in a world brimming with complexity few creatures
embody harmony like the honeybee with tireless
precision she dances from bloom to bloom each
motion guided by millennia upon millennia of
instinct each act in service to the whole and
then There are the beekeepers, watchful stewards
of this ancient symbiosis. Part agriscientist,
part poet, they move along their hives with the
efficiency of mow, levy and curly, tending to
the bee's needs as best they can comprehend,
and with the infrequency of a waterfall in the
Sahara, sometimes running off flapping and flailing
like a penguin on a hot sidewalk. This is their
journey. Welcome, welcome to Be Love, Be Keep
being presented by our best friends over at Man
Lake. Today we're going across the pond to Scotland
to have a fun discussion with a natural beekeeper
who's originally from Budapest. That's a combination.
We discuss everything from propolis tinctures,
to bee nutrition, to dealing with bee death,
times to smoke your bees, and times to smoke
yourself, and a whole ton more. And in our invention
mention segment we'll be trying on Man Lake's
new ventilated bee suit and putting it to the
test. It's a full program, so let's jump right
in. I'd like to welcome today our very, very
special guest, Tita Kish. How are you this morning?
Hello, Eric. I'm very well. Thank you very much
for inviting me. I'm very happy to be here. All
right. I say good morning, but I know it's evening
for you and I appreciate you being here. Tell
us where you are right now and where and a little
of your background, where do you come from? So
I live in Scotland, in southwest Scotland to
be exact, very close to the sea. The nearest
big town is Glasgow and Our little location is
special because we are on an elevation of about
200 meters above sea level and as we are very
close to the sea and essentially to the Atlantic
Ocean we see some interesting weather here. So
it's a lovely area and I am absolutely in love
with Scotland but Probably you can all pick up
that my accent is not really native to Scotland.
You don't sound like you grew up in Scotland.
No, no. I grew up in Eastern Europe in a country
called Hungary. And I was born in Budapest, so
my mother tongue is Hungarian. And even though
I spent over 10 years in the UK, you still can
hear this Eastern European route. That's okay.
Your English is very good. And I've been to Budapest
or Budapest and a lovely city, beautiful buildings.
bridges right on the river right there and just
a lovely place. We really enjoyed ourselves and
a lot of history. Yes, over a thousand years.
So we've been in the Carpathian basin. My country
is famous for agriculture. We do a lot of beekeeping
in Hungary, but I am not coming from a beekeeper
tradition. Also, it's not entirely sure because
my grandma said that my grandfather's grandfather
used to keep bees. So I do have some beekeeping
history there, but none of my immediate family
keeps bees. I think you picked up some genetics.
was passed down to you because from our earlier
discussion it seems to have come to you very
naturally and something that you automatically
love and I think some of that DNA gets passed
down but I'm gonna just throw a little bit out
there for our listeners as one of the things
that got me interested in speaking with you and
in looking at your Instagram profile and stuff
is I don't even know how to explain this because
you're your beekeeper and a historian and a death
doula and I don't even know what else fill in
some other ans. Well we all know that you know
honey bees are so different and they they do
so many different roles in their life in a short
amount of lifetime and I am a little bit like
them in that sense because yeah I've done so
many things before beekeeping we run a restaurant
and catering business with my chef husband and
then the pandemic happened and we kind of had
to reimagine our life and lifestyle and we just
wanted to get out from hospitality and, you know,
do something meaningful with our lives. And my
husband started to work in forestry industry,
so he's planting trees across the UK and I learned
beekeeping. So it's been five years with the
bees now. one year with my mentor who we met
on Facebook. He just recently passed away so
I'm still a bit tender over this loss because
I just feel like I didn't get enough time with
him. We met when he was turning 81 and he needed
some help with his bees. He is A generational
beekeeper, his father and grandfather used to
keep bees and he still kept bees but then he
ended up in a wheelchair with reduced mobility.
After a very short season that we spent together,
I ended up having his hives. He gifted me a couple
of his hives and that's how I became very quickly
a beekeeper. And you know, I felt it like I'm
not ready. But the bees had other plans And none
of us are an expert after four or five or ten
or twenty years of beekeeping But that's okay.
