SABA Monthly Meeting Monday, November 26th, 2018 By: Donna Victors

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1 SABA Monthly Meeting Monday, November 26th, 2018 By: Donna Victors Officers Present: Steve & Donna Victors Matthew Forester Ty Tobias Meeting called to order at 6:35 PM. Treasurer s Report: There are a number of bills: $29.69 and $19.89 for newsletter copies and mailouts, $13.98 for the October meeting refreshments, $31.94 & $3.98 for refreshments. Mike Fry moved to pay all bills; multiple folks seconded; group passed. (So everyone s bills are suddenly taken care of, right!) Correspondence: Subject: Inquiry to obtain some worker bees for a research study Date: Thu, 1 Nov :20: From: Prashant Waiker <p_waiker@uncg.edu> Hello Mr. Victors, My name is Prashant Waiker, and I am a Ph.D. Student at the social insect laboratory at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. I am conducting a small research study which involves nationwide survey for estimating mercury levels in honeybees. The objective of this study is to identify if the current pollution levels in our country are affecting honeybees. I am planning to obtain honeybees from around 6-10 big cities of the US and rural areas near to those cities. This comparison will not just let me quantify the Mercury levels deposited on honeybees but will allow me to compare bees from cities and rural locations. Mercury is a toxic substance which emits from various industries and may also be present in certain chemicals like pesticides. It is important to know if our bees are getting exposed to the mercury and that level is within the safety limit according to governmental norms. The outcomes of the study will be beneficial to you directly as well, as it will tell you if the bees in your area are getting exposed to the mercury if so then to what extent in comparison to bees in other parts of the country. I was wondering I could obtain some worker bees (~ bees) from any beekeeper in your association who maintain the hive in the city limit (or outside the city limit which I can use as a rural sample) for this research study. I am just looking for adult worker bees which could be dead and can be shipped in a regular envelope. Please let me know if you could help me in my study and any of your beekeeper wants to volunteer to send me bees then I can send FedEx/UPS account number of my university so no payment will be needed from your end, just some help will be needed! Thank you so much for your time! Regards, Prashant Waiker PhD Student, Honey Bee Research Laboratory, Department of Biology, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, 321 McIver St, Greensboro, NC Phone: +1 (336) Research Advisor: Dr. Olav Rueppell ( Old Business: The extractors have been collected & Mike Fry is dealing with the ones that need repair and care. Thank you, hosts, for providing an easier access for our members! New Business: Many members have requested Tom Elliott s new mailing address: Tom Elliott 2830 Leawood Anchorage AK Moisture in Honey Changes Over Time Honey is a super-saturated sugar solution. The free water is what is read on the refractometer. If the honey is poured onto a cookie sheet, honey absorbs moisture out of the air. Even if completely sealed, if sugars crystallize out of the honey, water is left behind or a skim or layer of liquid honey on top. Crystals have left thick honey on the bottom with thin honey on top. The honey was stable but with 20 to 22% free water content it will ferment over time. Shake test equals shelf stable. The top layer ferments and the honey can become "off." If the honey is above 18%, then the honey is stable. If allowed to crystallize, the bottom layer becomes 17% while the thin layer becomes 21-22% on the top. Sell this off quickly or eat first. This may be put in deep freeze for long storage. Dry the combs before extracting to make the moisture content below 18%.

