Hay fever and honey - my final and most unpopular blog ever

Last week someone contacted me via the web site asking about my honey. He wanted it for his hay fever and needed 'raw' honey.

As he lived in Luton, the postage made it pointless and I told him how to find a local bee keeper in the area.

However it was a reminder that the hay fever season is soon upon us.

There's quite a few things I enjoy about bee keeping, watching the bees, being outside, not having to deal with people. etc
One of the spin offs from the bee keeping has been the unintended and unplanned involvement in selling honey and bee stuff at farmers markets, and there's a lot about doing markets I don't like.
I'm not bothered about making money [I don't, anything we make is spent on the bees], I don't like the preparations I have to make before hand [bottling honey, making marmalade, fudge, honey comb, propolis etc], packing everything into the Jeep the day before isn't great, unpacking and setting up is a pain as is the packing  way afterwards which consists of throwing everything into the back of the Jeep and sorting it out the next day.

After the initial enthusiasm for doing markets died off I now limit myself to one regular monthly market [Bromham Mill], one quarterly market [Potton Four Seasons] and a few 'one offs' like Kempston Fun Day and the Bromham Show.

Gone are the days when I would sit in a draughty village hall and not take enough to cover the cost of the stall and petrol however worthy the cause.

So why do them?  I have to something with the honey. I used to give it away to friends, family and people in the village but the amount I could potentially produce now is far greater than I need to do that.

Surprisingly for a black hearted misanthrope like me who completely agrees that 'Hell is other people' I quite enjoy the social side of the markets.

Bees have a back story and people are interested in them mostly because of the media coverage they get about their, and potentially our, imminent demise. In the three years I have been doing markets I have only had to deal with only two nutters and a handful of irritants and even I can manage to be polite to people for a couple of minutes. Just.

So I have lots of conversations about 'bees' and there tends to be three main topics - 'the bees are dying', 'local honey is good for you' and 'hay fever and honey' for which I have disappointing opinions on all three.

Most people cannot identify a honey bee so don't really know what is meant by a 'bee'. and although honey bees face huge problems with habitat, pesticides, disease etc, as long as there are bee keepers they will be OK. They are not endangered and the numbers of colonies have increased in recent years.

I am often asked if my honey is 'local'. I have no idea what is local so I just tell them where my bees are and they can make their own mind up. I did a market in Milton Keynes once and someone wouldn't buy the honey as it wasn't local.

Some farmer's markets require any produce to come from within a 30 mile radius which is a bit extreme for honey bees as they only travel up to 5 miles to forage.

The fact that New Zealand is about 11000 miles away doesn't stop people buying Manuka honey and all honey has antibacterial and antiseptic properties, wherever its from.

 I am also asked if my honey is 'raw', 'organic' or 'natural'. I try to resist the temptation to ask 'exactly what do you mean by that?'

'Local', 'good for you' and 'hay fever' all seem to be intertwined.

I have lost count of the number of times I have been told that 'local honey is good for hay fever' Neither I nor any of my family suffer from hay fever. so I can't comment from a personal point of view and have just accepted it.

The 'local' thing never made much sense to me. It seems a lot of people suffer from a reaction to Oil Seed Rape. Admittedly OSR is far less common this year but isn't pollen from OSR in Scotland the same as OSR pollen in Bedford?

My fees could forage on plants that are not to be found say 10 miles away but still be considered 'local'

A fellow bee keeper told me a friend of his had streaming eyes and nose and wanted his honey to deal with the hay fever. He told her she was too late [it was May time] and she should have started taking a spoonful of honey every day from January. [what I call the Mary Poppins method]

I have re-told this story numerous times and also repeated the theory behind the honey and hay fever  is that the sufferer is having an allergic reaction to pollen and if you take a small dose regularly it helps your immune system to develop a resistance.

Because I had so many conversations about this I thought I would try and find some definite proof/research to back it up.

And found nothing.

There were a few vague reference to some very general work done a long time ago but nothing that could be called proof.

