Ethical Dilemma

I have a dilemma I'd like to discuss with you. You see, medical science has shown that local honey cures allergies no better than placebo. However, medical science is also now using the placebo effect to treat actual conditions, usually involving pain.

It goes like this, for the past century or so, medical science has tested new medicines against a placebo, sugar pill, fake medicine, whatever you want to call it. Medicines that have more effects than the placebo are shown to be effective. Medicines that are shown to be around the same as the placebo are tossed out, assuming they don't work, since the placebo has no actual medical effect.

The problem is, the placebo works, lots of times, maybe in around a third of the population. There are many people here who believe in homeopathy who will be happy to tell you that the placebo works (though they'll call it homeopathy).

I have for the past several years, avoided saying that local honey helps with allergies because medical science has demonstrated that it does not work better than placebo. But we know that the placebo still works in a portion of the population. So lately, I have taken to saying "that's what they say" when people bring up this folk remedy. The other day, I went a step further. I sold some honey to someone who after they bought it mentioned something about allergies. The problem was, I never told them it wasn't local honey. They never asked.

So, since local honey works no better than placebo, but placebo still works, and I sell honey (local or otherwise) I am effectively administering a placebo. People believe it works, so it works. I don't want to lie to them, but the very nature of a placebo requires that the patient assume effectiveness, or even in some cases, knowing it's a placebo, they will effectiveness into it.

What do I do? I am a very honest and forthright person. But I also want to help people and sell honey.

Bubbly Nectar

Here is today's picture of the yard.

It's been hot lately.  My twin 5-frame nucs like to beard as a group.

 

Interesting thing I discovered today and have never seen before.  See if you can spot it.

 

If you said bubbly nectar, you win!

 I've never seen this before.  By the odor wafting from the hives, I'd say it's fermenting nectar.  So what's the cause?  If I were to make a guess, I'd think about the following things.  First, what flowers are blooming right now?  Are their nectars troublesome?  The main things I can see blooming at this time are chicory and clover, neither of which have I ever heard of this problem. 

Second, are the bees unable to cure the honey for some reason?  This is a possibility based on a few factors.  First, high humidity would make it difficult to cure honey.  Second, poor ventilation might cause the same problem.  All the hives I noticed this problem in today were ones that have a single 1.5" circular entrance.  The problem was more pronounced in 5-frame nucs, but also seen in single deep hives as well.  It was not seen in hives with more than one entrance or those with a wide bottom entrance.  In fact, in the picture above with the bearding bees, those are the hives where these frames were found.  They were not bearding this morning however.

I don't have a solid answer, but I think the second scenario is more likely, that poor ventilation is causing problems curing the honey, exacerbated by high humidity here in Arkansas.

Honey Harvest Tomorrow!

If you can, come buy and hang out.  I'm expecting to get ten or more gallons of honey tomorrow, so it should be a lot of fun.

Likely prices this year are the following:

1 lb. Plastic Squeeze Bottle $6
Pint Mason Jar  $7
Quart Mason Jar  $12
Buy a gallon (4 quarts) get a Squeeze for free!

Get to Know the Bees who Made Your Honey

I am putting the blog address on the bottles of honey that I sell so people can get to know the hives from which their honey came.

Depending on the date on which the honey was harvested, you may be able to tell exactly which hive the honey came from just by visiting the blog. Look into it a little deeper and you can likely find the history of that hive. I do keep a spreadsheet and maybe from time to time I'll post it in case you want to see how the hives are doing.

Also, look for Parker Farms 100% Natural Honey coming soon to World Garden in Bentonville.

I'm having a great summer with honey this year.
Sol

First Harvest of the Year.

I pulled a deep off each of two hives today, and extracted twenty frames of honey resulting in eight gallons and one pint of honey. I sieved it all out and bottled it which resulted in 37 pints and 16 quarts of honey.

So I'm gonna sell it and buy some more equipment so I can extract and bottle faster and easier and without making so much of a mess.

Current prices are as follows: one pint will sell for $6 and one quart will sell for $10. If you'd like to buy in larger quantities, I can make deals. This stuff may go fast, I've already got several quarts and pints reserved and I just finished an hour ago, so get yours soon.

The new equipment I want to buy will help me get this stuff done a lot quicker. My four frame tangential extractor is very slow, and a little messy. I plan to replace it with a nine frame radial extractor from Mann Lake Ltd. The current extractor tends to bow the comb out and break it a bit, and I'd rather not do it that way. Radials are easier to work with, but also cost a bit more, of course, every thing that's larger costs more. I'd also like to get an electric uncapping knife. I currently have a capping scratcher which is very messy and tears up the comb pretty bad. Also, a lot of cappings and pieces of junk end up in the sieve which after a certain point slow it down quite a bit. To catch the cappings cut from the comb with the knife, they have this tub strainer thing that I want to get too. But until I get loaded with money, I need more boxes and frames.

After six years, I've finally started getting some good honey, and it makes me very happy.
Sol

Parker Farm Products

At this point, Parker Farms consists of one product., honey. I sold out all my honey from last year. So at this point, I have nothing to sell, though I hope to be able to sell some honey later in the year.

Last year's honey was excellent. It was the best I've ever tasted and I'm not saying that to try to sell it. It was really awesome. I've seeded my property with clover so the bees always have access to that, but there is also a peach tree in my neighbor's yard. When the peaches fall and rot, the bees collect the sweet juice. This gives the honey a kind of a hint of peach wine (not fermented of course, honey doesn't ferment.) At least that's what happened last year. It was excellent honey, very light in flavor, texture and consistency, and everyone who tasted it loved it.

I'll be offering honey if I get any again this year. I will be focusing on building up hive numbers so honey production may be low overall. However, with constant supply of nectar, and fast growing bees, we might have some of the good stuff.