We all have something to learn from each other
And one of the things that I love the best is
just your attitude about bees it's all over what
this podcast is about which is about the love
of bees and the fun and the joy that can come
from beekeeping and being around bees. So I'd
like to jump into that aspect of it, but just
one quick thing I wanted to fill in first. You
mentioned that you're by the Atlantic Ocean.
Yes. And I believe your word was that makes the
weather interesting or something like that. Tell
us what that means. Does that mean you get a
ton of rain or ocean breezes and because weather
so much affects our beekeeping and our bees.
So give me a little background on that. Oh, where
to start? You know, in the UK, weather is always
amongst the top topics. We talk about it very
regularly over here because it changes so quickly.
So in a day, sometimes we see four seasons. And
here, where I live, it is so true more intensely.
we are one of the wettest part of the UK, so
we see a crazy amount of rainfall and we also
quite close to the Arctic, so we can actually
see some Arctic storms, not often, but recent
years I have to say it happened more frequently
than. before and like following the Met Office
report. So the weather is definitely getting
a bit stranger and maybe more unpredictable.
Yes, it makes beekeeping quite challenging in
the sense that you constantly have to be prepared
for anything, big storms. big, big winds that
are coming from the ocean. I mean, I constantly
keep blocks of things on the hives that it doesn't
get blown off. Around February we had another
big storm. The whole village were like upside
down, you know, garden fence, beans, everything
was blown all over around. So, you know, you
just never know what to get here. We can see
snow, we can see ice, but also we can see heat
waves, we just had a week of really warm weather.
It just makes me appreciate the bees even more,
if it makes sense, because you know, they go
out in weathers that I wouldn't. And I think
it's down to the fact that I have mainly dark
bees, you know, these are the native genetics
to Scotland and to Western Europe, and they evolved
in ways that they can just cope with big winds
and rain. They are much fluffier than the Italian
breed, and you know, the ones that you generally
see. Yeah, tell us a little bit about the breed.
Does it have a name? Yes, so it's Apis mellifera,
mellifera. the Western European dark bee and
they have been around since the ice age so they
evolved in weathers that are strange and cold
and wet and you know they've been around when
mammoths roamed the continent and they have some
really amazing adaptability so their wings is
a bit longer so they can fly in strong winds.
I find it incredible. I mean, I just filmed them,
we had a big storm, we had weather warning out
by the Met Office, so we were not really going
anywhere, but I was checking on the bees and
some foragers were out and about. You know, we
didn't go out because it was so dangerous to
be out on the road instead of flying debris,
but that didn't stop the bees, they were still
bringing in pollen. That's crazy. We had a big
wind come through on Saturday afternoon where
I live and I happened to be out with the bees
when it did it was just a storm front coming
through and Wow, I mean they hunkered down as
fast as they could we had some 55 mile an hour
gusts and And they can't fly in that at least
most bees can't I don't think yours can either
probably but what comes up what that makes me
think of what you were just talking about is
we're always talking about how beekeeping is
local and that's primarily because our weather
is so local and is different everywhere and so
we talk about different things that we can do.
We can put up windbreaks, we can put up shade
if it's in a place that's super hot or insulation
in a place where it's super cold but we don't
very often talk about bee genetics and I think
that's because we don't most of us don't go okay
well here's my climate so I need xyz kind of
bee and I know where to get it and that's really
cool that you do in that those are native to
that area anyway which totally makes sense. Man
if we sent you some bees that were raised in
Houston Texas they'd probably just die where
you are I would guess because they're just not
climatized to it. I could be wrong but I think
that's pretty cool. What else do you find that
in that kind of weather that you can help the
bees with? One of the biggest difference that
I do in my apiary is that I completely phased
out wooden hives. I mean I still have two but
I'm planning to move them into a polyester hive,
which makes me a bit, you know, natural beekeepers
will not generally say that they use plastic
in the bees. I don't put plastic in the hive,
but these polyester hives have been absolutely
amazing. You know, they are thick, they are well
insulated, they are lightweight, they are easy
to clean. They keep the bees mold -free, mold
is a big issue here, you know, all that rain
and moisture, it's really hard to keep mold out
from the hives, but these polyester hives do
that job, and they are great in really cold weather
too. So apparently the side of these polyhives
mimic 15 centimeter thickness of wood. That's
what, four or five inches thick, something like
that. Yeah, so like, you know, like a real trunk
would be. Because that's also something we don't
often think about as beekeepers, that yeah, we
are using these wooden boxes, but they are not
exact replicas of wooden trunks what bees genuinely,
you know, choose when they live in the wild.
