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| Something's wrong here.. |
The answer's below, to read it flip your monitor upside down or do a handstand:
dsɐʍ ɐ s,ʇɐɥʇ
The blog of an urban beekeeper, in Hull, former UK City of Culture.
Saturday, 21 March 2015
Bad Sign.
A friend sent me a photo of this sign she saw in the reduced bin at B&Q, St. Andrews Quay, Hull. Spot the mistake?
The answer's below, to read it flip your monitor upside down or do a handstand:
dsɐʍ ɐ s,ʇɐɥʇ
The answer's below, to read it flip your monitor upside down or do a handstand:
dsɐʍ ɐ s,ʇɐɥʇ
Thursday, 12 March 2015
Beekeeping in the Discworld and Beyond
Terry Pratchett, author of the Discworld novels died today. The former Electricity Board Press Officer created the Discworld mythos and went on to become one of the UK's most popular writers. The Discworld novels are set on a flat world supported on the backs of four massive elephants standing on a gigantic turtle paddling through the ether. The dramatis personæ of the thirtyodd volume series included four beekeepers.
The first is revealed in Eric. The book opens with Death, the anthropomorphic personification of death, inspecting his hives. Everything is black in Death's kingdom so obviously he has black bees.
Five books later in Lords and Ladies it's revealed that Granny Weatherwax has a half dozen hives from which she takes a little wax and honey as she feels they can spare. It's later revealed in Carpe Jugulum that she made her own beekeeping equipment and didn't use smoke or a veil. Still in Lords and Ladies we're introduced to Mr Brooks, the Royal Beekeeper at Lancre Castle. Mr Brooks is accorded a title and respect due to his secret knowledge of bees, smokes a pipe, makes his own deadly wasp poison and spends a lot of time in his shed. At one point he explains a little about bees to the Queen of the kingdom, continuing his discourse even after ordered to stop. The fourth beekeeper is found in A Hatful of Sky. A Research Witch and former Circus Performer, Miss Level who also talks to her bees.
I think it's interesting that he made two of his most enduring
characters (you can't really get more enduring than Death)
beekeepers, as well as those characters there are frequent references to bees, beekeepers and beekeeping elsewhere in the series. In Small Gods whilst setting the scene bees buzzed in the bean blossoms. In Wyrd Sisters beekeepers are listed alongside witches and big gorillas as creatures who go where they like. In Reaper Man the thought processes or lack thereof of the bee and ant are touched upon in a conversation. Away from the Discworld in his novel Dodger set in Victorian London there is a reference to one of the female characters, Angela Burdett-Coutts, keeping bees. Burdett-Coutts was actually a real person and was president of the British Beekeepers Association for 28 years.
The title of this blog is actually a reference to Lords and Ladies when Weatherwax accesses the mind of a bee colony. Leafing back through a few of his books it appears that Pratchett knew a thing or two about bees, beekeeping and beekeeping history. He talks of watching activity at the entrance, supersedure, swarming and wasp attacks. Two of his characters talk to their bees, which is a reference to the old English practice of Telling the Bees. A folkloric tradition of keeping ones bees appraised of the keepers family. As far as I know Pratchett didn't keep bees himself, but his friend and Good Omens co-writer Neil Gaiman does so it's not unlikely he had some exposure to the world of the apiarist.
He was a busy chap in life, as well as his writing he became a Trustee of the Orangutan Foundation, and petitioned for more funding into Dementia research as well as campaigning for right to die. Now he's passed away I have no doubt his literary legacy will live on.
The first is revealed in Eric. The book opens with Death, the anthropomorphic personification of death, inspecting his hives. Everything is black in Death's kingdom so obviously he has black bees.
 |
| Adolescent Demonology and a Beekeeping Death |
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| Meet the Elves, get inside the mind of the Bees |
The title of this blog is actually a reference to Lords and Ladies when Weatherwax accesses the mind of a bee colony. Leafing back through a few of his books it appears that Pratchett knew a thing or two about bees, beekeeping and beekeeping history. He talks of watching activity at the entrance, supersedure, swarming and wasp attacks. Two of his characters talk to their bees, which is a reference to the old English practice of Telling the Bees. A folkloric tradition of keeping ones bees appraised of the keepers family. As far as I know Pratchett didn't keep bees himself, but his friend and Good Omens co-writer Neil Gaiman does so it's not unlikely he had some exposure to the world of the apiarist.