So I contacted two UK allergy charities

Action against Allergy said:-

Dear Mr Reed This country remedy has been known about for a very long time - but we don't know of any medical evidence to support it - though we are trying to find out and will let you know if we are lucky.

AllergyUK said:-

Hi Martin,

Thanks for getting in touch with us.In regards to your email, unfortunately there is no evidence to suggest that local honey will improve symptoms of hay fever. Local refers to honey that is sourced from bees local to a specific area, so pollen from nearby flowers would be present in that honey. The majority of people with hay fever will react to grass pollens and as bees only pollinate flowers, using honey as a treatment would have no effect. Even those who react to pollen from flowers would most likely see little to no improvement with this symptoms.

So I thought I would look at the NHS web site to see if there was anything there.

They had this

Lots about things to try but nothing about honey but it does mention immunotherapy and treatment with pollen but 

The allergen can be given to you as:

• an injection into your skin – this is known as systemic injection immunotherapy (SIT)

• a tablet that dissolves under your tongue – this is known as sublingual immunotherapy (SLIT)

 It also says

Immunotherapy is only carried out in specialist medical centres, in case a serious allergic reaction, known as anaphylaxis, occurs.

 Nothing about local honey from a farmer's market.

Honey bees are not the best pollinators, Bumble bees and solitary are far more effective.

However they are efficient pollen collectors and they can collect large amounts in their pollen sacs.

Therefore the amount of pollen that is on their bodies that could possibly get into the honey is apparently infinitesimally small and far below anything needed to develop a resistance.

Apparently 80% of people who suffer from hay fever are reacting to grass pollen which is wind pollinated and won't be collected by honey bees. Pollen from things pollinated by bees is sticky so it adheres to the bee so difficult for us to come in contact with.

So as far as I can see its an urban myth, so why do people believe it?

Its said that if you repeat something enough people will believe it and certainly the press drag this up every Summer and recently this article about what to do if you suffer from hay fever  appeared in Hello! magazine.

'Local honey'? - check

'Limits effect of hay fever'? - check

'Honey builds up a tolerance? - check.

I was interested to see that Chloe Parker the author claims 'there is some strong evidence' and thought the two allergy charities, who told me there is no evidence and we don't know of any medical evidence might be interested. 
I couldn't contact the author of the article, who is writing daily celebrity news stories as well as fashion, beauty, travel and lifestyle features   and who is probably very busy using her obvious knowledge of immunology and entomology at the Hello! Institute of Scientific Research who I understand are about to issue some strong evidence that avocado, sun dried tomatoes and fairy dust cures cellulite. OMG!
I also left a comment on the web page but oddly it never appeared. I wonder why

There will be numerous articles in comics like Hello! spinning the latest hippy snake oil remedies in their lifestyle sections and the daily press isn't immune to some half truths.
When I was checking the postage of the honey to Luton, I talked about this issue with the local post master who said 'but this is in the papers all the time!'.

When I met the Two Apothecaries at Wrest Park over the weekend.who reenact medieval medicines and use my propolis for their display, Julian told me about a condition called scrofula ['???] that could only be cured by touching a coin called an Angel that had been touched by the King.As there is never a King about when you need one our conversation turned to  placebos.. The conversation then turned to honey and hay fever.
Valerie is involved in running clinical trials has experienced the placebo effect many times.

I found some scientific research that suggested it may be a placebo.

In the study, published in the Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology in 2002 in America, the scientists followed dozens of allergy sufferers through the springtime allergy season. The subjects were randomly split into three groups. One consumed a tablespoonful daily of locally collected, unpasteurised and unfiltered honey; another ate commercial honey; and a third was given a corn syrup placebo with synthetic honey flavouring.
After tracking the subjects’ symptoms for months, the scientists found that neither of the honey groups saw improvements over the placebo group.

So, lots of people say it works and the Great British Press says so too but there doesn't appear to be any evidence supporting it.

May is fairly busy for me from a market point of view, I'm doing four markets and giving three talks.

I'll let you know how many people mention hay fever and local honey

And how many punch me in the face when I say its probably a myth.

Whats the best thing about bee keeping?