So they're not going to be as insulated as a
tree trunk would be. If you're a beekeeper like
me, we're getting into that favorite time of
year, honey harvest. But it can be a lot of work.
That's where Mad Light comes in. They have everything
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So in climates like my climate, it can become
a serious issue straight away. As I said, I did
have some wooden hives through the years and
yeah, they just got really moldy and weathered
in just like a season. So, you know, that's something
that can stress the bees, you know, if they constantly
have to battle mold issue on top of all the other
things that they have to battle, you know, it
just weakens the colony overall. So I kind of
had to put down my philosophy in that sense about
plastic and that how we should not really use
plastic around our bees. if we are following
the natural beekeeping methods, but I think what
you are wrapping your bees into, that doesn't
really matter in that sense, that you know, like
putting plastic within the hive. If it protects
the bees and keeps them healthier and safer,
then put them in there and it worked really well.
And from a practical beekeeper kind of standpoint,
all that rain can bring a lot of rot and those
hives can just fall apart pretty quickly too.
Do you find in those poly hives that they put
a lot of propolis in the inside? It depends on
the hive. you know sometimes some hive produces
a lot of propolis and you see hives that they
barely so it really depends on the hive. There
is always some propolis because I like to put
the boxes into hot water and soda crystal you
know to sanitize it and you know it always changes
the the color and I love working with propolis,
so I don't... Is it why you are asking? Sorry,
Eric. Is it a good thing you think? It just seems
like if you're concerned with the plastic or
polypropylene, if they were to put a layer of
propolis over it, that would kind of shield them
from it. But a lot of those that I've seen they're
so slick or smooth inside that the bees don't
tend to propelize them. They tend to propelize
rough things. Like you've probably seen some
of the wood hive bodies where they've purposely
roughed up the interior and they find the bees
put a lot of propolis then inside, which of course
we know is really good for them and sort of an
antibiotic or antibacterial for them. So they
do tend to put a lot of propolis on the frames
and yes some on the side, but what I noticed
that they don't really spend too much time. on
the edges, like what they would do in a wooden
box. I don't know if it's because they're constantly
trying to fix the wooden box from rotting. I
mean, as I say, rotting was always an issue in
our apiary. Yes, I'm very grateful that it's
gone away. Part of it is they're trying to fill
the gaps, especially if it's windy, if there's
any little gaps between boxes or crack in a box.
They love to propelize that to to fill it up
and make it one big secure cavity. A few minutes
ago you used the term natural beekeeping. Tell
us what that means to you. Natural beekeeping
for me is about a lot of listening and observing
and less control. So when I was doing my apprenticing
with my mentor Bob, pretty soon I could see that
I personally will struggle to carry out sometimes
such invasive looking things with the bees. You
know, I could just see that as me When I'm alone
there with the bees without Bob, I will not be
able to cool drones or things like that. And
I even said it to my husband at the time that
I just don't think I will be able to do this,
Craig. And he was like, well, you will have to.
That will be your job. I said no. And that's
when... I sat down in the computer and started
to look into what are my options. I mean, Bob
was the sweetest, kindest soul. He loved his
bees, but he also didn't shed a tear if he squashed
a bee. You know, I did. I was there and I slowed
him down so many times. And you know, he just
said that it's a part of it. You know, of course
you're going to squash some bees, but you sometimes
squash more bees when you are trying to save
one. So you just have to kind of. And I know
he was right, but I also knew that I had to find
my own way that, you know, I am comfortable to
show up for the bees. And as to say, The internet
is so magical, with very little research I found
beekeepers who do things differently. I actually
enrolled to an online natural beekeeping course
that was designed for women, so I found myself
in a very nurturing community of female beekeepers,
experienced beekeepers who aren't afraid to go
against the flow and, you know, do things differently.
I really like that and I really liked how we've
been introduced straight away to the BT, you
know, instead of giving chemicals to the bees,
we work with herbs. It's such an, I don't know
how you say it, maybe it's because I am a woman
in that sense, you know, I love working with
plants and flowers and the fact that I can make
something for the bees. from my own garden and
it's just such a nice feeling, you know, I'm
making an effort with my own hand to nourish
and support the bees, you know, that's something
I can do for them. I think When we stop for a
second, because we all love bees, right? That's
why we keep them, we love to be around them.
