Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
All Purpose Beeswax Cream
Great for Wood, Leather and seasoning metal. This recipe has been used to finish wood for years.
1 part beeswax (here)
1 part turpentine (Hardware stores and Odorless turpentine is used for oil painting and can be found at craft stores though, both work)
1/2 part boiled linseed oil (hardware stores)
Furniture polish
The beeswax wood polish:
2 oz grated beeswax
5 oz turpentine. I would use the odorless turpentine from the art stores used for oil painting.
You may want to use a double boiler to get the beeswax to melt quicker. Do not use direct heat, this is very flammable.
beeswax
Monday, May 3, 2010
DIY Beeswax Lip Balm
We recommend that you use a double boiler, even just putting your pot in a pyrex baking dish with water in the bottom will prevent the fire hazard as well as keeping your beeswax and oils from browning from too much heat.
If your beeswax is too hard, soften it in a bowl of hot tap water for about 10 minutes and it will be ready to grate.
Find beeswax here
Lip balm tubes here
DIY Bullet lube with beeswax
You can get your beeswax here
lithium grease can be found at hardware stores and molybdenum disulphide at many gun shops.
Friday, April 23, 2010
Colony Collapse Disorder
Interestingly CCD has been around for quite a few years before recent events became a main stream phenomenon. To draw a metaphor from human pandemics I wonder if a lot of the problem is similar to people being so mobile now. Where humans can spread an outbreak globally within hours via international flight; bees are trucked around the country and it spreads annually with the pollination cycle. Isolated CCD would burn through an area, wipe out colonies but within a few years only CCD resistant colonies would be left. Better to have the disease localized than national; but large scale agriculture keeps prices low. The double edged sword of modern agriculture.
Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Bee Colony Collapse Disorder
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
CCD
More evidence that colony collapse has many facets.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/03/26/bee-killer-still-at-large-new-evidence-makes-pesticides-a-prime-suspect/
This spring, many beekeepers across America opened their hives and found ruin within. At a time when they should have been buzzing with activity, the hives were half-empty, with most adult bees having flown off to die. A new federal survey indicates that 2010 has been the worst year so far for bee deaths. Another study suggests that pesticides might be to blame for the mass wipeout of adult honeybees.
This winter’s die-off was the continuation of a four-year trend. At any given point, beekeepers can expect to see 15 to 20 percent of their bees wiped out due to natural causes or harsh weather. But this alarming phenomenon, termed colony collapse disorder (CCD), has seen millions of bees perish in a mysterious epidemic, with some farmers losing 30 to 90 percent of their hives.
As for the cause of this epidemic, experts say their best guess is that many factors are combining to sicken bees, with the list of culprits including parasites, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition, and pesticides. Now a new study published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE strengthens the case for pesticides’ culpability.
In the study, researchers found about three out of five pollen and wax samples from 23 states had at least one systemic pesticide — a chemical designed to spread throughout all parts of a plant [AP]. The scientists say that in the 887 wax, pollen, bee, and hive samples, they found 121 different types of pesticides. The pesticides weren’t present in sufficient quantities to kill the bees, they say, but when combined with the other detrimental factors the mix could prove lethal for the tiny workers.
This is the fourth year of honey bee losses across the United States. In 2007, the nation’s beekeepers lost 32 percent of their colonies. In 2008 they lost 36 percent. In 2009, 29 percent [Discovery News]. With the official 2010 numbers (which will be announced in April) expected to be even worse, farmers across the United States are worried. About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini [AP]. Almond growers in California are particularly concerned; the state is one of the largest producers of almonds in the world, and with the decline in the bee population, pollinating the trees has been a challenge. CCD has also dealt a tough economic blow to the beekeepers who truck their hives to the orchards. For Zac Browning, one of the country’s largest commercial beekeepers, the latest woes have led to a $1 million loss this year [AP].
As federal, state, and private agencies hunt for the elusive bee killer, the USDA has advised people not to use pesticides indiscriminately—especially at midday when honey bees are most likely out foraging for nectar. The agency is also asking people to plant and encourage the planting of good nectar sources like red clover, foxglove, bee balm, and joe-pye weed to give the besieged honey bees a boost.
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2010/03/26/bee-killer-still-at-large-new-evidence-makes-pesticides-a-prime-suspect/
This spring, many beekeepers across America opened their hives and found ruin within. At a time when they should have been buzzing with activity, the hives were half-empty, with most adult bees having flown off to die. A new federal survey indicates that 2010 has been the worst year so far for bee deaths. Another study suggests that pesticides might be to blame for the mass wipeout of adult honeybees.
