better and more natural choice to make.
If you want to reduce your sugar intake try using honey and cutting your amounts in half. If you put a teaspoon of sugar in your porridge or cup of tea, try half a teaspoon of honey instead. Look for cookie recipes that use two tablespoons of honey (around 40g) instead of 100g of sugar. If you want to cut down on sugar by using honey instead, it's a tasty natural alternative with bonus benefits! We do not believe that artificial sweeteners are a good long term way to reduce sugar intake and there are other ways. You may have noticed that in our recipes we often use spices like ginger and cinnamon, as well as vanilla and almond. These are all great ways to add sweetness to a recipe without increasing the sugar levels at all. Combined with a minimal amount of honey you can create a very sweet tasting dish or bakery recipe without all that sugar.
It's also believed that honey may be easier than refined sugar on our digestive system. Regular refined sugar has to be ingested before being broken down. As bees already add enzymes to honey, the sugars are already partially broken down when we consume it and makes it easier to digest. Sugar obviously does not contain the enzymes that make this possible.
Our bodies do need sugar, it's our daily fuel for all the energy we use. Honey is made mostly of sugar, but importantly it's only about 30 percent glucose. Glucose is what our bodies break food down into to enable it to be used as this fuel we all need. The lower glucose amount in honey means that our bodies do more work and use more energy to break it down. So while it is true that a single tablespoon of honey contains 64 calories, which is higher than that of sugar at 49 calories, the extra energy to break it all down to glucose means we could actually accumulate less calories from honey.
It's easy to make the statement that honey is 'mainly' sugar, but that completely ignores the chemical diversity and complexity of honey.
In honey we find: proteins, amino acids, phenolic acids, ascorbic acid, folic acid, pollen, propolis and beeswax. Many types of flavonoids and enzymes. Minerals such as calcium, iron, zinc, potassium, phosphorous, magnesium, selenium, chromium and manganese. B vitamins riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid and vitamin B6.
There are too many different compounds in honey to go into full detail on each one in a blog like this but I'm sure some of them mentioned above will be familiar to you. For further reading I recommend this light-hearted article The Many Many Chemicals in Honey by Dr. Joe Schwarcz at the McGill Office for Science and Society.
If honey was 'just' sugar' then sugar would logically be 'basically honey' and it's clear that isn't. Other than a huge hit of glucose there isn't much else we get from sugar. By using honey as an alternative we can get the benefits of everything found in honey, we can use less of it to reduce our sugar intake overall and maybe just as importantly we can enjoy the amazing complex flavours in pure natural honey.
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As you might have seen in Joe's video blog posted recently, we did some amazing things together last year. Our fantastic customers planting wild-flower seeds all over the UK will no doubt make a real and genuine difference to many bees this year- increasing their chances of survival and helping to create ongoing healthy bee populations.
Just Bee are committed to continuing with everything we do (and more) into the future. Bees are some of the hardest working and important creatures on the planet. We owe a lot to this amazing, yet still often under-appreciated, insect. These fascinating and amazing creatures provide us with our favourite fruits and vegetables, delicious honey, and many of the flowers in our gardens. They are also important for the overall health of the environment and our farms. The health and well-being of bees is a strong indicator of how healthy the overall environment around us is.
Pollination is the word we use for how plants reproduce. Pollination occurs when the male part of the flower meets the female part of another flower. Plants obviously cannot walk around to do this on their own but without this process a plant’s seed and fruit would not be able to be formed. While some plants can pollinate themselves or rely on the wind to do it for them, many plants need animals to assist with this pollination process and bees are an extremely important part of that process.
Bees are responsible for pollinating almost 20% of all flowering plant species worldwide and (maybe most importantly to us) approximately 400 different agricultural types of plant that we use as food sources. Put in simple terms, around a third of everything we eat comes from bee pollination. It's not only food crops that rely on bee pollination either, crops like cotton that many of our clothes are made from are also pollinated by bees.
Bees aren't the only pollinators, other creatures like butterflies, ants, birds and beetles all play their part but none of these could ever replace the work that bees do. Bees need pollen to feed their larvae, so they take a far more active role in the process. Other pollinators may only visit flowers to drink nectar and the pollen that gets stuck to them and transferred to another plant is more of a 'happy accident'. Bees are also particularly effective pollinators because they often visit one type of flower for a whole outing and a much higher level of pollination is achieved overall. Bumblebees are particularly good at pollinating due to their large size which makes them very effective at dispersing pollen across the flowers and fruits they visit.
It's not only humans that enjoy the literal fruits of the bees hard labour, the pollination of plants is not only essential to us but also to many wild animals that also feed on plants, fruits and berries. Many animals rely on them for a continuous and sustainable food source. Without bees, pollination and reproduction would be practically impossible for many plant species.
Bees are the perfect pollinators and it's the main reason they are just so important. The effective pollination of plants is critical to both us and the nature around us.
Flowering plants provide bees with nectar and pollen, which will feed their entire colony and in return bees are extremely important for our wild-flowers and natural ecosystem. Our countryside would be far less impressive without bees, they pollinate around 80% of all European wild-flowers including poppies, bluebells, and many shrubs and trees. Some common plants such as clovers and foxgloves rely almost solely on bees for their pollination. Many of the UK’s bee species are very well adapted to certain plants and are crucial to our varied and beautiful wild flowers. The early bumblebee (named due to being one of the earliest bees to emerge in spring) is a small and agile bee which allows it to easily enter more 'drooping' shaped flowers like comfrey; garden bumblebees have longer tongues which are more suited to pollinating foxgloves and honeysuckle, plants with deep flowers they can easily reach into with these longer tongues.
Our natural flora is heavily reliant on bees- 76% of plants that are favoured by bumblebees have seen a decline alongside the bumblebees they need for pollination. This is extremely worrying as not only does this mean a loss of natural landscapes but also the habitats that many other animals need to survive. It's almost impossible to overstate how much bees play an essential role in the natural balance of the planet. It's important not just for us that bees survive, but for every living thing.
In the UK many insects have suffered number declines in the last 10 years. Among them are several bees. The shrill carder bee , once a common sight, it is now considered to be at risk of extinction. The bilberry bumblebee was widely found in the cooler north of Britain but now appears to be in decline too, which could possibly be linked to climate change as well as habitat loss and pesticide use. A rare and declining species known as the six-banded nomad bee is now only found in a single area in Devon.
Bees are essential for our natural landscapes and biodiversity. Bees perpetuate the spread of floral growth across our fields and common land which not only provides attractive gardens and countryside for us to enjoy but is also essential for creating habitats for other animals such as insects and birds. A large decline in bee populations would be a disaster for our wildlife. Common wild plants may start to disappear due to lack of pollination. Animal species could start to struggle to find food. Herbivores, who depend on certain plant species for food, would be disastrously affected. They could simply become extinct if those plants ceased to exist because they were no longer being pollinated by bees.
Bees are easily amongst the most important insects in nature. Without bees to help the growth of natural habitats and create food for many animal species, much of our planet’s wildlife could slowly disappear over time. That is why bees are so important and why at Just Bee we will continue to do all we can to save our bees. It's not only our goal that our honeybees are happy and well but all species of wild bees are thriving and healthy too. We hope you will all continue to help and support us in that aim during 2023 and beyond.
]]>I won’t keep you long. I just wanted to highlight the things YOU have helped us do this year...
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We are really proud of the business we are building and we couldn’t do it without you.
A massive thank you for spending your hard earned money with Just Bee this year.
Wishing you and your families a happy & prosperous 2023 😁
Joe & the Just Bee Team x
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People's concerns about practices within the food industry are often completely legitimate. We are all aware that there have been instances of poor practice in almost all areas of farming and food production. This has caused many people to question if beekeeping is cruel and whether it is ethical to take honey for our own consumption. At Just Bee, we understand why people might have concerns and why people might question beekeepers in this way, however we feel that these types of questions are often based on misunderstanding or repeated dogma without any basis in reality.
Animal cruelty can be defined as animal abuse, neglect or any kind of suffering caused by humans to non-human animals. It might seem obvious to anyone involved in beekeeping that it doesn't fit that definition by any stretch of the imagination but most people do not have that experience and do not fully understand the way bees are actually cared for by beekeepers.
