Honey Bee Healthy question

[Jen]

Making up a batch of HBH. I came home with peppermint essential oil instead of spearmint essential oil. Would it make any difference if I used the pepp oil in the HBH recipe?

[brooksbeefarm]

I don' see why not? The bees work both. Jack

[Riverrat]

you may have to jog my memory here.  I have never used HBH but was thinking at one time it wasn't fed in fall since it promoted robbing. 

[Jen]

Hi Rrat, Howz that big boy of yours? .... I mean the big furry boy, not the sons boys  But of course, your son boys might be furry too...

Anyway, I'm teaching some of my beek friends how to make winter sugar cakes/bricks, the recipe calls for a little bit of Honey Bee Healthy. It's very expensive for how much us small time beeks need, so I make it myself.

[rober]

any mint should work. I use peppermint, lemon mint. hyssop, sage, & lemon grass oil. when it 1st came out I bought a bottle of HBH. that was before the price went thru the roof. I think it it's more hype than fact but the bees are apey for any syrup it was added to. I use vinegar in my candy & syrup as well.

[Jen]

Hi Rober, I've read quite a bit about essential oils and the bee gut. I like the idea in the winter. I've used HBH in my winter sugar cakes for a long time and so far I have not had nosema, even in very wet winters. I make my own HBH so I know the eo's are of good quality I do believe it helps the bee gut stay healthy. and yah I'll use some vinegar too 

[riverbee]

jen,
i have only used HBH and lemon grass oil to sugar bricks for winter feed. like jack and rober said, changing one oil out for the other would probably make no difference.

what is your recipe for HBH? i have never made my own. it is expensive!

[Jen]

Hi riverbee, here is the link that I learned with. It's really easy. You can half this recipe and still have plenty. Frankly, I don't use the lecithin granule's anymore, it seems to me that the granules just float on the top even if I put this concoction in the blender on high. However, when the concoction has cool down I still like to give it a good spin in a high blender. Then I bottle it up and store it in a cool place. For us backyard beeks this 16 ounce recipe can last for years. It's only 15 drops of two eo's and 2 1/2 cups of sugar, so cheap. But on Amazon a 16 ounce bottle is $35.00 including tax. That's nuts!

I have to admit that it makes the house smell delicious!

http://georgiapellegrini.com/2010/06/29/food-drink/honey-bee-healthy/

https://www.amazon.com/Honey-Healthy-Original-Stimulant-Essential/dp/B00WRGKY8S/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1510814290&sr=8-1&keywords=honey+bee+healthy

[yes2matt]

Hi Rober, I've read quite a bit about essential oils and the bee gut. I like the idea in the winter. I've used HBH in my winter sugar cakes for a long time and so far I have not had nosema, even in very wet winters. I make my own HBH so I know the eo's are of good quality I do believe it helps the bee gut stay healthy. and yah I'll use some vinegar too 

Would you link one or two articles you found most informative?

I did try this year to cook up some fondant, supposedly to invert the sugars to make it easier for the bees to digest (but it tastes about the same to me, so how to tell if it worked). I put a drop of lemongrass in the batch, but that's only a "welcome home" scent, not a nutrition/medicine (I think). So I'd like to know more.

Sent from my SM-J327P using Tapatalk

[apisbees]

It is the heating process that causes the conversion you need to reach the rolling boil or more precisely 234 deg F. A good candy thermometer will aid in puling the fondant off the heat at the proper time.

[Bakersdozen]

Brushy Mountain has HBH on sale, November 23-27.  Use promotion code PCCM at checkout.  HBH is marked down to $24.30.
I just got this info in an email this evening.