This winter’s die-off was the continuation of a four-year trend. At any given point, beekeepers can expect to see 15 to 20 percent of their bees wiped out due to natural causes or harsh weather. But this alarming phenomenon, termed colony collapse disorder (CCD), has seen millions of bees perish in a mysterious epidemic, with some farmers losing 30 to 90 percent of their hives.
As for the cause of this epidemic, experts say their best guess is that many factors are combining to sicken bees, with the list of culprits including parasites, viruses, bacteria, poor nutrition, and pesticides. Now a new study published in the scientific journal PLoS ONE strengthens the case for pesticides’ culpability.
In the study, researchers found about three out of five pollen and wax samples from 23 states had at least one systemic pesticide — a chemical designed to spread throughout all parts of a plant [AP]. The scientists say that in the 887 wax, pollen, bee, and hive samples, they found 121 different types of pesticides. The pesticides weren’t present in sufficient quantities to kill the bees, they say, but when combined with the other detrimental factors the mix could prove lethal for the tiny workers.
This is the fourth year of honey bee losses across the United States. In 2007, the nation’s beekeepers lost 32 percent of their colonies. In 2008 they lost 36 percent. In 2009, 29 percent [Discovery News]. With the official 2010 numbers (which will be announced in April) expected to be even worse, farmers across the United States are worried. About one-third of the human diet is from plants that require pollination from honeybees, which means everything from apples to zucchini [AP]. Almond growers in California are particularly concerned; the state is one of the largest producers of almonds in the world, and with the decline in the bee population, pollinating the trees has been a challenge. CCD has also dealt a tough economic blow to the beekeepers who truck their hives to the orchards. For Zac Browning, one of the country’s largest commercial beekeepers, the latest woes have led to a $1 million loss this year [AP].
As federal, state, and private agencies hunt for the elusive bee killer, the USDA has advised people not to use pesticides indiscriminately—especially at midday when honey bees are most likely out foraging for nectar. The agency is also asking people to plant and encourage the planting of good nectar sources like red clover, foxglove, bee balm, and joe-pye weed to give the besieged honey bees a boost.
Monday, October 19, 2009
Romantic, candle-lit dinners: An unrecognized source of indoor air pollution
Article I came across this article recently. Conventional wisdom is backed up by modern science.
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2009 — Burning candles made from paraffin wax –– the most common kind used to infuse rooms with romantic ambiance, warmth, light, and fragrance –– is an unrecognized source of exposure to indoor air pollution, including the known human carcinogens, scientists reported here today. Levels can build up in closed rooms, and be reduced by ventilation, they indicated in a study presented at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Candles are tested for pollutants.
In the study, R. Massoudi Ph.D., and Amid Hamidi , Ph.D., said that that candles made from bee’s wax or soy, although more expensive, apparently are healthier. They do not release potentially harmful amounts of indoor air pollutants while retaining all of the warmth, ambience and fragrance of paraffin candles (which are made from petroleum).
“An occasional paraffin candle and its emissions will not likely affect you,” Hamidi said. “But lighting many paraffin candles every day for years or lighting them frequently in an un-ventilated bathroom around a tub, for example, may cause problems.“ Besides the more serious risks, he also suggested that some people who believe they have an indoor allergy or respiratory irritation may in fact actually be reacting to air pollutants from burning candles.
Original article
WASHINGTON, Aug. 19, 2009 — Burning candles made from paraffin wax –– the most common kind used to infuse rooms with romantic ambiance, warmth, light, and fragrance –– is an unrecognized source of exposure to indoor air pollution, including the known human carcinogens, scientists reported here today. Levels can build up in closed rooms, and be reduced by ventilation, they indicated in a study presented at the 238th National Meeting of the American Chemical Society (ACS).
Candles are tested for pollutants.
In the study, R. Massoudi Ph.D., and Amid Hamidi , Ph.D., said that that candles made from bee’s wax or soy, although more expensive, apparently are healthier. They do not release potentially harmful amounts of indoor air pollutants while retaining all of the warmth, ambience and fragrance of paraffin candles (which are made from petroleum).
“An occasional paraffin candle and its emissions will not likely affect you,” Hamidi said. “But lighting many paraffin candles every day for years or lighting them frequently in an un-ventilated bathroom around a tub, for example, may cause problems.“ Besides the more serious risks, he also suggested that some people who believe they have an indoor allergy or respiratory irritation may in fact actually be reacting to air pollutants from burning candles.
Original article
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
Friday, July 31, 2009
Honeybees and Beekeeping
By Roy Nettlebeck
Tahuya River Apiaries
The future of honeybees and beekeeping in general is critically imperiled. The problem is systemic in nature. Agriculture has evolved into an industry dependent upon un-natural food production. The use of chemicals and monoculture has profited some for the short term, but Nature is too complex for man to interfere and think he can improve it. The honeybee is now exhibiting the tragic results of this mentality.