What beekeepers will often hear is that their work interferes with the natural life of bees. The production of honey, and the more general work of beekeepers, does not cause any harm to bees. In fact the opposite is true and while populations of some bee species are in dangerous decline, the general health of the western honey bee population is fairly healthy. This is in no small part thanks to the care and work of beekeepers. Beekeepers are committed to the life of their bee colonies, we want them to be healthy and happy. Thankfully because of our unique position we are often able to intervene and greatly improve a colonies chances of survival against parasites and diseases than it would have without us around. A good beekeeper knows when to intervene but also when to let the bees free to behave as their natural instincts require. Honeybees are absolutely free to roam over miles of wildflowers and crops. The bees choose to return each night to their safe, dry, and warm hives. If they didn’t want to return, they are free not to at any time.
During the honey production process, beekeepers interact with bees with full respect to their natural lives and it doesn't make any economic sense do anything that could harm the bees. To continue successful beekeeping year after year, a healthy swarm and hive is essential at all times. Any kind of neglect or ill-treatment of the bees would result very quickly in a failed business. Even just causing a minimal amount of stress to the bees could weaken them and result in less productivity. To make the largest amounts of honey, bees need a safe and hospitable environment. It's why we have to be so careful collecting honey and hives are designed to allow us to do it with minimal disturbance to the bees. There is only one area in the hive a bee keeper collects from for this reason. The largest lower area contains honey reserves that are never taken. The truth is that any product coming from bees like royal jelly, beeswax and honey, must all be taken in a way that does not harm the bee colony.
We believe that the consumption of honey is an ethical choice that absolutely does not endanger or harm the life and health of bees. Unfortunately, the biggest danger to bees is pesticides used on crops that bees pollinate, many of which include the fruit, vegetables and crops that make up a big part of our diets and many of the products on our supermarket shelves. It's been identified by Friends of the Earth as the single biggest threat to wild bee populations and it continues to have a devastating effect. Honeybees looked after by professional beekeepers are thankfully not presently in danger of becoming extinct. Beekeepers and breeders have done a lot of work to keep the numbers of honeybees from getting to the serious dangerously low levels of some other bee species. This does not happen through cruelty or causing any bee suffering but through care and compassion. We take our responsibility to these amazing creatures very seriously.
Taking risks with the health of the bees to make more profit or reduce the price of our honey is not something we will ever be interested in. Beekeepers take bee welfare extremely seriously at every level and it's why you will find many of us at the forefront of initiatives to help bees in any way we can. We want to make sure we keep our bees happy and healthy at all times and that the product you receive is always the finest quality ourselves and our beekeeping partners can produce in the most ethical and sustainable way possible.
We will always promote bee welfare and we will continue with our mission to create a more bee friendly Britain. Honey is made from one of the most incredible processes in the natural world. From those first tiny drops of nectar in the flower to the finished product stored in the beehive it is untouched by human hands unlike almost everything else we consume. Honey is a natural product that requires very little intervention of that process other than making sure the bees are as happy and as well cared for as they can be.
We cannot of course give a free pass to all beekeepers and honey producers everywhere. Like any industry, hobby, group of pet owners or animal carers, there are good practices and bad practices and that is no different within beekeeping and honey farming. Some may not be as careful or caring as they need to be and people will have concerns about that, and of course we share those concerns too. However the vast majority of beekeepers want nothing but the best for bees and as a group we are some of the biggest proponents of bee welfare you will ever meet... and trust us, we've met a lot! Honeybees are thriving in part because beekeepers are keeping them alive and healthy in a world that's becoming increasingly hazardous for them to exist in due to other industries and farming.
Our working relationship with bees may be different to most people but we are probably more invested in their welfare than most. We are very selective about the beekeepers we work with and choose them very carefully to make sure they are operating with the highest level of ethics and treat their bees with the care and respect they deserve. A big part of our job is looking after the bees and making sure the people we work with also do the same to very high standards. We wouldn't accept it any other way and neither would they or the millions of beekeepers around the world doing a fantastic job of beekeeping every day.
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Honey is one of the best natural products for treating a sore throat, either on its own or in combination with other ingredients. The most common cause of a sore throat is a viral infection like a common cold or influenza but they can be sometimes caused by smoking and allergies also.
Sore throats are especially common as we head into winter and thankfully most of the time it is nothing to be overly concerned about. A sore throat can be extremely painful and uncomfortable though, especially if it makes it sore and difficult to swallow.
Honey has many medicinal benefits that can be very effective in tackling a sore throat. It's full of antioxidants and antibacterial qualities that help with fighting infections that are caused by viruses like the common cold, while also being perfect for soothing a sore and scratchy throat.
Many health professionals including Public Health England suggest that honey should be the first line of treatment for a cough or sore throat. Scientists at Oxford University have shown that honey is likely to be just as good for sore throats as any prescribed or off the shelf medicine.
There are several reasons for why this is the case. Honey contains an enzyme called glucose-oxidase which has antibacterial and antiseptic properties. They combat the bacteria and can help to prevent a viral infection from spreading. Honey also tends to act as a hypertonic osmotic which means it can remove water from the sore inflamed tissue in our throat that can help reduce the swelling.
Honey also adds a coating of protection to your dry throat which works to soothe the irritation of a sore throat and cough as well. Manuka honey in particular is known to be especially helpful in treating sore throats and even tonsillitis caused by streptococcus bacterium.
We would recommend the following honey products for being particularly effective for treating a sore throat.
One of the simplest and effective ways we've found to use honey to treat a cough or sore throat is by using two teaspoons of our Honey with Lemon and Ginger stirred directly into a cup of hot water. Not only will you enjoy the soothing and healing properties of the honey, but also a boost of vitamin C to help combat respiratory infections. This also comes with the added benefits of ginger root that can help calm down any inflammation, it's a quick and easy treatment that also tastes great!
Drink twice a day at the first signs of a sore throat and you might find that it actually prevents the sore throat from developing into anything worse.
Turmeric contains curcuminoids, which are powerful antiseptics, antibiotics and antibacterial compounds. They can reduce the inflammation caused by sore throat and help fight off any infection present. Turmeric is a member of the ginger family and shares many of its properties, so our Turmeric Honey makes a great alternative to lemon and ginger if you prefer the taste.
Add two teaspoons of turmeric+ Honey to a mug of hot water and stir, you can also add a little lemon juice if you like.
Manuka honey is fantastic as a sore throat treatment. Just Bee Manuka honey is very rich in anti-oxidants and antibacterial properties that are particularly effective against viruses that cause sore throats and coughs.
While Manuka honey is relatively expensive, we've found that just a single teaspoon taken directly off the spoon can be highly effective in treating a sore throat. When taken first thing in the morning, it can provide soothing relief for a large part of the day.
Our Propolis & Vitamin Throat Spray contains pure honey and bee propolis, which combine to effectively soothe a sore throat. This product is extremely handy for when you are on the go and need some quick relief.
Bee propolis is special resin like material gathered by bees from the buds of trees. It also helps soothe your sore throat and contains flavonoids which have an antioxidant effect. Anti-inflammatory means to reduce the swelling and inflammation in your throat. We add botanicals and herbal extracts known to have anti-inflammatory effects. Our Natural Throat & Cough Syrup is highly recommended if you have a nasty cough as well as a sore throat.
New on the shelves of the Just Bee hive is our Just Bee Wellness & Immunity Bundle that includes our lemon and ginger honey, throat syrup and throat spray for just £19.99, saving you 25% off the individual prices!
As well as providing relief with the products above Just Bee Vitamin Honey can also play an important role in helping you to look after your natural immune system. This can not only reduce the severity of a cold but can also prevent you catching future colds and other viruses. The usual reason for a sore throat are common viral infections like these and honey can provide a key part of your daily defence against them.
Dry throat, difficulty while swallowing, and scratchiness are some the common symptoms of a typical sore throat. If you notice any other symptoms that are concerning you or your symptoms drag on for longer than a week without any signs of improvement then we always recommend seeking medical advice from a doctor. A more serious infection or illness may not be able to be treated with any of the products we sell.
All types of honey are generally safe to use for treating a sore throat, but honey must not be given to babies and infants under 1 year old due to the risk of infant botulism. This is a rare but serious form of poisoning, which comes from ingesting spores in honey products.
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Unfortunately there is no simple answer to this question. If you are overweight with poorly managed diabetes, then consuming honey could be health disaster. However if you have well managed diabetes, are not overweight and are otherwise fit and healthy, then using a little honey as a replacement for sugar could possibly be helpful. Diabetes is a very complicated condition and the dietary restrictions required to keep blood sugar levels under control will not be the same for everyone.