And so many times I think we just get into this
autopilot mode because we learn this way and,
you know, often when you are just like in an
autopilot, you don't really think, you just want
to like crack on because you have experience
and you know what you do. But In natural beekeeping
we try to let that go. This is the hardest, you
know, like not stepping in. Not being in control.
Yes, yes. I think even, well, in my own experience
this summer, one of my hive had really high Varua
count, so I was worried. You know, I was keeping
a close eye on them, I was putting the tray under
the hive every other, every four or five days
I was checking, checking and I made the tea.
But I didn't make it when the numbers were high,
I thought I will wait and wait and still wait
because even this herbal tea is something that
other bees don't receive, you know, the native
bees are not receiving, that the bombo bees,
the wasps, they don't get any tea from anyone.
So it is also a kind of treatment if you think
about it. I was waiting and I kind of allowed
myself to feel worried because the bees didn't
look stressed, you know, that brood looked okay,
there's lots of them, lots of bees bringing pollen
in, you know. it's just another day in the beehive
but for me it was hard to see but now when did
I do my last count was it last I think the last
time we spoke and it started to go down so it
is less than it pegged and it's gone down a little
bit and I'm hoping that by September it will
it will go more so sometimes the bees need time
and they forever show me that You know they know
what they do. Tell me about this tea that you're
talking about. What do you mean you make a tea
for them? It's a herbal honey tea that's been
created by a German natural beekeeper, Günther
Hoik. I hope I pronounced his name correctly.
He is quite a renewed natural beekeeper in Europe.
So if anybody types his name into Google, you're
going to find him. And we've been given this
recipe in this natural beekeeping course. And
I have to say that when I made it, my bees didn't
want it. They didn't touch it. I get all offended
because I am not a great cook, but I can make
a tea. You know, I was like, I can make some
tea. Come on. The downside with this tea is that,
you know, it can ferment because you add tea,
I mean you add water and herbs into raw honey.
So of course it gonna start ferment. And I made
a portion, I had to throw it away because the
bees didn't touch it. I made another one, they
left it again. So that's when my chef husband
came to help and check the recipe and he said,
It might work for others, it's not like that
whatever you do, but I know how you could make
this recipe better. I mean more desirable for
the bees, because this original recipe doesn't
include sugar syrup. You know, in natural beekeeping
we are not giving sugar syrup to the bees, we
only give them raw honey. But my husband kind
of explained that I have to stop thinking about
sugar syrup as something evil in this scenario,
because sugar syrup can make the tea last longer,
you know, it can... it can stop the fermentation
process. So I have to think about it as a substance
that I need to prevent spoilage in my tea. So
we started to add equal amount of sugar syrup
to the raw honey and to the tea, to this watery
substance and the bees absolutely loved it. So
ever since we've been using it this way but we're
still using the same herbs that is written down
in the original recipe and last year was special
because that when I started to add mushroom extract
to this tea following Paul Stamets research,
I don't know if you heard what what he's been
doing on his bees and with his mushrooms. It's
also on the internet. Check it out, it's amazing,
it's very promising. So on that note, I started
to get some human -grade mushroom extract and
with the help of my chef husband we managed to
make that mushroom powder suitable to go into
the tea. so that the bees can drink that. So
it's like, yeah, it has 10 different herbs, mushrooms,
and I also add hive alive, you know, these algae
syrup things as a bonus. Yeah, I'm familiar with
it. So this is how you make your sugar syrup
into the next level, when it's not just a sugar
syrup, it's not just something that's going to
keep the bees alive from starvation you know
it's something that they will really enjoy eating
because it's full with honey which is their food,
it's full with nutrition that the bees need,
and then you have all these herbs that we are
all familiar and we are not allowed to call them
anything, but these are the herbs that our ancestors
would have been keeping in the garden, right?