He was a busy chap in life, as well as his writing he became a Trustee of the Orangutan Foundation, and petitioned for more funding into Dementia research as well as campaigning for right to die. Now he's passed away I have no doubt his literary legacy will live on.
Monday, 9 March 2015
Making Candles & Soaps for Dummies
The For Dummies series of books started in the early 90's and was originally focused on I.T. Pretty quickly the black and yellow covers became regular features on every IT professional's bookshelf. Since then the range has been expanded to cover other topics from martial arts to music to maths, science and history. They've consistently been a good start point for everything from C Programming to Ukulele playing and there's about ten Dummies tomes on my bookshelves at the moment. So naturally when I decided to look at expanding my bee products to include soaps the first place I looked was Making Candles & Soaps for Dummies by Kelly Ewing.
Unfortunately after years of using For Dummies books and having always found them excellent start and reference points it seems I've found the exception. Making soap involves adding lye to oils, I'm not going to pretend to understand the science of the saponification process but basically the lye acts on the oil turning it into soap. There's a couple of ways this can be done, either slowly at room temperature (cold process) or faster in a heated vessel (hot process). Different types of oil require different amounts of lye at different concentrations, then there's mixing different oils too and superfatting to consider - you could literally write a book on just that. However Kelly writes off cold process soap making as too dangerous on page 5 and makes no mention of hot process soap making at all.
I thought it a bit strange that a book on making soap completely fails to tell the reader how to make actual soap so I did a little googling and found that in the original Candle and Soap Making for Dummies Kelly had included instructions for cold process soap making but included a mistake in the order ingredients were combined to make the lye solution putting people at risk of burns from the exothermic reaction. As a result the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled the book in 2003. This version I have is copyrighted in 2005 and the safety issue seems to have been addressed by simply removing the who topic and calling it to dangerous rather than just correcting the mistake which would've only needed a note to say: When making lye always add the Sodium Hyroxide to the water never the otherway round. Seems a bit overkill to me and really undermines the book.
So, instead of writing about actual soap making there's a couple of chapters given over to melt and pour soaps and remilling soaps. Melt and Pour is simply buying ready made soap, melting it adding a few things if you like and pouring it into a mould, remilling is grating existing soap, adding water then remolding that too. Neither technique involves making your own soap. Basically it's tweaking and reshaping existing soap which is quite obviously not "making." There's some info on adding essential oils, fragrances, colours and other additives to the soap but that's pretty much your lot.
I wasn't really interested in the candle making chapters which make up the bulk of the book but had a look anyway. Whilst the authors was risk averse to the point of removing soap making she thinks nothing of decorating a wax candle held in one hand with a hot glue gun held in the other.. Don't think I'd be too comfortable sat near a burning candle decorated with hot glue to be honest -normally hot glue is non toxic but manufacturers warn that overheated it breaks down releasing different compounds that I don't think I'd want to sit in a cloud of.
The book does tell you how to make dipped, moulded and rolled beeswax candles and the section on wicks looks pretty comprehensive, there's also quite a lot on decorating candles and sections on scents and aromatherapy so people may get some use out of it although not probably enough to justify the cover price. Other missing topics include tallow which is easily made at home and has been used for both candle and soap making for a good five thousand years. I also didn't see any mention of Soy Wax either, which may be due to the age of the original text.
The brief About the Author sections notes that Kelly co-authored a few IT For Dummies books The Internet All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies which has her name on the cover as well as having edited more than 75 books on different subjects. Whilst the author describes candle and soap making as a hobby my impression was that the book is made up of information that was collated for the sake of the book rather than written from personal experience and first hand knowledge accrued over time. The mistake with the lye making instructions in the original version is so basic (and dangerous..) that I don't really believe anyone familiar with the process would have published it.
So whilst I've normally found the For Dummies range really useful, as my bookshelf can attest, this book is the lemon in the series. Whilst it's apparently aimed at the beginner and the seasoned craft person I don't think it has enough information for either when it comes to soap making.