Honey is naturally made by bees from nectar. It is composed of around 40% fructose and 35% glucose sugar, where the remaining 25% is made up of water and all the minerals, vitamins, antioxidants and unique things like pollen and bee propolis found in high quality honey.
Regular white sugar is almost 100% glucose and fructose with around 50% of each. So while lacking many of the amazing things found in honey, for the most part honey and sugar are both made up of the same fructose and glucose sugars.
Honey may have a lower impact on your blood sugar level than sugar and because it tastes sweeter than sugar you may be able to use less of it as a direct replacement. There is also some evidence that honey causes a greater rise in insulin than sugar. Insulin removes sugar from blood, so this may help blood sugar levels drop lower and faster compared to sugar too.
One thing we know for certain is that consuming honey will affect your blood sugar levels, so if you do have diabetes we are sorry to say that it may not be as helpful to you as you might have been hoping. The impact of honey consumption on blood sugar levels tends to be slightly better than regular table sugar, however Just Bee would not recommend honey consumption for diabetics without first speaking to your doctor or other health professional and heeding their advice.
We would obviously love it if everyone could enjoy our honey but sadly this will not always be the case. We would urge caution around any claims that honey is 'safe' or 'better' for diabetics. In 2019 North Devon NHS Healthcare actually featured this topic as a 'Food Myth' on their website. It is very short and to the point.
Diabetics will know already that living sugar-free is virtually impossible. So there may be room for a little honey in the overall balanced diet of a diabetic but Just Bee cannot advise if it is suitable for any individual with diabetes and we would always recommend erring on the side of caution until you can consult with your doctor.
For more information on sugar, sweeteners and alternatives to honey follow the link below to Diabetes UK.
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The weather lately has felt more like winter than autumn at times, it's been decidedly chilly and wet! There's also a lot of cold and flu viruses around that we'll need to fight off the best we can. Our immune systems are an important part of that. As the name implies it is a complete system that works in different areas of our body, that means we need to employ multiple strategies to keep it strong and healthy. To function at its best we need balance and harmony in our bodies and general healthy-living approaches are by far the best way to keep our immune system working at its maximum potential. If you are feeling a little under the weather and feel like you need a boost then read on to find out our top five ways to help keep your immune system healthy and working at full strength.
Keeping hydrated is a critical part of our general well-being but is often a neglected area during the cooler months. During hot weather we are far more inclined to drink plenty of water to keep cool but it is just as important during winter too! Fluids are very important in helping maintain our immune systems- from moving nutrients around the bloodstream to lymph production for collecting and destroying bacteria. Keeping your water intake up during winter is a crucial part of looking after your immune system.
Being properly hydrated helps keep the body's natural virus fighters active and there are many ways to get your daily liquid intake without having to drink cold water during winter when you might not feel like doing so. Warm water with a teaspoon of honey and herbal teas are brilliant ways to keep warm and hydrated this winter. My personal favourite lately has been warm water with a spoonful of Just Bee Honey Valencia Orange Vitamin Honey stirred in. It's delicious, warming and hydrating while also providing a welcome vitamin and energy boost too!
When it comes to your immune system eating a healthy balanced diet is probably the single most important thing you can do. If you don't eat well then your immune system will have very little to work with and cannot function at its best. Eating well is key to giving your immune system a boost back to full strength.
You've heard this a million times already but eating fresh fruit and vegetables is still the easiest way to look after your general health and keep your immune system working for you. Eating more vegetables and fruits as part of an overall balanced diet can also reduce the risk from some serious illnesses such as heart attacks and strokes, it may even reduce the risk of some cancers. Vegetables provide nutrients that are vital for the health and maintenance of your immune system.
Citrus fruits are packed with Vitamin C and other anti-inflammatory nutrients. Vitamin C is an essential vitamin in helping to strengthen our immunity against viruses; it also promotes the production of white blood cells, which are key to fighting off infections. Fruits also provide us with a good source of vitamin A and vitamin B9 which are also important for a healthy immune system.
In addition to the common fruits and vegetables the daily consumption of honey can also really help strengthen our immune system. Its antioxidant, antimicrobial and antibacterial properties can help fight infections from viruses and bacteria. Just a single teaspoon of Just Bee Vitamin Honey contains 25% of your recommended daily allowance of Vitamin C, D, B6 and B12 to support your immune system.
Garlic is not only useful for fighting off vampires this Halloween, it's also great for boosting immunity! Garlic is rich in an immune-balancing compounds called organosulfides which research has shown to have many health benefits including anti-inflammatory and antibacterial affects.
A good night’s sleep is essential in giving your body enough time to rejuvenate and keep your immune system ticking along in good health. If you are continually not getting enough sleep or having disrupted nights then this can seriously disrupt your immune system. Many studies have shown that people who only get 6 hours sleep or less a night are far more likely to suffer from common colds and will often have a higher susceptibility to other viruses.
If you are struggling to sleep then you can try using Just Bee Sleeptime Honey for some natural help. We've already had some incredible testimony from people that it's been working really well for them. Containing lavender and valerian extracts, Sleeptime Honey is designed to help you relax and support your mind and body while you get a good night’s sleep. Quality sleep at night is invaluable in keeping your immune system ready to fight the day ahead.
Regular exercise is another important part of healthy living. It improves cardiovascular health, lowers blood pressure, helps control body weight, and protects against a variety of diseases. Just like a healthy balanced diet, moderate exercise contributes to general good health and helps to promote a strong and healthy immune system. Experts say the best choices for the average person are brisk walking, light aerobics, cycling and swimming. Two to three hours a week is perfect for most people but be careful you don't overdo it. If you do so much exercise that you feel completely worn out then that could be detrimental to your immune system.
Over the last few of years the importance of vitamin D to our immune system has come to the attention of many people. Vitamin D is synthesised in the skin from UVB rays and it is vital to maintaining a healthy immune system. Unfortunately the very best way to get vitamin D is through skin exposure to sunlight and the likely truth is that during winter none of us are getting enough of this exposure in the UK. This means that many of us will have a vitamin D deficiency.
If you can afford a sunshine holiday then that's the very best way to get a boost of vitamin D but for many of us that won't be an option. You can get vitamin D from some foods, oily fish like mackerel and salmon are a good source and red meat and eggs contain some too. Realistically though most people will have to take a vitamin D supplement. 'One a day' chewable tablets are inexpensive and simple way to ensure you are getting enough of this important vitamin.
]]>In 2006, researchers at Oregon State University discovered a bee preserved in amber that is 100 million years old! The bee is around 45 million years older than any bee fossil found before, and the oldest known bee that's ever been identified. The discovery of the bee may help to explain the rapid expansion and diversity of flowering plants around that time. The bee species found in the amber has been extinct for a long time, with features that resemble wasps like a double spine on the middle tibia and narrow hind legs. It also had branched hairs all over its body which is a main feature characteristic of pollen-spreading bees.
There have been over 25,000 individual species of bee recorded and around 4000 different types of bee exist across the world, but sadly the number is going down mainly due to habitat loss. In the UK there are around 250 different species buzzing around, but some are becoming extremely uncommon. You can read about some of the more common bees you might see in your garden in our recent blog but if you are lucky you might occasionally spot something rarer!
How many exactly? Well, it takes 12 bees to make a single teaspoon of honey and that's not one teaspoon a day, or even a week. It may seem unbelievable but it takes the whole of a bees lifetime to make just one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey! To make a jar of honey it takes thousands of bees all working hard together. It's no surprise that we use the phrase 'as busy as a bee'. Next time you open a new jar of delicious Just Bee honey remember all the work hours thousands of bees have put in to make it!
Bees have wings that can beat around 250 times a second and this is what creates that familiar buzzing sound as they vibrate the air around them. To film bees in slow motion and create footage that is detailed and smooth wildlife photographers use a very fast camera that can shoot more than million frames a second! Only when it's slowed down can you see the beauty of how a bee moves its wings in flight. Check out this incredible footage by michiganshooter on YouTube of honeybees in ultra-slow motion.
Have you ever wondered how those bees found the wild-flowers you planted for them in your garden or window box? It's very likely that they smelled them before they saw them. A bee has a sense of smell that is fifty times more powerful than a dog. It's also so precise they can recognise different types of flowers by scent alone when they are buzzing around collecting nectar and pollen. You might also be surprised to learn that bees are able to detect scents with their mouths, antennae and even tips of their legs!
