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...
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...
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...
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!...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Sleep quality is very important to our overall health and well-being. Having a bad night's sleep can affect our mental health and make us irritable, anxious and unable to think clearly. In this blog we'll take a look at some methods and ideas you can employ to improve the quality of your sleep...
Valerian root is the root of the Valerian plant (Valeriana officinalis), a herbaceous perennial that is native to Great Britain, mainland Europe and also parts of Asia. The Valerian plant has feather-like leaves and produces clusters of small pink or white flowers in the summer months. The flowers have an interesting smell that you could describe as a sweet, musky vanilla and it has often been used in perfume manufacturing for its scent. Valerian is also known to be a great nectar and pollen source for bees!...
Honey is an incredible, natural substance with many amazing properties. It's obviously a delicious food, but in this blog we explore some of our other favourite uses for honey.
Two solitary bees you’ll often find in the garden are the Red Mason Bee and the Leaf-cutting Bee and they are prolific pollinators. Recent research suggests that they can pollinate up to 120 times more than honey bees – so it’s a great idea to help them thrive!
One way you can help these bees is to put up a ‘bee hotel’ in your garden. These are safe little spaces for them to nest and you can either buy one or create your own. The good news is that it is much easier (and cheaper) than you might think to make a bee hotel and it involves upcycling – so it’s great for the environment in more ways than one!