2 Steve explained his method of thawing out crystallized honey. Crystallized honey in plastic bottles is quite difficult to thaw out as most plastic bottles cannot withstand high temperatures that will decrystallize the honey. Decrystallizing honey degrades it as well as making it become darker. The breakdown of hydro-oxymethylpherate (sp?) causes the honey to darken and is still perfectly good to eat and makes great jams and jellies. We don't fight the crystallization. We bottle a few at a time. Let 4 out of 5 crystallize. Thaw or decrystallize one bucket at a time. Thaw in a hot water heater. Steve explained how to turn a standard hot water tank into a thawing tank. He checks out the broken hot water heaters at the water stores and purchases a tank with a burned out upper element but a functional lower unit. Adjust the heater to F. A 5-gallon bucket thaws in 18 hours and is gently heated. He ties a rope to the handle and ties the bucket so that it doesn't rest on the element. A shelf unit may be constructed to form a protective barrier between the bucket and the heater element. He uses a piece of styrofoam for a lid for the heater unit. Steve also thaws out plastic bottles of honey a bucket at a time. One can also thaw out containers of honey on a sunny summer day in the greenhouse or the back window of a truck or car. Stay away from thawing honey in the microwave or in a water bath on the stove as low temperatures are best. Gold Star has broken heaters. The heater may also have a pinhole leak which only happens under pressure-won't have that so it shouldn't present a problem to the beekeeper. Mann Lake and Dadant heaters have a tighter range of temperature control. 175F is needed to melt cappings. A non-contact laser thermometer is handy to use. Honey stored for long term use may be bottled in containers for creamed or crystallized honey. Put it in a cool spot until it becomes thick or cloudy and will eventually crystallize into small crystals to be a spreadable honey. Some whip air into it and in the store you will find it labeled as whipped honey. Honey will crystallize fastest in a cool garage or root cellar. In a warm room, the honey may stay liquid but will be markedly darker over time. Steve talked about fructose and dextrose and the higher percentage of dextrose in honey is what makes it more apt to crystallize. Heating honey breaks up those microcrystals and microfilters out pollens. These are condensation nuclei with high dextrose concentration will crystallize quickly. Tupelo honey is almost pure fructose, which is why it doesn t crystalize. Questions from Members: Best flowers for honeybees was shared. For instance, bachelor buttons, rose tree of China, cherry trees and other fruit trees, cranberries, etc. If you're looking for a place to have your honeybees, check Craigslist because people are often looking for honeybees for their orchard. Moving hives was discussed. Ensure good ventilation with screens over the holes to prevent loss of bees but important to keep them cool and ventilated, move outside standard of the radius range, strap or secure the hive together, and make sure they don t bake in the sun. Screen off really early, which means at 4 or 5 to 6 AM -- before the bees are flying. May place in a cool spot for a couple of days (or move after several days of rain) if you re going to move them close or within their flight range as they ll need to forget and reorient. Placing tall grass or something in front of the hive also lets the bee know that something is different. Question about what to do if bees have eaten their honey. How do you get them through the winter? Prep for winter is in August; so start right when you harvest the honey. By September, they should be up to winter weight. Feed heavy concentration of sugar feed in August through September. Why bees can't take feed in winter was explained. Only thing to do with colonies out of feed in winter is adding candy boards above them for the last couple of weeks. Collecting extractors so Mike Fry may do maintenance on them. One doesn't even work anymore.

3 Raffle Janice Plante shared two different flavors and colors of comb honey from Thailand. Bee magazines were available for take-home. ******************************************************** SABA Library: Hosts Diane Blas at or and Kathie Steele at or will be gathering the books for our members to borrow videos and books. If you have any books or DVDs for our Club library, please contact Diane or Kathie. Here are the books and materials available for checkout: The Backyard Beekeeper The Hive and the Honey Bee Better Bee Keeping: Ultimate Guide Healthy Bees by Kim Flottum The Life and Times of the Honeybee by Charles Micucci HoneyBees Thematic Unit (Teaching Purposes) Bee Poster 32 x 24 Various posters for teaching classes Beekeeping in Alaska from the Cooperative Extension Service Welcome to our Honey Farm, Children's activity book (teaching purposes) Study Prints (3 sets) Ray Reynolds (Anchorage) / Tim Adamzcak (Palmer) h/ c Leslie Skan (Wasilla) *********************************************************************** Here are several recipes that use honey. If you have any recipes (lotions, balms, & soaps too) that you enjoy making that use honey and would like to share, please send them to Donna at victors@mtaonline.net. Honey Mint Lip Balm Recipe Prep time: 10 mins Total time: 10 mins Serves: 11 tubes Author: The Prairie Homestead Ingredients 3 tablespoons coconut oil 1 tablespoon beeswax pellets 1 teaspoon shea butter 1 teaspoon honey 6 to 8 drops peppermint oil or other of your choice Chapstick tubes or lip balm tins Instructions 1. Place the coconut oil, beeswax, and shea butter in an oven-safe dish or cup, and place this container into a small saucepan filled with water over medium-low heat. 2. Heat and stir until the mixture is completely melted, then stir in the honey. 3. Remove from the heat and stir in the peppermint oil. Carefully pour into tubes or tins and let set for one hour. 4. Store in a cool place and apply to your lips as often as needed. *********************************************************************************** Honey Nut Brittle Candies With a little imagination, you can get all sorts of tastes from this one recipe. Try altering the type of nuts used, or adding cocoa or carob powder or even coconut flakes for different variations. The basic recipe is as follows: 1 cup honey 1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract (optional) 4 tablespoons of butter 1 1/2 cups coarsely chopped nuts (of your choice any type can be used) Pour honey into a heavy saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat until it reaches 275 degrees F on a candy thermometer. This will take several minutes, up to 30 if you are using low heat. While the honey is simmering, spread the nuts over a cookie sheet and toast in a 350 degree F oven for about 10 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Remove from oven, sprinkle with salt and set aside. Once soft crack stage is reached, keep the candy mixture over the heat source and stir in butter, vanilla (if desired), toasted nuts and any further additions you wish to add to your candy. Cook for one additional minute, remove from heat and spread over a parchment lined baking sheet.