Bees use the sun as a compass to navigate around. Keeping the angle between their line of flight and the sun constant using the sun as a fixed reference point helps them return to nectar and pollen sources time and time again. The position of sun also enables a bee to indicate to the others the exact direction of where they found the food. A bees eyes are also sensitive to polarized light, which can penetrate through thick cloud, so bees are able to still use the sun for navigation even in poor weather.
While we tend to imagine that thousands of bees living in hives within a large colony as the norm, most bees aren't as social as you might think. The vast majority of bees in the UK (around 90%) actually live in solitary. Other than honeybees and some bumblebees, all other bees prefer to live alone. Being loners, solitary bees fly around by themselves which is why swarms of bees are rarely seen in our gardens unless you live near some honeybee hives!
In their very short lives of six to eight weeks, a typical worker will fly over 90,000 miles searching to the best quality pollen and nectar. That's the equivalent of flying around the earth's circumference one and a half times! Reaching speeds of up to 20mph in the right conditions these speedy bees are continually buzzing around doing their important and amazing work.
The earliest examples of beekeeping date back at least 4,500 years to the Neolithic period. There is evidence that people were collecting and using honey a long time before that, at least 150,000 years ago, but they were collecting wild honey by climbing trees! Domesticated beekeeping however was a common practice throughout the ancient world, starting at least as early as 2500 BC in Egypt and possibly even earlier in China and other parts of Asia. Depictions of beehives, honeypots, and even beekeepers using smoke to calm bees, were found on the walls of the Sun Temple of the Egyptian pharaoh Nyuserre Ini.
A bees brain is only 2 cubic millimetres, that's around the size of a sesame seed, but despite being tiny it is absolutely remarkable. In studies it's been shown that bees can distinguish between types of flowers, shapes, patterns as well as learning categories, sequences and combinations! It has also been shown that bees take into account social conditions, time of day, location, and the different sensory stimuli.
Bees truly are amazing complex insects!
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Turmeric is a bright yellow spice that many of us will be familiar with as a common ingredient in curry recipes and other Indian foods. Turmeric is the main ingredient in most curry powders - when you break open an onion bhaji that bright yellow colour comes from turmeric. Turmeric is from the same spice family as ginger, and both are believed to share similar anti-inflammatory effects. Like the ginger plant, turmeric grows as a root and is typically ground into a powder and used in cooking to flavour the dish. Turmeric has also been used for thousands of years in Eastern remedies to treat various conditions such as inflammation and painful joints.
Turmeric use can be traced back to the Vedic culture in India where it was used as a culinary spice almost 4,000 years ago, to this day India produces nearly all of the world’s turmeric crop and also consumes 80% of it!
Arthritis is a condition that many people suffer from. It causes inflamed stiff joints which can be extremely painful. The figures from the NHS show that around 1 million people in the UK experience some form of chronic joint condition that requires ongoing medical treatment. Osteoarthritis is the most common form of arthritis. You may have read already that some common spices such as turmeric, may be able to help, but is there any truth behind these claims?
Turmeric contains small amounts of curcumin, an active compound that is believed to have anti-inflammatory properties. Curcumin has antioxidant properties and the ability to removed free-radicals from the body. Curcumin is also believed to play a role in blocking proteins that can cause inflammation. There have been many clinical trials that seem to show that turmeric can both reduce symptoms and reduce pain in Osteoarthritis patients. In these trials it was found that patients who took turmeric reported a bigger improvement from those taking ibuprofen.
In another trial, results indicated that curcumin extracts were as affective as ibuprofen with both groups showing significant improvement in pain, inflammation, and mobility scores. According to a 2018 study conducted in China, curcumin has been shown to be effective at reducing tenderness and swelling of joints associated with rheumatoid arthritis.
Much like Valerian Root that we covered in our previous blog, there is evidence that turmeric has been used for treating such conditions and produced successful results, in the case of turmeric for thousands of years. Evidence suggests that Turmeric provides similar analgesic and anti-inflammatory effects as anti-inflammatory drugs like ibuprofen.
Medicines derived from plants have played a pivotal role in the health care of our culture, both in ancient and modern times and the research on turmeric so far looks very promising, it continues to show positive results in many clinical trials.
In 2016, researchers evaluated all random clinical trials of turmeric extracts and curcumin for treating arthritis symptoms. It was published in the Journal of Medicinal Food and for further reading you can find a link to that at the bottom of the page.
Unfortunately, they concluded that “the total number of trials available, the total sample size, and the methodological quality of the primary studies were not sufficient to draw definitive conclusions.” and that (as is commonly the case in these areas) “more rigorous and larger studies are needed to confirm the therapeutic efficacy of turmeric for arthritis.” Whether these larger and more rigorous studies will ever be forthcoming to give us a definite answer is uncertain, so where does this leave us?
If you live with a chronic condition like arthritis, you’ll know that there are a number of treatments and changes to your lifestyle that can be used in combination to manage the worst symptoms. The 2016 researchers concluded that there is a justification for the use of turmeric as an addition to conventional treatment. So the addition of some turmeric in your diet, along with any other treatments and dietary changes you've made could help and provide additional relief.
Many studies and years of anecdotal evidence have shown turmeric to be a viable option for many, however turmeric is not listed as an arthritis treatment by the NHS, and therefore is unlikely to be prescribed or even suggested to you by your GP. As always, you should not stop taking any prescribed medicines without speaking to your doctor. If you have severe pain or inflammation then you should always seek the advice of medical professionals.
Many of us who enjoy Indian and spicy food, already consume turmeric regularly as part of our normal balanced diet and using turmeric in cooking is very safe. If you are considering taking larger amounts in capsule form, for example, then we would recommend speaking to your GP first. So far, research studies seem to show that it causes few or no side effects, but we don't know much about the side effects of taking it in large amounts for medical reasons.
For further reading on the 2016 findings follow the link below:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5003001/
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Unfortunately, daily aches and pains that come from joint stiffness are something that many of us have to deal with. It's often associated with age, and getting older is certainly often a contributing factor, but for others, arthritis and other chronic conditions can come at a much younger age. Pain relieving drugs and anti-inflammatory medicines are often necessary but there are also some easy and natural ways we can try to relieve some of the stiffness and pain. In some cases they could allow you to reduce the amount of prescription pain killers that you need to take or provide more relief than you currently get.
In this blog, we outline 5 easy and natural ways to help ease joint pain.
Epsom salts have been used for hundreds of years to ease all kinds of aches, pains and skin problems. They get their name from the place in England where they are found in natural springs. It's believed that when you soak in an Epsom salts bath, your body can absorb the magnesium and sulphates in the salts though the skin. Magnesium absorbs much faster through the skin than it does in the gut.
Magnesium is an essential mineral to our bodies and one that helps with the regeneration and healing of joint tissues. Use the method and amount suggested on the packet and enjoy a nice soothing soak! Epsom salt is considered safe and it's inexpensive, simple to use and easy to find on the high street or online. We don't think there is ever a downside to taking the time for a nice relaxing bath, that's why it's number one on our list!
Extra virgin olive oil is one of the healthiest oils we can consume and much like our cars, sometimes we could use a top up of oil to keep things running smoothly! You can use olive oil topically on sore aching joints. Simply massage a little gently into the area a couple of times a day. As a nice bonus this can also help with dry skin on knees and elbows too!
Alternatively try taking a couple of tablespoons of olive oil as part of your daily diet. Olive oil contains an organic compound called oleocanthal that is known to help reduce inflammatory enzymes in a similar way to Ibuprofen. The ingestion of olive oil, which is rich in fatty acids, may also help to lubricate joints and keep them soft and subtle. We highly recommend using a high quality olive oil in any of the ways suggested as one of the easiest natural ways of reducing joint pain.
Turmeric, ground ginger and cayenne pepper are three common ingredients you may have in your spice rack and all three can be used to fight joint pain. Turmeric contains the compound Curcumin which has shown to have analgesic and anti-inflammatory properties while ginger is known to possess the ability to inhibit the body’s inflammatory immune response. Adding half a teaspoon of either (or both) to a warm honey drink or tea twice a day will give you the recommended daily amount in a quick and easy way and could help significantly reduce the pain of sore inflamed joints.