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| Making Candles not Soaps for Dummies would've been more apt. |
Unfortunately after years of using For Dummies books and having always found them excellent start and reference points it seems I've found the exception. Making soap involves adding lye to oils, I'm not going to pretend to understand the science of the saponification process but basically the lye acts on the oil turning it into soap. There's a couple of ways this can be done, either slowly at room temperature (cold process) or faster in a heated vessel (hot process). Different types of oil require different amounts of lye at different concentrations, then there's mixing different oils too and superfatting to consider - you could literally write a book on just that. However Kelly writes off cold process soap making as too dangerous on page 5 and makes no mention of hot process soap making at all.
I thought it a bit strange that a book on making soap completely fails to tell the reader how to make actual soap so I did a little googling and found that in the original Candle and Soap Making for Dummies Kelly had included instructions for cold process soap making but included a mistake in the order ingredients were combined to make the lye solution putting people at risk of burns from the exothermic reaction. As a result the Consumer Product Safety Commission recalled the book in 2003. This version I have is copyrighted in 2005 and the safety issue seems to have been addressed by simply removing the who topic and calling it to dangerous rather than just correcting the mistake which would've only needed a note to say: When making lye always add the Sodium Hyroxide to the water never the otherway round. Seems a bit overkill to me and really undermines the book.
So, instead of writing about actual soap making there's a couple of chapters given over to melt and pour soaps and remilling soaps. Melt and Pour is simply buying ready made soap, melting it adding a few things if you like and pouring it into a mould, remilling is grating existing soap, adding water then remolding that too. Neither technique involves making your own soap. Basically it's tweaking and reshaping existing soap which is quite obviously not "making." There's some info on adding essential oils, fragrances, colours and other additives to the soap but that's pretty much your lot.
I wasn't really interested in the candle making chapters which make up the bulk of the book but had a look anyway. Whilst the authors was risk averse to the point of removing soap making she thinks nothing of decorating a wax candle held in one hand with a hot glue gun held in the other.. Don't think I'd be too comfortable sat near a burning candle decorated with hot glue to be honest -normally hot glue is non toxic but manufacturers warn that overheated it breaks down releasing different compounds that I don't think I'd want to sit in a cloud of.
The book does tell you how to make dipped, moulded and rolled beeswax candles and the section on wicks looks pretty comprehensive, there's also quite a lot on decorating candles and sections on scents and aromatherapy so people may get some use out of it although not probably enough to justify the cover price. Other missing topics include tallow which is easily made at home and has been used for both candle and soap making for a good five thousand years. I also didn't see any mention of Soy Wax either, which may be due to the age of the original text.
The brief About the Author sections notes that Kelly co-authored a few IT For Dummies books The Internet All-in-One Desk Reference for Dummies which has her name on the cover as well as having edited more than 75 books on different subjects. Whilst the author describes candle and soap making as a hobby my impression was that the book is made up of information that was collated for the sake of the book rather than written from personal experience and first hand knowledge accrued over time. The mistake with the lye making instructions in the original version is so basic (and dangerous..) that I don't really believe anyone familiar with the process would have published it.
So whilst I've normally found the For Dummies range really useful, as my bookshelf can attest, this book is the lemon in the series. Whilst it's apparently aimed at the beginner and the seasoned craft person I don't think it has enough information for either when it comes to soap making.
Nozevit
When I removed the candyboards from the hives last wee I noticed that Hive4 seemed to have dysentery or possibly Nosema. I'd overwintered them on a solid wooden floor as something of an experiment and it's safe to say I'll not be doing that again. I moved the hive to a mesh floor and had a look for some medication. In the UK Fumagillin B was used to treat Nosema but was withdrawn from the market at the end of 2011. There's plenty of sources online and in print that still refer to Fumagillin B including the UK Edition of Beekeeping for Dummies although that volume is Copyright dated 2012. There's a number of different options including Vita Feed Gold which I've used previously for general health. This time I opted to try a product called Nozevit developed by a firm called Apivita.