4 Place in freezer for around 30 minutes to cool. Break into pieces and store in the freezer in single layers between parchment paper. Keep frozen until ready to eat since the candy turns soft at room temperature. Here are three variations: Almond Honey Nut Brittle (basic recipe with toasted almonds) Pecan Honey Nut Brittle (basic recipe with toasted pecans) Chocolate Almond Nut Brittle (basic recipe, add vanilla, nuts, and around 2 tablespoons of cocoa powder. Press cocoa through a sieve when adding, to avoid lumps. Add less for milder chocolate taste, more for richer chocolate taste.) Honey Nut Butter Candy 1 cup honey 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract 1/4 cup nut butter (crunchy almond butter, peanut butter, cashew butter, or sunbutter, etc) Pour the honey into a heavy saucepan. Place pan over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Adjust the heat lower if needed and let boil until honey reaches 300 degrees F (hard crack stage.) This takes around twenty minutes. Remove from heat, add vanilla and nut butter. Stir thoroughly then immediately pour onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in freezer or refrigerator to cool. Once completely chilled, break into long strips, then break those again into smaller, bite-sized pieces. Store in freezer. Honey & Vinegar Candy 1 cup honey 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (or fruit infused vinegar) (optional) 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract Pour the honey and vinegar into a heavy saucepan. Place pan over medium heat until mixture starts to boil. Adjust the heat lower if needed and let boil until honey reaches 300 degrees F (hard crack stage.) Remove from heat, add vanilla, if desired. Immediately pour onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Place in freezer or refrigerator to cool. Once completely chilled, break into long strips, then break those again into smaller, bitesized pieces. Store in freezer. These start off crunchy, but turn rather chewy after a few seconds! A few tips to remember: Be sure to calibrate your candy thermometer periodically. Dip the tip of it in a small pot of boiling water (you can do this while cooking pasta too, as a time saver) and let it stay for a few minutes without touching the sides or bottom. It should read 212 degrees F (at sea level). Honey can scorch and burn if heated too high be sure to stay nearby and keep checking the temperature with your candy thermometer. Store honey-based candies in the freezer (in single layers, between parchment paper) until right before ready to eat. You can also pour the hot candy into lollipop molds. (Just remember the chew factor for small kids!) Try different flavored extracts instead of vanilla such as: lemon or peppermint for a great taste variation. Fill your still-hot pot with warm, soapy water soon after pouring out the candy and let it soak for a while in your sink it will make cleaning up infinitely easier! Nutty Caramels 1 cup honey 1 cup peanut, almond, cashew or allowed nut butter 1 teaspoon coconut oil (original recipe calls for 1 tablespoon of unsalted butter, which you can use if not dairy-free) Optional: 1/2 cup chopped nuts Put honey in a heavy saucepan over medium heat until it comes to a boil. Cook, stirring frequently, until mixture reaches 270 degrees F on a candy thermometer. Turn off the burner, stir in the nut butter and coconut oil (and chopped nuts, if desired) then remove from heat. Place the pot down into a sink filled with a few inches of cold water. Keep vigorously stirring the candy until it is stiff.

5 At this point you can either: (1.) form the candy into small balls and place in little paper candy cups or (2.) press it out onto a cookie sheet lined with parchment or wax paper, chill for about ten minutes then cut into small pieces. Store the candy in the refrigerator for a week or so or your freezer for two to three months. Honey Butter Finger Bites 2/3 cup honey 1/2 cup peanut butter (or other nut butter) chocolate chips for coating Cook honey in a heavy saucepan on medium heat until it reaches soft crack stage (around 275 degrees F.) Remove from heat and stir in peanut butter. Beat for a few minutes, mixture will start to stiffen. Spread onto parchment lined baking sheet, place in refrigerator or freezer until firm. Use kitchen scissors or knife to cut into pieces. If you ve frozen the candy a bit too long, you can also crack it into pieces. Melt chocolate chips gently over low heat, in a double boiler, or in the microwave on 50% power for a minute or so. Dip pieces into the chocolate to coat, return to parchment paper and freezer. Store in your freezer for a crunchy treat that is quite addictive! If you wish to give these as a gift or pack in a lunchbox, they do very well sitting out at room temperature for about 24 hours. For extended freshness, store in the freezer for up to 3

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FOR MORE HEALTHY RECIPES VISIT BLOG.FEELGREATIN8.COM Dark Chocolate Truffles 14 dates 1/2 cup almonds* 3/4 cup almond meal 1/4 cup cocoa powder 1 teaspoon vanilla 1/2 teaspoon sea salt 70% dark chocolate bar (3.5 ounces) coarse sea salt for topping, optional