Honey B Healthy Concentrate

[Sebashtion H.]

Hi All,

I have been playing mad scientist in my kitchen, much to the chagrin of my wife who reminds me that she just mopped the floors.

While the Honey B Healthy recipe is available even here.
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,19276.msg145059.html#msg145059
http://forum.beemaster.com/index.php/topic,6296.0.html
and in a bunch of other places on this forum. Let's face it. This recipe is for stuff you can put in a feeder and give to the bees. It is not the recipe for the concentrate. Which is what you buy from the bee suppliers.

So this is a recipe for the concentrate.

So after going and making a nice smelling kitchen and house. And about 14 batches I think I have what I want. Please note this is pretty raw experimentation stage.

Let's look at the ingredients.

Lecithin Granules. Available at most health food stores. I got mine at The Vitamin Shop. Big jar cost me about $15 as I recall.
Spearmint Oil. Ebay was my friend here. 8oz/.25L cost $17.00 which is a bit high but it was a decent sized bottle.
Lemongrass Oil. I bought a 16oz/.5L bottle for around $18.00 about a year ago.
Sucrose, Table sugar. 5lb/2.2KG
Water. Got it from the sink your price may vary.

Now in the normal recipe you are doing the sugar water mix 1:1 and then added a small amount of lecithin and a few drops of lemongrass and spearmint oils. It is a very good recipe and you certainly should use it.

Of course the old adage is oil and water don't mix. However that is what the lecithin is for. Let's do this:
1 cup water (approximately 8 fluid oz/.25 L) heated to just about boiling, but not quite. 190F / 88C.
1 cup sugar
Place in blender and blend at low speed until sugar is dissolved in water. Should take a few seconds not more.
Remember next time to place the lid on the blender. (This step if missed can cause an unhappy spouse).
Add 6 heaping tablespoons of lecithin granules.
Turn the blender on at a low speed cycle for just a few seconds. I know not everything dissolved but don't worry we will get back to it.
Add 1/4 teaspoon spearmint oil
Add 1/4 teaspoon lemongrass oil

Turn blender on at low speed for a minute ( it doesn't have to be exact ).

If you have done everything right you should notice the lemongrass oil slightly. You should have a pale looking orange juice (think pale yellow). Put some on your finger and rub your fingers together it should have a slightly viscous (thick) feel to it. That will get better as it cools down. So if you do it when it's warm it may not feel as viscous.

Now take this and store in a bottle or whatever will hold approximately 16oz of fluid.

Do not feed this directly to your bees.

When you are ready you make your sugar water mix and add a little of the concentrate to the sugar water. If I recall the amount is 1 teaspoon to 1 quart.


Please note the real Honey B Healthy has sodium lauryl sulfate it is a surfactant. Also know as a wetting agent. If you really want a wetting agent you can add a small amount of Yucca Juice. 

Please feel free to make any corrections or suggestions. If you know of another emulsifier besides lecithin that is cool too.

Sincerely,
Brendhan

so did the go from experiment to actuall recipie you use afre 7 years? or did you change it more

[vlunceford]

I used GMO-free sunflower lecithin and got a darker colored concentrate. Also, essential oils tend to permeate plastics. Unless you have a blender set aside just to use with essential oils, you should not use essential oils in your blender. I measured the oils into a pint jar, added the sugar water and lecithin mixture to the oils in the jar, screwed on a lid, and shook vigorously for about a minute. You?ll want to shake the mixture a little before each use as well.

[Ben Framed]

The recipe I posted earlier is what I add to my syrup.
When feeding hive be extra careful not to spill it around the hive.
It will attract bees and can cause a robbing situation.
The Tea Tree Oil is suppose to be a natural way to control Nosema.
To give an example on how strong an attractant it is.
I made up a batch and decided to go feed my bees.
When I came back in the house there were about 4-500 bees inside the house.
What I found was a window frame I had drilled two 3/8 inch holes for water drainage.
The bees got that scent and here they came.
They was a cluster on the sill about the size of a football of bees trying to get in the house.
I put some cotton balls in the holes and spent another 45 minutes catch bees and releasing them outside.