Cayenne can be used as a topical ointment to relieve joint pain. To make a cayenne paste simply mix 2 tablespoons of ground cayenne with 100g of cocoa butter or coconut oil and rub it directly on the sore joint. We highly recommend using disposable gloves for this as the cayenne works by causing a mild irritation of the area. It's this mild irritation that distracts the nerves in the area from the more painful joint pain. Repeated application has been shown to offer quick relief for even the most severe arthritis pain.
Most of us will remember unpleasant experiences from our childhood of this plant while out playing. Falling off a wall into a massive patch of stinging nettles and being stung all over my hands and face wasn't enjoyable to say the least! As an adult it probably wouldn't feel as bad as I remember as a child and something I wasn't aware of back then is that nettles contain minerals and many of the important vitamins we need. Best of all they are in a form that is easy for our bodies to use, which makes them an excellent herbal remedy for joint pain. Minerals in nettles include boron, calcium, magnesium and silicon, which are great for easing pain and helping to build strong bones. Nettles are commonly consumed in drinks and can be bought as extracts and teas from health food shops. Nettle tea is also commonly used as a natural remedy for gout which is an inflammatory arthritis usually affecting the toes.
Stinging nettle leaves can also be used in a similar way to the cayenne ointment above. The fine hairs on the leaves and stems are irritating to the skin but when a nettle leaf is placed over a painful joint on the body, they can actually reduce the more severe pain by disrupting the transmission of the pain signals to our brains, or by actually decreasing inflammatory chemicals. These kind of techniques are similar to using music to distract us while undergoing surgery and it has been proven many times to be effective.
When we are in pain from aching joints, our first impulse might be to lay as still as possible in bed, which is of course understandable, especially if it is painful to even get out of a chair to stand. However, light exercise is very important to keeping our joints loose and pain free. Light weight-training can be really useful, small weights are inexpensive and can be fun to use. A simple regular routine can help to strengthen the muscles around the joints, providing more support for the joint itself.
Yoga has been shown to be effective too, using stretching and movement to help keep your joints supple and reduce long term pain. Joining a beginners class could help to get you out of the house regularly and meet new friends too! If you talk to the class instructor and explain your joint problems they will usually be more happy to help and advise. If you have access to a local swimming pool or live near the sea, then swimming is a fantastic way to exercise your joints, swimming slowly in a variety of strokes allows your joints to move through their full range in a very gentle way.
We hope this gives you some ideas on ways to ease the pain from aching joints, as the summer fades away and the cooler temperatures arrive, it's important to keep active and to look after ourselves. Wishing you good health and happiness from all at Just Bee.
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People often ask us why honey is good for you or even if it is really good for you at all! Unfortunately it's not always a question we can answer in a quick or straightforward way, especially when you take the medical, scientific and anecdotal evidence together. It can be confusing and you may get conflicting opinions from different sources.
Like anything that's part of our diets, how good it is for us often depends on how much of it we consume, how we consume it and the quality of the product itself. If a spoonful of honey helps you get a good night's sleep then that spoonful of honey is without doubt very good for you, both mentally and physically. Doctors agree that getting a good night's sleep is one of the most important things we can do for our overall health.
It should also be taken into account that different people can have very different dietary needs, we are all individuals and our overall health can play a large part in what our bodies can use in a productive way and what it can't. If you run or cycle regularly then a simple honey and water drink can provide both excellent hydration and a good energy boost during such exercise. If you are sat at a desk during that time, then plain water could be a better option for you.
Refined sugar and honey do share a similar make up, consisting mainly of two sugars- glucose and fructose, but there are important differences. Honey has more nutrients and is less processed. Honey varies in its nutritional composition because it's a natural product and it will change based on the nectar that the bees collected to make it. Generally speaking a good quality honey such as ours will contain pollen, amino acids, antioxidants, enzymes, minerals, and vitamins not found in sugar.
Sugar is also higher on the glycaemic index than honey, which means it raises blood sugar levels more quickly.
It's these extra 'ingredients' that make honey special and different to sugar. They give honey its antioxidant, antibacterial, and antimicrobial properties which fight against viruses, treat colds and boost our immune systems.
Honey has anti-inflammatory properties because of the phenolic and flavonoid compounds, which have been shown to help decrease chronic inflammation. Chronic inflammation can lead to arthritis, heart disease and Alzheimer's disease.
Applied topically honey can help with dermatitis, dandruff, treat wounds and skin infections, as well as helping with overall skin condition because of its antimicrobial properties. None of which can be said about refined sugar.
Honey may also be easier than sugar on our digestive system. Due to its composition, regular sugar has to be ingested before being broken down. Bees add enzymes to honey, therefore the sugars are already partially broken down, making it easier to digest. To say that honey is just 'sugar in disguise' seems a little disingenuous to us and is ignoring all the positive effects it's had on people's lives for centuries.
Manuka honey contains more minerals, amino acids, vitamins, and antioxidants than any other type of honey. This makes it especially effective at boosting the immune system and providing energy when you are suffering with a cold. Manuka honey has a naturally occurring active ingredient Leptosperin, which is a chemical compound that has strong anti-inflammatory properties- while Methylglyoxal is responsible for Manuka honey's antibacterial effects. Consuming Manuka honey regularly can help to prevent cold and flu symptoms.
Manuka honey is expensive, due to both the quantity available each year and the fact it has to be imported from New Zealand. Our high quality, certified Manuka can be bought in a money saving multi-pack or on a subscription that will save you 16% on the price.
Not all honey on the shelf is created equally, some of it is heated to such an extent that any of the 'good' has been destroyed. Usually this is done just to make it look consistent on the supermarket shelf, in the case of some very cheap brands it may not even be real honey. So how good for you the honey is might well depend on the honey itself.
A single teaspoon of Just Bee high quality Pure Vitamin Honey contains 25% of your recommended daily allowance of vitamins D, C, B6, B12 and Echinacea (also known as purple coneflower) which Native Americans have used for centuries to treat various ailments. Today, it’s best known as an over-the-counter herbal remedy for the common cold or flu, however it’s also used to treat pain, inflammation, migraines, and all manner of other health issues. Our honey is never pasteurised or over filtered, so all the natural pollen, amino acids, antioxidants, enzymes, minerals and vitamins survive intact when the jar reaches you.
My grandmother always used to say 'A little bit of what you fancy does you good.' When I was young I always took that to mean that it was fine to treat yourself to some sweets occasionally but as time has passed I see it more as a wider cautionary comment. There are many things in life that that can be good for us in small amounts but bad for us if we consume too much- and sugar (in any form) is one of those things.
Sugar is broken down into glucose in our bodies. A typical adult brain uses roughly 120 grams of glucose each day and as brain cells cannot store glucose, a constant supply must be provided from the blood stream. Mature red blood cells also rely exclusively on glucose for fuel because these cells cannot generate energy from any other nutrient source. Parts of our eyes, like the lens and some other retinal cells rely heavily on glucose too. Sugar is blamed for many health problems, but without it, your body would cease to function properly. It really is as simple as that- and despite what some will have you believe it's a fact!
The main reason refined sugar receives so much negative criticism is because of its lack of any nutritional value. Naturally occurring sugars don't face the same negativity, such as those found in fruits, because they come from sources that benefit our diets in other ways and we believe the same is true for honey. If we consume honey in moderation and part of a healthy balanced diet then we can enjoy and benefit from its many positive effects on our well-being without being negatively affected by the over consumption of sugar.
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In this blog we will take a walk through a typical day to show you just how different it would be if we didn't have these things in our lives...
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Make no mistake, when we say everyday things we really do mean items that most people use or consume every single day. This is not a list of vegetables like the pumpkin that we may buy once a year to carve into a lantern or exotic fruits that most people have never seen. These are things that are very much a part of our lives on a daily basis and it would make a significant impact to our lives if they were not available or became cost prohibitive due to scarcity.
In this blog we will take a walk through a typical day to show you just how different it would be if we didn't have these things in our lives.
From the moment we wake up between our cotton sheets, in our cotton nightdress, t-shirt or pyjamas, our daily reliance on bees has already started. We may then pull on our favourite cotton jeans, a cotton shirt, a cotton dress - cotton socks and pants too. You might even be wearing cotton canvas shoes and a cotton sun hat today!
