Local honey?

If you live on the East Coast, all the way from Maine to Alabama... Same Appalachian mountain range, and basically the same trees and plants. Here's a rule of thumb about heating honey: Beeswax melts at about 125'F, so I say if you're heating it enough to melt the container it naturally comes in, you may also damage the useful enzymes. I put the cap at 105'F, but only because my honey house (where I work to extract and bottle honey) sometimes gets that hot. Supermarket honey may be heated to 160'F and pushed through a particle filter. I don't cook with honey. I add a touch of honey after. Slice and fan-out a pear, bake with a little butter, cinnamon, and maybe pecans or walnuts... drizzle honey and serve warm. I do add honey to my hot coffee, which I'm sure breaks down the honey, but it doesn't harm the flavor. Coffee is perfectly brewed at 195"F, and in the cup it's about 160-175'F. I boil water in a pyrex measure, and pour to an empty cup... this cools the water and pre-warms the cup... pour that 190-200'F water back to the pyrex, then pour-over to make coffee. I eat about 1/2 gallon of honey per month. I don't claim honey has medicinal qualities, but its sugars are about 50/50 glucose/sucrose, so... I get a lot less sucrose in my diet. If you want to reduce plant allergies, I recommend local pollen over honey... You can put it in salads, a peanut butter sandwich, add it to your granola trail mix... Just don't cook it.

Working closely with bees... Honey Bee Stings

There's usually no reason to be in the hives during winter, so I'll go for months without being stung... but in the spring there is work to do, and I will be stung a few times in the first few days...

My body will build immunity to stings, and after about a week, I will be lesss sensative to the venom... For all the rest of the year I may not notice when I've been stung...

I may feel a little pinch when someone bites me, but there's no pain and swelling... Getting stung in the beeyard is about as worrysome as going out to pick blackberries... a little sticky, but nothing to worry about!

Unless there is something to worry about!! Some people are allergic to stings, and may become very ill. Some people may get into bees, and at some point find they do not have immunity, and may even become more sensative... I have known people to get out of the bee business.

For most people honey bee stings are not bad, but you should always remove the stinger from your skin... Swipe it off with a sideways motion.

Sometimes friends will visit my beeyard, and some of them enjoy being stung far less than I do... Maybe they are very young, and more worried than injured, but they'll need some attention...

An easy to find remedy for bee stings, and also mosquitos, no-see-ems, and many other bug bites... Plantain is pictured below.

Plantain is a very common plant with a dozen varieties... I advise to rinse the leaves... Rub moistened leaves onto the skin to relieve the sting and prevent some of the swelling.

I usually dress for summer when I work bees... No bulky suit like so many beekeepers... I wear short pants, a light color t-shirt, and a straw hat for protection from the bees... I do use a smoker, burning a little pine-straw...

The first and most magical thing I use in working honey bees is to apply some Kung-Fu Zen to the way I move my hands... The bees are not afraid when I go inside the hives, and they don't attack me.