The industrialization of beekeeping has put us into a position of, “too big to fail.” Thirty percent of all the food we rely upon for sustenance is directly dependent upon the honeybee for pollination. Another fifty percent is indirectly linked to the labor of honeybees.
The collapse began in 1990 with the importation of the Varro mite into the United States. A program to isolate the mite failed, and then chemicals were enlisted to eradicate it. Nine years and three chemicals later, the mite still survived.
When we were short bees in the United States for the pollination of California’s almond groves, the USDA opened the door to the importation of bees from Australia. It was known in 1979 that Australian bees carried three viruses that were not existent in the United States[i] More than 200,000 Australian hives were mixed with American honeybees, and the following winter American beekeepers saw their livelihood disintegrate in Colony Collapse Disorder (“CCD”).
Now we are faced with a more complex problem.
An intrinsic part of honeybee sustainability is genetics. In a study completed some years ago by Dr. Steve Shepard of Washington State University, it was discovered that we only have three families of honeybees in the United States. We have been breeding Queen Bees from a very small amount of genetic diversity. Genes produce proteins that kill viruses, so they are very important to the survival of the species. There is a lot of work being done by researchers to evaluate the genes for protein production. One gene was found to give off 10,000 different proteins, a critical component to the survival of the species.
Agriculture is tumbling toward a very large black hole of genetically modified organisms (“GMO’s”). As time, nature, and industrialized food production move forward, ever increasing problems surface from the use of GMO seed. We were told in the beginning that it would NOT jump species, but evidence is to the contrary, and we are left to accept the answer that “the science is better now.” The real question is why did the USDA allow that technology to go out into nature and our food source without complete scientific research?
The answer lies in profits.
Now we have plants that are insecticides themselves because of their genetic makeup. The pollen from these plants is a neurotoxin to honeybees or any other insect. We do not know what the long-range effects will be for humans. Unfortunately, this genetic genie cannot be put back into the bottle.
Knowledge is power, but you must be very careful to find out where the information you rely upon for food nutrition and safety comes from. Industrialized food producers are only worried about their bottom line and will continue to lobby Congress and market consumers away from the truth.
[i] Drs. Ball and Bailey in the UK, Honeybee Pathology, 1990.
Tahuya River Apiaries
The future of honeybees and beekeeping in general is critically imperiled. The problem is systemic in nature. Agriculture has evolved into an industry dependent upon un-natural food production. The use of chemicals and monoculture has profited some for the short term, but Nature is too complex for man to interfere and think he can improve it. The honeybee is now exhibiting the tragic results of this mentality.
The industrialization of beekeeping has put us into a position of, “too big to fail.” Thirty percent of all the food we rely upon for sustenance is directly dependent upon the honeybee for pollination. Another fifty percent is indirectly linked to the labor of honeybees.
The collapse began in 1990 with the importation of the Varro mite into the United States. A program to isolate the mite failed, and then chemicals were enlisted to eradicate it. Nine years and three chemicals later, the mite still survived.
When we were short bees in the United States for the pollination of California’s almond groves, the USDA opened the door to the importation of bees from Australia. It was known in 1979 that Australian bees carried three viruses that were not existent in the United States[i] More than 200,000 Australian hives were mixed with American honeybees, and the following winter American beekeepers saw their livelihood disintegrate in Colony Collapse Disorder (“CCD”).
Now we are faced with a more complex problem.
An intrinsic part of honeybee sustainability is genetics. In a study completed some years ago by Dr. Steve Shepard of Washington State University, it was discovered that we only have three families of honeybees in the United States. We have been breeding Queen Bees from a very small amount of genetic diversity. Genes produce proteins that kill viruses, so they are very important to the survival of the species. There is a lot of work being done by researchers to evaluate the genes for protein production. One gene was found to give off 10,000 different proteins, a critical component to the survival of the species.
Agriculture is tumbling toward a very large black hole of genetically modified organisms (“GMO’s”). As time, nature, and industrialized food production move forward, ever increasing problems surface from the use of GMO seed. We were told in the beginning that it would NOT jump species, but evidence is to the contrary, and we are left to accept the answer that “the science is better now.” The real question is why did the USDA allow that technology to go out into nature and our food source without complete scientific research?
The answer lies in profits.
Now we have plants that are insecticides themselves because of their genetic makeup. The pollen from these plants is a neurotoxin to honeybees or any other insect. We do not know what the long-range effects will be for humans. Unfortunately, this genetic genie cannot be put back into the bottle.
Knowledge is power, but you must be very careful to find out where the information you rely upon for food nutrition and safety comes from. Industrialized food producers are only worried about their bottom line and will continue to lobby Congress and market consumers away from the truth.
[i] Drs. Ball and Bailey in the UK, Honeybee Pathology, 1990.
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