It wouldn't be that unusual for someone to literally be dressed head to toe in clothing that is at least partially made of cotton on any given day. Even our beekeeper suits are made of a thick cotton canvas! If bees were to go extinct, cotton production would be impossible.
Cotton crops are also one of the worst for heavy pesticide use - a lot of which is very dangerous to bees. It's ironic that one of the everyday things we rely on bees for is also one of the dangers to them. We can help bees by choosing organic cotton products when we can. Organic cotton products use cotton that is grown without the pesticides that are the biggest risk to bees in large scale cotton production.
As we stumble into the bathroom to flick a little water over our face to wake up those tired eyes, we will be surrounded by many common products that wouldn't exist without bees.
Now, more than ever, our bathroom cabinets are filled with plant-based soaps, conditioners, creams and lotions. We choose them because they are natural and friendly to the environment and our skin but in many cases this also means that a lot of the ingredients rely on bee pollination to exist. Citrus fruits, Shea-butter (and obviously honey and beeswax) don't exist without bees, to name just a few common things found in these types of products.
The flannels we use to wash our faces and towels we use to dry them are also almost always made of cotton too. As is the cotton wool and the box of cotton buds in the bathroom cabinet.
We've only just made it downstairs this morning and we can already start to appreciate the things we would be missing without our little buzzy friend's work. You might be fine with the satin sheets, polyester clothes, soap made of artificial chemicals and drying yourself off with a microfibre towel... but now it's time for our morning beverage! Tea comes from plants that are pollinated by bees, there's not really any getting around that, so no bees, no Great British cuppa to start the day.
We might be fine with a cup of coffee providing it doesn't use any of the Robusta varieties because those plants rely on bees for cross-pollination. Even then it might have to be black coffee, dairy cattle feed contains a lot of plant products which are highly reliant on bees for pollination. Without them milk would be significantly more expensive, so much so that we might not be able to afford it to use as a daily product. A popular alternative like 'almond milk' would be completely out of the question as the California almond crop requires billions of bees for pollination every year!
It's the same problem if you prefer a glass of fruit juice in the morning. Citrus fruits like Orange and Grapefruit rely on honeybees and bumble bees for pollination. Whilst some varieties of citrus are self-fertile and capable of pollinating themselves without bees, the actual yields are greatly improved by the presence of bees. Without them, the cost to produce a carton of orange juice would be significantly higher, to the point where it would be a luxury product rather than an everyday one.
It's estimated that around ½ of all oil production relies on bees for pollination; common cooking oils like sunflower and rapeseed, nut oils and many essential oils used in fragrances etc. Sunflower oil is especially useful, we find it in all sorts of foods and even in bio-fuels. Without bees pollinating these wonderful plants sunflower oil would be a very rare item indeed. It's hard to imagine a day where we don't use something without one of these oils in or eat something without plant oils in. Cooking dinner would certainly become trickier, especially for vegetarians as the only real alternative would be animal fats.
All this is enough to give you a headache and that leads us nicely on to another everyday thing many of us rely on and that's Aspirin and other prescription drugs and medicines. The trees that we make common aspirin from are pollinated by bees as are other common painkillers.
If you use any kind of herbal medicines or remedies then chances are those herbs rely on bee pollination too.
A hot lemon and honey drink has been used for centuries as a way to sooth a sore throat or cough. It's maybe obvious that we rely on bees to make honey, but we also benefit from them pollinating the lemon trees too. While it's not essential for lemon trees to be pollinated by bees (it can be done by the wind!), it's also clear that bees love the nectar from the flowers on them and they play a big part in the ease in which these crops are grown for us to enjoy. It's estimated that lemon production would fall by 80% without bee pollination.
We think you'll agree that we rely on bees at lot more than many people realise. That's why it's important that we look after them and why we'll always continue to provide free bee saving seeds to everyone who wants to help, not only our customers!
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Did you know that there are over 250 different bee species found in the UK? Unfortunately, we can't cover every single species in this short blog - we would need to write a bee encyclopaedia for that! What we will cover in this blog are some of the more common species you are likely to see in your garden or local park this summer!
Bumblebees are one of the easiest type of bee to identify as they are so large, plump and fluffy! Bumblebees are a social bee that live in colonies. Queen bumblebees will hibernate underground in the winter months and will emerge in spring to find nesting sites. Bumblebees are very friendly and are almost never aggressive, they will only sting if they are threatened, so if one comes to say hello don't be scared!
Bumblebees are very important pollinators of many plants and fruit trees, they only eat nectar and pollen so you will often see them on flowering plants in your garden or in parks and meadows. There are several common species of bumblebee you are likely to see all the way from February until September.
Most bumblebees are mainly black in colour with varying amounts of yellow or orange banding but there are some distinctive markings and colours that can help you identify exactly which species of bumblebee you are looking at.
A very common large bumblebee that you might see sitting on an open flower in your garden, if they are collecting nectar then their beautiful red tail should be quite easy to spot. Other than the red tail they usually look almost all black.
You might mistake the early bumblebee for a red-tailed bumblebee at first as they also have a red tail, however the early bumblebee is smaller and fluffier looking. The most distinguishing difference is a bright yellow collar just behind the head. This bright yellow band and red tail gives them their distinct look.
Another large bumblebee, the buff-tailed bumblebee is black with orange stripes around the head and body. It gets its name from its off-white fluffy tail that is fairly easy to spot when it's collecting nectar and pollen.
This bee is very similar looking to the buff-tailed bumblebee, the only real difference to the eye is its snowy white tail. You might think that it would be difficult to tell the difference but once you see just how white the tail is you'll definitely know it when you see one. If it's not that snowy white colour, then you are probably looking at the buff-tailed Bumblebee.
Honeybees are quite a lot slimmer than bumblebees and have a striped golden body. They are more common in number than bumblebees and if you've ever seen a field of oilseed rape or a fruit tree with blossom that's absolutely buzzing with hundreds of bees, then chances are they are honey bees working hard collecting nectar.
There is only one species of honeybee in the UK so once you've identified a honeybee you'll recognise them every time! It is rare to find a truly wild colony of honeybees today, honeybees mostly live in bee-keepers hives but of course they will be found feeding and collecting pollen all around the wider area that their hives are in. How common they are in your own garden might depend on how close you live to a bee-keeper! You'll most likely see them out working between April and October.
Carder bees are delightful little bees that are very common in many people's gardens. They can vary in colour from light orange to a yellowy brown. Smaller than a bumblebee, they really enjoy collecting nectar from many of our common weeds like dandelions and nettles- which is probably why I see them in my garden so often!
Common carder bees are seen across the whole of the UK and in some areas they might be the only type of bee you see regularly in your garden or local parks. They are called 'common' for good reason. There are other species of carder bee in the UK but they are far less common and are usually only found in a few specific areas.
There are several similar looking species of mason bee in the UK but by far the most common is the red mason bee. If you see bees buzzing around next to a brick wall they are probably mason bees, you might also see them in wood and dead plant stalks.
Red mason bees can be identified by their boxy shaped head, their faces are almost all black with an orangey red body. You might see them collecting mud and dirt which they use to make homes within the gaps and cavities in masonry.
They are very common in urban environments that have plenty of gardens and green spaces. If you've put a bee hotel in your garden then there's a good chance it's been used by red mason bees, especially if you live in England or Wales. They are most commonly seen between March and July.
If you've ever seen little piles of earth on your lawn that look like little volcanos then it's probably the work of mining Bees. These bees nest in the ground and you can find them in most environments, from your garden to wasteland and local parks and fields. There are several species that are quite difficult to tell apart. The easiest way to identify these bees is to witness them leaving or returning to their nests.
You will typically see this mining bee across the UK in Spring, from March to June. It's a ginger coloured bee, with the males having distinguishing white tufts on their faces. The females are larger than the males and usually a brighter reddish colour.
This is probably the easiest mining bee to spot due to its colouring. The ashy mining bee is a similar size to a honey bee but with very distinctive black and grey hairs. They are common in England and Wales and you will typically see them buzzing around their burrows from March onwards into summer.
Leafcutter (or leaf-cutting) bees are another common type of bee to find living in your bee hotel. They get their name from the way they remove little sections of plant leaves and use them to build nests. If you see little pieces of leaf in your bee hotel (or anywhere else you find bees nesting) then that will usually be the work of a leafcutter bee.
