"P-O Gustafsson" wrote:

> Nope, bees are wintered in Sweden, beekeeper winters better in
> Thailand... :-)

The whole winter in Thailand?  In that case I shall only feel sorry for the
bees!  (Although I have to confess that I do have a holiday to S.India
planned and am counting down the days).

Many thanks for the additional explanation.  The method is now much clearer
(perhaps it might help my understanding if I did not stay up half the night
trying to get everything done - but there are never enough hours in the
day).  In effect, as I now understand it, the only real difference in our
methods is the preparation of the starter; I rely on using to fine grain
honey to use as seed, whereas you produce seed (or starter) from honey with
any size of crystal by cooling it to 10C and then stirring until it has a
creamy fine grain.  Is this stirring not a form of grinding?

After seeding you then pack it into jars and store these at 5-15C to set,
which you say can take up to 3 weeks.  This would give me a problem in the
summer, as it would be difficult to hold large numbers of jars at 5-15C
because I do not have refrigerated stores available.  However, by stirring
after seeding for 15 minutes, 5 times a day, I find that the honey is
usually almost set in 3-5 days - regardless of ambient temperature; it is
then bottled and usually sets firm in the jar within 1-2 days.  Whilst this
is convenient, the best point is that honey produced in this way never
frosts under normal variations of temperature - giving it an almost
indefinite shelf life.

> Have to finish here, there is a BBQ and some Chang beers waiting...;-)

That was below the belt, as we say here!  Our weather has been awful,
everywhere is saturated and many apiary sites just a sea of mud - so bad
that I have had to leave the Land Rover on the nearest bit of hard track and
then walk to many sites - I do not relish getting it bogged down miles from
any help, even though I do have a winch.

Best wishes

Peter Edwards
[log in to unmask]
www.stratford-upon-avon.freeserve.co.uk/

::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::
-- Visit www.honeybeeworld.com/BEE-L for rules, FAQ and  other info ---
::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::