These are plants that the bees are familiar with
and forage on, and these are herbs that are familiar
for us humans because we've been using them for
certain things through history. Can we share
the recipe? Yes, the recipe is on my Ko -fi page
so I can send a link. We'll stick a link in the
show notes and you ask a small donation for that
too. I don't have a problem with that. This is
so funny because I'm just picturing. First of
all, you're trying to throw a tea party with
the bees, right? So I imagine they're little
tea cups and then you've got your husband, the
chef making it taste better for them. And then
you've got some kind of Mary Poppins going on
with a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go
down for him. tonic, herbal tonic for the bees.
But it's part of your IPM. So your belief is,
I can't really do anything to kill the mites.
I'm going to make the bees as strong, as healthy
as possible, and they'll take care of it. Am
I reading that right? Yes, you know, the mites
are here. You can't keep them out from the hives.
They are in the hives. We like it or not. they're
going to get into your bees' hives. It's sad,
it's what it is, but that's our reality. Hey,
if you're worried about whether a new bee suit
will actually keep you safe from being stung,
might as well let someone else try it first,
right? Just kidding, of course. Actually, I was
doing my son Will a favor recently, letting him
be the first one to wear my new Man Lake vented
suit on a hot day that the bees were going to
be upset while I wore something much less impressive.
I have the new Man Lake bee suit on today. We're
headed out to harvest some honey. Last time we
were doing this last year, I had the very first
bee suit that he owned on. It had mice holes
in it, duct taped. It was hot. Oh my gosh, I
was so sweaty coming out of it. The veil, I had
to wear a hat under it so it wasn't falling down
on my eyes and on my face. This Man Lake suit
is amazing. This is an extra large. I'm, I don't
know, 5 '10", so I'm not the tallest. But it
covers the ankles well, it's nice and versatile,
super breathable, lightweight. It's really amazing.
I'm excited to go put it to the test, see what
it's got. Since harvest day, I've also worn the
suit a few times and can tell you it is super
well made. If you're beekeeping in warm weather
and you've never had a ventilated suit, oh my
gosh, you don't know what you're missing. And
I've never seen one quite like this. The designers
put a layer of rubberized netting between two
layers of finely woven mesh. And I absolutely
love the clear view veil. No wrinkles, no sagging.
I can literally see the bees better. I wear a
size large in most clothes, but usually get an
XL in bee suits just because I like them to be
a little oversized. I would say that an XL is
plenty big. In fact, I may size down to a large
next time around. There are beekeeping days where
I only wear a jacket or veil, but if I were a
new beekeeper, had aggressive bees, or just knew
that that particular day they were going to be
angry, this is the max protection, max ventilation
suit I'm putting on, period. What I do believe,
I do believe that if we give space to the bees,
they will find ways to cope with it, because
the native species of Asia, where this mite is
originated from, the Episcarana, the Chinese
honeybee, they evolved together and this bee
species is very successful at keeping the mite
count in check. you know, it shows that the species
itself can learn coping mechanism, but if we're
constantly interfering and propping them up with
these chemicals, we are taking away the option
for them to naturally find ways. And you know,
I know it means that, maybe that's how we can
actually tie in my death doula thing, that, you
know, we don't like as our modern society, we
are very uncomfortable with the concept of death
and dying, you know, it's a human problem. But
the bees are not scared to die, you know, they
reborn so fast, you know, they reproduce really
fast. And if we want Darwinian evolution to continue
to take place in the bees' life, we have to let
the weak colonies die. And it sounds really hard
and harsh and it's really difficult watching
bees perish. I do get that. But we also have
to give them space and honor their dying. Because
in the long term, in the bigger picture, that
will help the bees to be strong to thrive and
take over the place of the weak. So let me make
sure I understand. so you believe in natural
selection and Even though you're a natural beekeeper
you do believe in IPM in some kind of intervention
Just with natural types of substances, right
versus harsh chemicals. Yeah Because I think
everybody out there is trying to find their way
through this maze Not only what they're comfortable
with but what will work for their bees and your
bees are different than my bees and somebody
and somewhere else, their bees are different
than that. And so it's just, it's part of the
journey. It's part of what we need to figure
out, experiment with, hopefully do it wisely.
But I don't think natural beekeeping ever means
just stand back and do nothing. Yes, I think
that's a misconception that we think that's what
it is when it's not, you know. I am around my
bees a lot. I spend hours with them. I make the
tea for them, you know, so I made so much teas
in these last three years. It's unbelievable.