From time to time I am asked about bee keeping and what its like and my typically disappointing reply is that its more time consuming, hard work physically and more expensive than people think.
The Beds Beekeepers web site says:-

One person in Bedfordshire wrote, “After the first year, I knew everything. By the end of the second year, I knew some of what I needed, and at the end of the third year, I realise finally that I know nothing. I could have easily given up on several occasions… support at that difficult time was appreciated enormously.”
A beekeeping magazine says, “We have a duty of care to our bees and if we don’t try to understand their needs, treat them properly and relate to their behaviour and maladies, we really should not be in charge of them.” [I particularly agree with this]
An international journal quotes, “75% of beginners give up beekeeping within three years.”

Although well intentioned people often want to keep honey bees to 'save the bees and save the world'.
This is despite that fact that  two-thirds of people cannot recognise a honey bee, honey bees are not very good pollinators [we worry about the wrong bees] and .in this country at least, despite growing pressures, honey bees are holding on OK and have increased in numbers.

Honey is what seems to interest people and I often think if it wasn't for honey most people couldn't care less about honey bees.
To go to the effort, time and expense of keeping bees just to produce honey for yourself  is a waste of time and effort - its much cheaper and easier to buy it at a supermarket or farm shop.

So, why do it?

Apparently you can now get the internet on computers which has led to the growth of forums [fora?]
This supposedly involves people with a common interest exchanging views and advice. Supposedly.
In reality it often involves sad lonely angry people who consider themselves experts and are patronising rude and offensive to people asking reasonable questions, saying things they would never dare to say face to face.
The main bee keeping forum is possibly the worst example of this I have come across so I don't post anything but occasionally just look at the thread titles to see if there is by some chance something of interest.

Recently there was a thread 'Whats the best thing about bee keeping?'
The most popular choice was honey and its production. Fair enough. I have no interest in honey other than to the extent it affects the bees ability to survive the winter, but most bee keepers sell their honey through a variety of outlets.

The next most popular reason is the idea of being able to 'outwit' the bees. Beekeepers have this conceit that bees are contrary creatures and its a constant intellectual battle to try and anticipate what they will do next..If they want contrary they should meet my spaniels and chickens

There were numerous other suggestions but only one person said what I would have suggested.

Counting mites

The cool weather has meant I haven't been able to check the bees properly although I have managed to get to Scald End and put supers on all the hives.

With the swarming season creeping up I need to do some preparatory work, particularly finding and marking the queens although the cool weather seems to extend into next week.

I've blogged about varroa before but to recap:-
Varroa is a mite that originated in Asia and has spread to every country in the world. Asian bees have a degree of resistance but our bees don't.

They lay their eggs in with the bee eggs and when they hatch they attach themselves to the bees.

Varroa mite

They stick a spike into the bee and drink their haemolymph [blood]. They drain out all the nutrients and also pass on diseases like Deformed Wing Virus.
This weakens the colony that can eventually die and varroa is at least as bigger threat as environment, weather, pesticides etc.
You cannot get rid of varroa and the best you can do is to try and reduce the mite load. There are numerous ways of doing this.

 A bee keeper should try and monitor the varroa level in the hives and the usual way is to have a varroa floor under the hive.
This is just a floor with a wire mesh so all the rubbish and mites that fall off the bees drops through the mesh onto a plastic sheet called a sticky board. Its coated with something sticky [I use cooking oil] to stop the mites walking away.

The boards are left in the hive for three days and the mites counted.
The mites are small and my eyesight isn't good enough to easily count them. A magnifying glass is an alternative but I  use a mini camera attached to my laptop so I can look at the laptop screen rather than peer through a magnifying glass.The board is divided into four sections I can count each separately so I don't lose track of where I am.
However I recently made something that hopefully will make the process easier.

This is how I count the mites

Tour of the Ravensden Apiary

The season is now under way and I've had a look at all the hives and the vast majority of them are doing fine.
I will soon have to be making weekly visits to the apiaries in Ravensden and Scald End to keep an eye on things during the swarming season.