Aptiva's web address is in the .hr domain which is administered by the Croatian Academic and Research Network and looking at there address shows they're a Croatian firm. Apparently as well as rather bloody recent history and a very metal influenced punk scene Croatia also has a long tradition of beekeeping and Apivita has a small product range most of which relates to bees:
Nozevit and Nozevit+ both for treating Nosema
Apifit a general bee health supplement
Apibox a system for making section honey without wax foundation (in Langstroth medium supers)
Apistop a sealer specifically for hives
Rebivit a repellent to protect plants from rodents and deer
Barrel Wax a beeswax product for stopping barrels leaking
Whilst I've not previously heard of Nozevit Apivita helpfully provide links and references to articles including the peer reviewed Veterinarni Medicina, The Journal of Apicultural Research and The Beekeepers Quaterly, also the (not peer reviewed) American Bee Journal and other papers from, I think, Argentina, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. The first article in the list mentions that Nozevit is made from Oak bark which contains polyphenols and how these are used to treat the gut in humans and their mode of action or any enquiring minds that want to know.
According to the website Nozevit and Nozevit+ can be applied to the bees by mixing 1ml Nozevit to 200ml of 1:1 syrup and either feeding it to the bees or spraying the bees with it (I'll assume trickling with a syringe will do there) or by putting 1ml of Nozevit in a 500g pollen patty. They recommend using it twice in Spring and twice in Autumn with ten days between each pair of treatments.
The bottle I ordered from Beebay was 20ml of Concentrated Nozevit. It states Made in USA complete with an American flag on both the label and the instructions. I notice the bee logo in the product name and on the Complete Bee Inc logo is the same as on the Aptiva website.
The instructions that come with it seem to have been translated in a hurry and there's a number 15 in the text which looks to have got there by mistake. I guess they're almost as lax about proof reading as me. The instructions with the bottle were a little different to those on the site which I figured was probably because this is a concentrated version according to the site although the word Concentrated was noticeably absent from the packaging. My understanding was that you're meant to mix the whole 20ml bottle with 1 litre of 1:1 sugar syrup then either feed a cupful to each hive or apply to the bees on the frames. The instructions mention spraying the top bars or using the 'drench method' which sounds a little severe but I'm assuming just means trickling the syrup onto the bees in the same manner as oxalic acid. Doing the maths this is a far stronger dose than is suggested on the website for the regular Nosevit and Nosevit+ products but there's no mention of a reapplication ten days later.
As I'm only treating one hive I didn't mix the whole bottle. 100ml of syrup and 2ml of Nozevit should give me the right concentration. As the instructions seemed so consider a pound and a half kilo as near enough to be interchangeable and the same for quarts and half litres and recommended doubling the dose for stressed colonies so there's room for a little leeway is anyway. I added 2ml to 100ml of 1:1 syrup. It's a grey liquid with bits of I don't now what in it. I figured it was unlikely to be dangerous and ave it a little taste test myself -don't do that at home kids.. it tasted and smelled a lot like hospital mouthwash I once tried many years ago. It also seems to have a lot of sugar in it so it's probably in a syrup base.
I drew it up into syringes before opening the hive to save time even though it was a warm day and bees were flying.
When I'd given the hive a quick check before I'd thought there was only 3 seams of bees but today it looked more like 5. Luckily I'd made more solution than I needed anyway so I drizzled it along every seam I could see a bee in. I'd swapped the wooden floor for a regular open mesh floor already so any overspill will just go through. I've still not done an invasive inspection but having a quick look between the frames I was able to see there was still a lot of capped honey on the frames towards the back of the hives. I assume with the candy above them they'ed opted to to start eating that because it was easier to reach than exploring other frames for stores.
I found probably a Harlequin Ladybird had been overwintering in a corner of the hive roof between the wood and the insulation. I'm not sure if it's very well with a wing sticking out and I think there's some sort insecticide component in the dribble of green Shed & Fence Paint it's chosen to sleep. I've left it there though, it's not in the hive proper anyway.
Depending which calendar you use we're either in Spring or soon to be in Spring. As I'm seeing a few flowers out and the female frogs are looking heavy with eggs I'll go with the Meteorological Calendar this time and say Spring started on the 1st of March. However whilst the days are reaching a 13-14 degrees celcius night time temperatures are still dropping to as low as freezing and I got caught in sleet last week so I'll be leaving the insulation on the hives for a few more weeks.