There are seven different species in the UK but they are often quite difficult to tell apart to the untrained eye. Most I've seen in my area are around the size of a honeybee, but some species are slightly larger or smaller.
There are some things we can observe to help us identify a leafcutter bee. Something unique to them is that they have a very hairy belly! You might wonder how on earth you could see this but because of this they collect a lot of pollen on their tummy by it sticking to these hairs. If you see a bee with a bright yellow belly absolutely covered in pollen is almost certain to be a member of the leafcutter family. If you witness a bee collecting little pieces of leaf or returning to your bee hotel with them, then you have a leafcutter species living in the home you provided for them!
We hope this gives you a start in identifying the common species of bee you might see in your local area. Leave a comment below to let us know what types of bees you've spotted or maybe are living in your bee hotel right now! And if you would like to make your own bee hotel, check out our step-by-step guide here!
]]>Last year, I was chatting with Mike over a beer about his work. He told me that one of the areas he is focusing on is South Manchester, very close to where Just Bee HQ is. I told him about how we are trying to encourage more children to learn about bees and the environment. We knew there was a cross over, but couldn’t quite put our finger on how we could collaborate to achieve both our goals...
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A good friend of mine, Mike, works for the National Literacy Trust (NLT). This is a fantastic charity whose aim is to work with schools and communities to give disadvantaged children the literacy skills to succeed in life.
Last year, I was chatting with Mike over a beer about his work. He told me that one of the areas he is focusing on is South Manchester, very close to where Just Bee HQ is. I told him about how we are trying to encourage more children to learn about bees and the environment. We knew there was a cross over, but couldn’t quite put our finger on how we could collaborate to achieve both our goals.
In March, I got a phone call from Mike. He told me about a new project he was working on with Manchester Parks. The aim was to get kids out of the house in the Easter Holidays (away from the iPad or computer) and into their local parks to learn about nature. The tool to do this was a Nature Trail, designed by the NLT, which would be given out in parks. The children would read the trail and spot the clues as they wandered around, learning about wildlife including birds, trees, flowers, bugs and insects. There was the lightbulb moment – Just Bee could provide bee-friendly seeds to go with the trails so that kids could plant them and the whole thing would be even more interactive!
So Just Bee supplied 5,000 packets of our lovely bee-friendly flower seeds and each of them was attached to the Nature Trails. The trails were handed out to families across 10 Manchester Parks and we had some fantastic feedback from both children and parents. The local area now has thousands more children engaged with reading, nature and their local parks PLUS around 50,000 new flowers will be blooming very soon 😊
We’re eager to continue our work inspiring as many children as possible to care for bees and the environment. We don’t know what our next campaign is yet, but one idea muted was trying to break the Guinness World Record for the most people dressed up as a bees in one place. The current record is held by a school with over 2,500 children. Sounds like absolute chaos! If you have any ideas, please feel free to fire them over to us: buzz@justbeehoney.co.uk
If you want to learn more about the NLT, go to www.literacytrust.org.uk
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Stories about fake honey have been in the headlines several times over the last 5 years. In most cases the term 'fake honey' is used to describe small amounts of real honey that have been mixed with various other less expensive sugars and syrups. Not only are these syrups, such as corn or rice, much less expensive to produce, they are also much easier to produce than real honey. In a Mail Online article published in December last year, it was claimed that factories in China are making more honey than the entire bee population of the world! Something is clearly amiss if that is the case.
You might think that the law should prevent such products being mis-sold in the UK but it's an extremely complicated picture that involves large global supply chains and difficulties in testing and poor or confusing labelling. In this blog we'll outline the issues and look at ways we might be able to tell what products are and where they have come from.
Before I started writing this blog I took a trip to my local Aldi supermarket and bought a jar of 'Everyday Essentials Clear Honey'. The cost of this 340g jar was just 72p. I'm sure a similar product can be found in all supermarkets at varying prices. With the cost of living rising and many people concerned about paying their utility bills this year, it's not difficult to understand why we might be drawn to lower cost products. But is it real honey or fake honey? Is it even possible to produce real honey for 72p a jar? The factory that fills and labels the jars needs to be paid, the transportation costs taken into account and the supermarket needs to make a profit too. The actual cost of the 'honey' in the jar must be literally pence and knowing the time and costs involved in producing real honey, the price seems extraordinary to say the least.
The label clearly states 'Clear Honey – All Natural' and anyone would be forgiven for thinking that it's a jar of pure natural honey, but it doesn't actually say that. Does it mean that the honey was naturally made (by bees) or just that the 'honey' is made with natural ingredients? Would a highly watered down honey still be 'all natural' as water is a natural product? It doesn't seem at all clear to me.
On the side of the label it states 'a blend of non-EU honey' and the supermarket's website describes this as the legal name of the product. In a Guardian article from November 2021, British beekeepers called for stricter labelling on supermarket honey to help identify the countries of origin because of the concerns of the quality of honey imported from China. The UK is one of the world’s largest importers of Chinese honey. Supermarkets claim that all the honey they sell can be traced back to the beekeeper, but there is no requirement to identify the countries of origin so it's impossible to tell if it has come from an area of concern.
According to the food safety divisions of the World Health Organization (WHO) and the European Commission (EU) as well as numerous other regulating bodies, in order for honey to be considered “real”, it must contain pollen. Without the presence of pollen it's almost impossible to determine whether the honey is from legitimate source. Honey that has gone through a high temperature and ultra-filtered process, removes all the pollen and beneficial enzymes that make honey a special and unique product. This heavily processed honey is almost impossible to test in any meaningful way that would reveal its origin or quality.
'Fake honey' doesn't taste like pure honey. Pure honey will have a complex flavour, with floral notes. The flavour of the honey should linger a little longer than the taste of the sweetness but if you put a small amount in your mouth both the taste and sweetness should dissolve away with the honey itself. Fake honey has very little in the way of complex flavours and the sweetness will stay in your mouth long after it's dissolved leaving a sugary aftertaste. Of course, as real honey is a natural product, the taste may vary so it's difficult to rely on this alone.
Despite honey often being described as 'sticky' if you take a small amount and rub it between your thumb and finger you'll find that is doesn't actually feel that sticky to the touch. It will feel smooth and more like a cream or balm. If you've never done this, try it with a jar of our Just Bee Honey, you might be surprised that it doesn't feel sticky like glue feels sticky. If your honey does feel very sticky then that is a good sign that it has a stickier sugar syrup blended into the honey.
As you will know if you've used any of our Just Bee honey products, crystallization can start very quickly, especially once the pot has been opened. Fake honey will never crystallize in the same way. You may see some sugary mess around the top of the jar or bottle but the actual contents inside won't crystallize in the same way as real honey.
The best way right now to avoid buying a product that could be considered fake or partially fake is to avoid honey that's labelled as “blend of non-EU honeys”. It would seem almost all the honey labelled as such is originating, in some part at least, from China and may not actually be what it claims to be.
Real honey is an increasingly expensive product to produce, unfortunately there is no getting around that and it takes a lot of time and work from both the bees and beekeepers to produce even a moderate amount to sell. It is, by its very nature, a luxury product and not a cheap commodity.
For us, the problem isn't that these cheaper products exist. Both certified real honey and honey flavoured syrup blends can exist side by side on the supermarket shelf and there is a place for both. As consumers, we should have clear options and clear labels so we know what we are spending our money on. Companies may hide the origin of honey, because they don’t want consumers to know that it likely came from China. A place where the chances of it being diluted with corn syrup, water or tainted with other products appears to be the highest.
At Just Bee, our unpasteurised honey comes only from trusted UK and European beekeepers and is prepared and hand-blended in the UK. If you would like to learn more about our honey and some of the fantastic beekeepers across the UK and Europe that we work with, check out our information page here!
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Pesticides are one of the biggest threats to bees in the UK. Bees pollinate many of the crops we use for food, so it's important that crops are kept free of pesticides that are harmful to them. Neonicotinoid insecticides are particularly harmful to bees and have been shown to be directly linked to the decline in our bee population. Neonicotinoid products were outlawed in Europe and the UK in 2018 but recently the UK government has given emergency authorisation to use a product containing a neonicotinoid. In this blog we'll explore why that decision was made, what it means and why we should care.
Neonicotinoids are a class or group of insecticides that are chemically related to nicotine. They act on receptors in the nerve systems of insects and are extremely toxic to them. They are water soluble and can be applied to soil to be taken up by the crop. They are effective against many crop damaging beetles, grubs and pests.