I have had a number of visitors to the apiaries and I wondered if either of the Regular Blog Readers might be interested in what goes on so I have done a 'Tour of Ravensden' video [see below] and will do one for Scald End.

Also I will do a blog on what goes on during a hive inspection.

First inspection of the year

Its been months since we last met.
Months during which I gave them their Autumn feed and worried about them. I then gave them their Autumn oxalic acid treatment and worried about them.
Then it was their winter fondant feed and I worried about them. Following this was the oxalic acid vaporiser treatment and I worried about them. For the last few months I have been topping up their fondant feed where necessary. And worried about them.

Over the last month or so they gradually started to emerge. Pollen started to be bought in and I started to worry a little bit less [pollen is used to make food for the lavae so it means the Queens are laying].
Although the swarming season doesn't start for another month or so, it is recommended that for vigorous colonies you add a super now with clean frames and fresh wax foundation. This is not really for honey production its more to give them something to do so swarming is delayed - they are given a lot of new space to expand into and a trigger for swarming is when the hive becomes too congested.
Four of the hives at Ravensden looked pretty busy so last week I added supers but didn't go through the brood box as it was still a bit too cold.

However the weather has gradually improved so today was the day for the first inspections.
It turned out to be a bit of a team effort as Stacey and Matt who I met at market I do, came along to see the bees.
Things didn't start well as Matt was stung before we put our veils on and as I put some sting relief on the sting, his glasses were knocked off and I stood on them.
However we carried on and after some introductory stuff looked at the first hive.

The WBC hive has been the most active hive and had a super added. Also the bees are pretty calm so a good choice for Matt and Stacey's introduction.

The super had bees in it and they had started to draw out the comb.
We then took off the super and queen excluder so we could see the brood frames. Usually the outer most frames are the quietest but we could see bees occupying all the frames.
The frames were pretty well stuck down with propolis but we get them out for checking.
Although we didn't see the queen there was lots of open and closed brood and drone brood.

We didn't have time to check all the hives so next we had a look at the Poly Nuc Box with the Black British Queen in it.
The Long Term reader of this blog will know that last year I bought a Black British Queen. Native Black British bees were nearly wiped out about 100 years ago but there are small areas of the country where they still exist.
Out of curiosity I bought a BBQ, made up a Poly nuc box with bees from Ravensden colonies and introduced the British Queen, who I call Victoria. They accepted her and as it was late in the year I decided to keep the colony in the Nuc box as Poly nuc's have very good insulation properties and winter was coming.
The first bees to emerge this year were the Black British bees who had a reputation for being hardy and hard working, if a little 'spikey'.
I decided it was now time to transfer the bees into a full sized hive and Matt and Stacey carefully took out each frame from the Nuc and put it in the big hive. There was plenty of open and closed brood cells. Also a lot of very black bees.
As Matt took the middle frame out there was Victoria resplendent with a blob of white paint on her back [this means she hatched last year] scuttling across the frame. Luckily both Matt and Stacey saw her.
When I got her I wasn't sure she had been marked and I'm really pleased she has been as several jobs I will be doing are made much easier if she is marked.
All the frames were transferred and frames with new foundation put either side of the full frames for them to expand into.
When I went back a little while later there were lots of bees fanning at the entrance to the new hive.

Fanning involves sticking their bum in the air and flapping their wings. They secrete a pheromone, called the Nasonov pheromone which basically tells the bees 'this is our new home,come in. its lovely The Queen's already here,' and is wafted around by the beating of the bees wings and tells the bees where their new home is. They also use this pheromone when they are swarming.
So all in all a good start and thanks to Stacey and Matt for their help.

Now the work really starts. Over the next few days I will start checking the other hives at Ravensden.
At the moment my Land Rover is lacking an MOT so I can't get to the bees at Scald End. Hopefully it will pass its MOT on Tuesday and I will start putting supers on the hives there. Also two of the hives at Scald End haven't been properly looked at for probably years and need a thorough going through and I will probably have to change all the changes for new clean ones.
On top of that there's a lot to do/buy/make to get ready for swarming season and the new approach I am taking this year.