Aptiva's web address is in the .hr domain which is administered by the Croatian Academic and Research Network and looking at there address shows they're a Croatian firm. Apparently as well as rather bloody recent history and a very metal influenced punk scene Croatia also has a long tradition of beekeeping and Apivita has a small product range most of which relates to bees:
Nozevit and Nozevit+ both for treating Nosema
Apifit a general bee health supplement
Apibox a system for making section honey without wax foundation (in Langstroth medium supers)
Apistop a sealer specifically for hives
Rebivit a repellent to protect plants from rodents and deer
Barrel Wax a beeswax product for stopping barrels leaking
Whilst I've not previously heard of Nozevit Apivita helpfully provide links and references to articles including the peer reviewed Veterinarni Medicina, The Journal of Apicultural Research and The Beekeepers Quaterly, also the (not peer reviewed) American Bee Journal and other papers from, I think, Argentina, Croatia, Poland, Slovenia and Turkey. The first article in the list mentions that Nozevit is made from Oak bark which contains polyphenols and how these are used to treat the gut in humans and their mode of action or any enquiring minds that want to know.
According to the website Nozevit and Nozevit+ can be applied to the bees by mixing 1ml Nozevit to 200ml of 1:1 syrup and either feeding it to the bees or spraying the bees with it (I'll assume trickling with a syringe will do there) or by putting 1ml of Nozevit in a 500g pollen patty. They recommend using it twice in Spring and twice in Autumn with ten days between each pair of treatments.
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| Little bottle, ideal for your handbag |
The bottle I ordered from Beebay was 20ml of Concentrated Nozevit. It states Made in USA complete with an American flag on both the label and the instructions. I notice the bee logo in the product name and on the Complete Bee Inc logo is the same as on the Aptiva website.
 |
| Could use a little work on the wording but hey so could this blog |
The instructions that come with it seem to have been translated in a hurry and there's a number 15 in the text which looks to have got there by mistake. I guess they're almost as lax about proof reading as me. The instructions with the bottle were a little different to those on the site which I figured was probably because this is a concentrated version according to the site although the word Concentrated was noticeably absent from the packaging. My understanding was that you're meant to mix the whole 20ml bottle with 1 litre of 1:1 sugar syrup then either feed a cupful to each hive or apply to the bees on the frames. The instructions mention spraying the top bars or using the 'drench method' which sounds a little severe but I'm assuming just means trickling the syrup onto the bees in the same manner as oxalic acid. Doing the maths this is a far stronger dose than is suggested on the website for the regular Nosevit and Nosevit+ products but there's no mention of a reapplication ten days later.
As I'm only treating one hive I didn't mix the whole bottle. 100ml of syrup and 2ml of Nozevit should give me the right concentration. As the instructions seemed so consider a pound and a half kilo as near enough to be interchangeable and the same for quarts and half litres and recommended doubling the dose for stressed colonies so there's room for a little leeway is anyway. I added 2ml to 100ml of 1:1 syrup. It's a grey liquid with bits of I don't now what in it. I figured it was unlikely to be dangerous and ave it a little taste test myself -don't do that at home kids.. it tasted and smelled a lot like hospital mouthwash I once tried many years ago. It also seems to have a lot of sugar in it so it's probably in a syrup base.
 |
| It's time for your medication |
 |
| Hello in there |
When I'd given the hive a quick check before I'd thought there was only 3 seams of bees but today it looked more like 5. Luckily I'd made more solution than I needed anyway so I drizzled it along every seam I could see a bee in. I'd swapped the wooden floor for a regular open mesh floor already so any overspill will just go through. I've still not done an invasive inspection but having a quick look between the frames I was able to see there was still a lot of capped honey on the frames towards the back of the hives. I assume with the candy above them they'ed opted to to start eating that because it was easier to reach than exploring other frames for stores.
 |
| Someone else has been overwintering in the hive too |
 |
| Heavy frog |
Depending which calendar you use we're either in Spring or soon to be in Spring. As I'm seeing a few flowers out and the female frogs are looking heavy with eggs I'll go with the Meteorological Calendar this time and say Spring started on the 1st of March. However whilst the days are reaching a 13-14 degrees celcius night time temperatures are still dropping to as low as freezing and I got caught in sleet last week so I'll be leaving the insulation on the hives for a few more weeks.
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| Spring is in the air -well on the floor at any rate.. |
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