Hi Richard, I always like reading your post, it seems I always learn something interesting.  I wonder if you were to douse a cotton ball with this and put it in a small screen trap, so no bees or ants could get to it, would it make a good swarm trap  bait in the early spring?  Thanks

[Ben Framed]

This is another interesting older topic I have ran across and now a question. Has anyone heard of a scientific study which used the ingredients as some have listed above? Has more information been gathered scientifically, which may aid in supporting or not supporting this type mixture to help enhance protection from nosema, especially the newer nosema version? I used a similar mixture as Cap my first winter. The mixture was recommended to me by two well known beekeepers which are breeders. I can happily report I had no problems. Whether the mixture helped or not I do not really know. But one thing I believe is certain, it did not hurt. Those bees prospered.....

Phillip

[Michael Bush]

Lemongrass oil was shown to help prevent Nosema apis in a study they did in Australia.  In fact, I think it was as much or more effective than Fumidil (which is illegal in Australia and most of the world).  I doubt it would make much difference with Nosema cerana because it is more of a systemic infection rather than an intestinal one.
Lemongrass oil also contains all of the important constituents of Nasonov pheromone.  But any essential oil will mess with the microbes in the bees and in the colony.  The other issue is that anything that adds odor to syrup sets off robbing.

[Mark Thomas]

It will kill off the bacteria that live in the gut of the bee and protect them from Nosema, AFB, EFB and chalkbrood and probably interfere with the yeast and bacteria used to make bee bread...
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0033188

And other possible effects when you kill the bacteria and yeasts:
http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0026796

On the other hand IF they already had Nosema, it might help with that.  If they do NOT, however, it will make them more susceptible...

I concur. I made 10 Kombucha Starters with White Sugar by Accident.. Zero out of 10 started. The first starters I ever made (Not using Raw Cane Sugar). Whatever they use to make it white (bleach?), it wiped out the Microbiome in the starter liquid I used to start the starters...
I have always wondered about feeding Sugar water. Always stayed away from it, except in Critical circumstances.

Now, I wonder if the Bees would like Milk or Water Kefir and/or Kombucha.. It would surely give their gut a boost after feeding Sugar Syrup... Easy enough to test.. I put Milk Kefir and Kombucha in my fruit fly traps.. I bet they would like it.. And, it would surely add Lacto and Biffido back to their gut..
I am just starting after 6 years of not raising bees. Lacking resources. Had one what I think is Feral bees move into one of my hives 5 years ago.. They have been doing great, no help from me. Last year, I put a couple of supers on the hive and they filled them up.. I waited until this Spring during the flow to pull them. They are already stocked for the winter(One full Short Super on a Single Deep Body).
And, I started late in June trying to get them back down in the Deeps, from laying in the first two supers.. Not many resources at this point, so, not trying to make more queens, etc yet.. It rained the whole month of May and really slowed these guys down.
If they will take some Kombucha or Kefir, I won't mind giving them some 1:1 Sucrose and some Essential Oils to get them kick started.. But, will give them a gut booster before things get cool.. Hope that thought works. I would really like to keep a set of these guys.. They started off really friendly, but, over the last month have gotten my immunity to bee stings back in proper order.. Ha..Ha...

Our Immune System starts in our Gut. It is the basis of it. A top notch Gut Flora will keep you running in good condition, give you energy, etc.. My 86 year old Mother and I experiment with all things gut related. One of the best things we did was get on an Anti Parasite Routine following the New and Full Moon Cycles for 3 months.. Cleared up some minor issues unexpectedly.. Cheers!

[Ben Framed]

Mark Thomas welcome to Beemaster.  Interesting first post! Thanks for joining us...


Phillip

[Michael Bush]

Bees usually don't do well on anything but nectar or white sugar syrup.  Solids do not do them any favors.  But yes, the syrup itself will disrupt the bacteria in their gut while the HBH will outright kill it as will antibiotics etc.

[BeeMaster2]

Mark, welcome to Beemaster.
Jim Altmiller

[The15thMember]

Welcome to Beemaster, Mark!    Myself and several other members are relatively new to fermenting and we've been discussing it on this these threads if you'd like to check them out.
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=55733.msg510099#msg510099
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=56565.msg518157#msg518157
https://beemaster.com/forum/index.php?topic=54563.msg528077#msg528077