Neonicotinoids are inexpensive and highly effective, when they were first introduced they were praised for their low-toxicity to many beneficial insects, including bees. It wasn't until around 2012 that research on bees started to put that claim into doubt. Ongoing research into the decline of bee populations concluded that there was a link between their use and the health of bee populations. This lead to the EU wide ban that the UK also adopted.
Not exactly. In 2018 when the UK government prohibited their use it also made provisions in the legislation so it could consider “emergency authorisations in special circumstances.” This means that the government could give authorisation for “limited and controlled use in cases where it appears necessary because of a specific danger that cannot be contained by any other reasonable means.”
In 2020, the UK government received an application from NFU Sugar and British Sugar seeking emergency authorisation for the use of a neonicotinoid product as a seed treatment on sugar beet.
The emergency authorisation was sought because of a problem known as 'Virus Yellows disease.' Virus Yellows disease is a complex of three viruses; Beet Mild Yellowing Virus, Beet Chlorosis Virus and Beet Yellows Virus. These viruses are transmitted when aphids that are carrying the viruses feed on the sugar beet.
Virus Yellow disease is particularly a problem in the UK because of our climate, this is especially true the milder our winters become as cold winters are needed to suppress aphid populations that carry the viruses.
In 2021 the 'neonic trigger' which is the special circumstances that would allow their use was not reached. We experienced a cold winter that resulted in lower than average levels of aphids. The strict conditions were not met and the use of neonicotinoids did not go ahead in 2021. However for 2022 the industry applied for permission to use a neonicotinoid pesticide again and has gained authorisation to treat their crops with a neonicotinoid.
That is a very real and genuine concern, especially as climate change and milder winters are already having a negative affect on our bee populations. Combined with the use of an insecticide that is harmful to bees, the ongoing situation could be extremely damaging in the long term. As we have covered in several Just Bee blogs before, the dangers to bees are wide ranging and there is no single solution to protecting them, it is the cumulative effect of multiple threats that could ultimately end in disaster.
Measures have been taken by the sugar beet growers to minimise the risk to bees and it would be misleading to suggest otherwise. Sugar beet is a non-flowering crop and the risks to bees are lower because of that. Conditions also are attached to the authorisation to make sure that flowering crops are not planted in the same soil for a period after. However in clearly taking steps to minimise the risk to bees it also highlights the fact that there is indeed some risk to bees. These are not a 'risk free' usage of neonicotinoids and it's not a risk bees are choosing to take themselves. In the government documents the words 'acceptable risk' is used often and I can't help but wonder if bees would feel the same way?
Earlier this year George Eustice, the UK's environment secretary stated that “The dose level at which no negative impacts on bees occur is unknown.” The truth is we just don't know what kind of impact this 'emergency use' might have on the health of local bee colonies.
In January 2021 The Guardian newspaper published an article in which scientists were stating that “Insect populations were suffering death by 1,000 cuts” that is to say they are facing extinction by multiple over-lapping threats. The use of neonicotinoids in this case may present a minimal risk on it's own but it could equally be the final cut that tips the balance into an unrecoverable state for our bee populations here in the UK.
Several other EU countries that have a large sugar production industry, such as Belgium, Denmark and Spain have also allowed emergency use of Neonicotinoid pesticides, so it's not just here in the UK where there is concern. It's a situation that we (and many other individuals and organisations) will be keeping a close eye on. In the USA and other countries neonicotinoid use is widespread and we are disappointed that the UK and EU, who are leading the world in restricting the use of harmful pesticides, has again given permission for a neonicotinoid product to be used.
The full UK Government statement on the decision to allow the use of neonicotinoids can be found here. It was updated in March 2022.
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The queen bee, as you might presume from her name, is a very important bee in a colony. For her to fulfil her role as queen it will also take the hard work of the whole hive. You might think that the queen bee has an easy life, lounging around in luxury every day, while thousands of worker bees take care of her every need but the role of queen bee comes with some big responsibilities.
To understand the queen bee life fully, we must also understand how all the bees function in the hive as a continual cycle. In a hive the female bees called workers, do all the work. They build the hive, protect it from intruders, collect the food, care for the young, clean and look after the queen. The male bees, called drones, are essentially a continual drain on the hive, using up valuable resources without helping out at all. The male drones do of course play a role that is vital to the continuation of the hive, that being their role in reproduction (that we will get to later) and for that reason they are tolerated by the female workers.
As the queen bee is the only female bee in the hive that has a fully developed reproductive system, her primary job is laying eggs to create new bees. Fully mated and well fed queens can lay between 1,500 and 2,000 eggs a day which together would add up to more than her own body weight!
Honey bees have the same development path as other insects and pass through the same four stages. Starting as an egg, then onto larva, pupa and finally an adult bee.
The worker bees only take around 3 weeks to go through the whole metamorphosis from egg to adult honeybee. The male drones take a few days longer, while a queen can be produced in just a little over 2 weeks! The queen has the shortest development time in the whole hive- this could be because of the special attention she receives.
The bee colony can produce a new queen bee from a fertilised egg or young female larva. There are different situations that might lead to this. One is a routine queen replacement when the current queen gets old, but sometimes the creation of a new queen could be more of an emergency. The queen bee may have died or gone missing from the hive, or no longer able to lay fertilised eggs. If this happens then workers will have to choose a suitable larvae and create a queen from it. The processes involved in creating a queen bee has to begin early in the bees' development. Once a larvae is more than a couple of days old, it will no longer make a good queen. If she is missing, the colony becomes aware very quickly and will get to work finding a suitable replacement.
Once the eggs or larvae are chosen the colony will build special cells around them and feed the developing larvae inside high-quality food called royal jelly. This ensures they develop into a queen bee with a full reproductive system unlike the rest of the female worker bees. Unfortunately there can only be one queen bee in the hive, so when a new queen emerges from her special cell the first thing she will do is seek out any other developing queens and kill them.
Now as the only queen in the hive, she can begin her life as the queen bee of the hive. She will eat, grow and be attended to by many worker bees. At this point she will indeed be treated like a queen, she will be given food and her waste will be disposed of by the workers. Her pheromones will also be collected and distributed which acts as an inhibitor against workers starting other queen cells.
Once the queen bee has become fully developed she will prepare for her nuptial flight, where she will mate and collect the all the sperm she will need to produce the millions of eggs she will lay in her lifetime. On this day the hive will be literally buzzing with activity and excitement. Worker bees will feed, pamper and groom her and when she is ready she will leave the hive accompanied by a few workers. She may fly a mile or more away from the hive and high into the air to waft pheromone scents around areas that drones congregate in.
As soon as this scent is picked up by the males from other colonies they will start to chase the queen for a chance to mate with her. The queen will dart around and fly as fast as she can to make sure that only the fittest and healthiest males will have the chance to mate with her. If a male drone can catch the queen he will mate with her in mid air.
Not only is this an important day for the queen it is also an important day for all the male drones. In the world of bees the drone males are really only good for one thing and this is it. So much so that after mating with the queen the male drone will die and fall from the sky having served the purpose he was born for. The queen will continue to fly around testing the prowess of drones who seek to mate with her, and each one that is successful will meet the same fate.
The queen will mate with many drones on her first nuptial flight. When she returns to her hive she will be exhausted and heavy with sperm. The more drones that have successfully mated with her the happier the workers will be, as it is vital to the continued success of the hive. She may take several mating flights over the next few days if needed. Once she is full of sperm the queen will live the rest of her life in the hive laying eggs until she dies or it's decided she needs to be replaced.
A queen bee can chose whether an egg will produce a female or male bee. If she chooses to fertilise the egg it will grow into a female worker bee, if not it will grow into a male drone. At some point even the best mated and most healthy queens will run low on the sperm needed to create female worker bees. When this happens she will start to lay a lot of male drone eggs and from the point of view of the workers a bunch of drones that contribute practically nothing to the hive are just more mouths to feed and more work.
When it gets to this situation the colony may choose to raise a new queen and send the old one packing! If she leaves, up to half of the workers in the hive will follow her to find a new place to live and create a new colony elsewhere.
Although the queen bee has the capacity to live for many years, that rarely happens and typically most will fail in a couple of years or less. As beekeepers, this is just one of the challenges we face, having good queens in our hives is essential to the overall health of the colony, especially when life of the current queen comes to an end.
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