essential oils

danno · February 05, 2008, 09:07:03 AM

Has anyone tried this and if so how did you use it with quanities used

General Purpose Essential Oil Mixture

A well known commercially available general purpose essential oil product for bees that is similar to the following recipe claims many benefits even though many of those claims have yet to be proven. The following recipe should work about as well as that product and is way cheaper. It can be added in small quantities to feed to encourage feeding. It has been known to occasionally cause robbing behavior due to its great appeal to bees.

> 5 cups water
> 2 1/2 pounds of sugar
> 1/8 teaspoon lecithin granules (used as an emulsifier)
> 15 drops spearmint oil
> 15 drops lemongrass oil

Bring the water to a boil and stir in the sugar until it is dissolved. Once the sugar is dissolved remove the mixture from the heat and quickly add the lecithin and the essential oils. Stir the mixture thoroughly. This solution should have a strong scent and not be left open around bees. Cool before using.

Cindi · February 05, 2008, 10:43:29 AM

Danno, I am sorry but I do not understand the concept behind this. You said "to encourage feeding". I my experiences, when bees are fed sugar syrup, if they need the syrup they do not need any encouraging to use it. Like the fall feeding for example. The bees love to take the sugar syrup, I couldn't imagine using any essential oils to encourage my bees, because they plain and simply love the syrup, when they don't take the syrup any more, it means they have a full house of food.

It will be interesting to hear comments from our forum members, but I just don't think that I would bother to try to encourage my bees to eat, they are doing a great enough job with sugar syrup all by itself. Have a wonderful and great day, Cindi

danno · February 05, 2008, 10:56:07 AM

I found this recipe on the net and although it isn't named it seems to be close to the product Honey-B-Healthy

NWIN Beekeeper · February 05, 2008, 11:07:49 AM

This is the do-it-yourself Honey-B-Healthy recipe.

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[...to encourage feeding..]

The concept is to use this to start your feeding session.
The smell of the oils work as a tracer for the bees to follow to the source (some use a little chlorine in outdoor water sources to deter use of a neighbors pool).

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[It has been known to occasionally cause robbing behavior...]
[> 15 drops lemongrass oil]

Lemongrass oil has a similar chemistry to queen pheromones (citral).
That is why Lemongrass Oil is used as a lure in swarm boxes.
I have found that I need to limit or eliminate Lemongrass Oil from the mix during hot dearths.

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The spearmint also has a tendency to help minimize moldy sugar too.
It does not eliminate it, but it does significantly slow it.

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[...the following recipe claims many benefits even though many of those claims have yet to be proven.]

Some larger operations on the west coast are saying that it prevents some diseases.
I am not able to substantiate that yet - the oils do not have properties that I can prove that they work in a way that prevents the disease. It does promote syrup up take and that increases gut motility. Anytime that gut motility is increased it generally means improved health - less time for disease to make a home in the bee's gut (short of dysentery of course).

It will be interesting to see in the up coming months if more oils are found to have other health improvements.

I gladly welcome anyone that has ANY information on essential oils and their impact on bees (specifically bees, because I know there is tons of documents for people) to please forward it to me - email via PM or however.

danno · February 05, 2008, 02:02:51 PM

NWIN
do you use the same quanities in syrup as honey-b-health

Understudy · February 05, 2008, 03:42:55 PM

I don't need to feed my bees unless it is a nuc or weak hive from a cut out. However when I do I use sugar water and Honey B Healthy. I also use that mixture for my preparing my permacomb.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Cindi · February 05, 2008, 05:28:18 PM

Jeff, did I miss something here. I would like to look at the recipe for Honey-B-Healthy. I see the entitled name is in red typing, but it did not provide any link to anywhere. Heads up, what's up? I like the sound of improving gut motility. Sounds almost like how humans should have lots of roughage, hee, hee, :) :) ;). Have the best of a great day, Cindi

JP · February 05, 2008, 05:49:38 PM

http://www.honeybhealthy.com/ I called the guy who makes it and he sent me a sample which was a good sized container. A little goes a loooooooooong way.

......JP

Understudy · February 05, 2008, 05:55:42 PM

Quote from: Cindi on February 05, 2008, 05:28:18 PM
Jeff, did I miss something here. I would like to look at the recipe for Honey-B-Healthy. I see the entitled name is in red typing, but it did not provide any link to anywhere. Heads up, what's up? I like the sound of improving gut motility. Sounds almost like how humans should have lots of roughage, hee, hee, :) :) ;). Have the best of a great day, Cindi

It a font color and underline. Not a link.
The company site is here
http://www.honeybhealthy.com/

But with the recipe you can make your own.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

Cindi · February 05, 2008, 06:01:09 PM

JP, I know that site, I was just wondering if Jeff had a specific "recipe". Thanks though, have an awesome and great day, Cindi

JP · February 05, 2008, 06:22:19 PM

http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php?topic=8309.msg51951#msg51951

For you Cindi.

......JP

Cindi · February 05, 2008, 06:41:30 PM

JP, how kind of you to do this research for the topic, kudos to you. Have a wonderful and best of this day, smiling. Cindi

danno · February 06, 2008, 08:57:45 AM

I bought the oils and lecithin granules at the local health food store for about 15.00. With the small amounts used these three ingred's. will go a long way

JP · February 06, 2008, 10:03:12 AM

Quote from: Cindi on February 05, 2008, 06:41:30 PM
JP, how kind of you to do this research for the topic, kudos to you. Have a wonderful and best of this day, smiling. Cindi

not a problem, ;)

.....JP

Brian D. Bray · February 06, 2008, 07:06:17 PM

The spearmint also helps with treacheal mites.

Cass Cohenour · February 06, 2008, 08:27:24 PM

That recipe looks a little familiar. ;) I was told that to "measure the lecithin granules and put them in warm water let them sit for few hours or over night shake for 1 min and they will dissolve. Much easier than trying to mix in the hot syrup."

I've also been told "The mixture, whatever version of oils and strength you care for, can be mixed in a blender using cold water. Avoiding the distillation of the essential oils in boiling water and none of the oily lecithin mess. It never separates."

Cass Cohenour · February 06, 2008, 08:32:16 PM

The main reason that I like to use it is to spray the bees with it for adding frames of bees to weak colonies, making nucs, and doing cutouts. I dilute it down to make the "Smokeless Smoke". That recipe can also be found on my blog.

danno · February 07, 2008, 09:08:29 AM

Cass
nice job on your blog!! Sorry for the reprint. What is the shelf life of this oil mix

Cass Cohenour · February 07, 2008, 11:31:05 PM

I've never had the stuff the sit around long enough to personally know first hand what the shelf life is. I keep mine in the extra fridge in the basement and have had a batch leftover since last fall and it still looks OK. I'll probably throw it out though since it it so easy and cheap to make.
Check the recipe on the blog again, I added additional info on how and why to use it.

sc-bee · February 08, 2008, 12:35:37 AM

A lot of folks believe in mixtures of essential oils for Varroa and trachea mites. Some is feed in syrup, some use honey, some simply put it on shop towels.

Fatbeeman will be in the chat room Sat nite and most likely will be talking organic beekeeping and maybe queen rearing. He is a firm believer in the use of essential oils and FGMO.

He will probably be more than glad to share his experiences in the use of oils!!!

Some are believers some not!