I think last year I added up and it was over
50 litre in these months and, you know, that's
not nothing. As bee tenders, of course we want
to be there and support our bees wherever we
can, but we also have to, you know, to realize
that there is a point when you just kind of have
to let go. And I think that's the scary thing
for us. And we don't want our bees die, but sometimes
they have to die, sadly. That's the sad part.
I had my first loss. this year, after three years
of beekeeping this spring, I lost a hive. And
it was not down to Varoa, it was a late swarm,
they swarmed early August, they didn't really
build out as much, and they just didn't come
out from the winter. And I had the chance to
give them a new queen, and I decided not to,
because that swarm was too weak to overwinter.
Even with my help, you know, they received help.
I gave them honey from other colonies, and I
gave them the tea, and they did not manage. In
my eye, that was the sign that they are not suitable
for my Scottish landscape. So I was there when
they died. It was really it was really deep.
I had the queen in my hand, there was still like
a handful of bees and they were still tending
to her and you know in a couple of days they
all died and it was very sad. I was crying, I
was you know it was very emotional but in the
same way as a death doula whose job is to to
teach about death, you know, it was an honor
to witness that, that I could actually be there,
support that handful of bees with my presence,
with my warmth, you know, I moved them into a
small hive on a, you know, I cleared out all
the, because there was a lot of like dead bees
under, you know, it looked so sad. So I moved
these survivor bees into a little hive on one
comb, so that, you know, they had a nice last
couple of days in a clean space, and yeah, it
was very sad, but I also know that it was the
right thing to do. I didn't see the point of
getting them an artificial queen from somewhere,
that Anna, born on my little hill with my weird,
strange weather, you know, like, I could get
another queen, but what if they would perish
again next season? Yeah. So but you did it with
respect yeah and honor for them Wow, it was really
moving and bees even when they die They teach
us and show us something. I know the commercial
beekeepers listening or just thinking we're a
little bit crazy, but For those of us that do
beekeeping on a smaller scale We can take that
time and we can invest that emotion and that's
an okay thing. Yeah, do you use smoke? I do use
smoke, but that's for my own benefit. rather
than the bees, I believe that whenever I go to
the bees I put on my suit and I handle that as
you know that this is how I start my ceremony
with the bees. So the the suit and the smoker
puts me into that mental space that I am coming
into the apiary. It's time to forget about my
shopping list, that what we gonna eat tonight
and so this is now me suiting up for the bees.
So I use herbs from my garden and and sticks
and pinecones from the forest that we have just
nearby and I start to smoke myself, cleanse my
aura, you know, I'm walking in with my intention
to see the bees and learn from them and I also
use the smoke when I close the hive because I
don't like to squash bees and that's the only
thing that makes them go away from these edges.
That's, I didn't find any other way, so if you
have any method to keep them away from the the
edges, please tell me, because it was just the
smoke that I can move them away. Just the wet
towel method, which I've recently heard about.
Okay. I take a towel like a beach towel, get
it all wet, wring it out. And then when you,
as soon as you take the lid off your hive, you
put this wet towel on top and the bees tend to
go down a little bit like they do with smoke.
And then you just peel back like a frame at a
time that you're going to work on and then cover
it back up. That's so interesting. Something
worth trying. I had not heard of that before
until a couple of friends, new friends of mine
from Denmark that were on the show recently,
they were saying that that's how they do it,
they've gotten away from using smoke by doing
that. Anyway, I'm gonna try it, see how it works.
Because I do use like a cotton, well it's more
of like a tea towel that I cover the hive when
I am inspecting frame so that you know the whole
hive is not exposed to the light and so but I
never heard of the making it wet would actually
make them go down so I will try that. So you're
halfway doing it so just get it a little bit
wet not dripping you don't want to get the bees
wet yeah that's why you wring it out so it's
just damp and probably it makes it just a little
bit cooler too I don't know if that's why they're
moving down or something else but interesting
idea So lastly, I wanted to ask you about have
you gotten into the medicinal uses of honey bees
and their products yet? You mean beyond the beyond
honey? Yeah, for yourself. Have you used honey
or propolis or bee venom or something else for
your own health? Yes. So I'm a big advocate for
for raw honey. I eat it every day. with intention.
I put it in my fruit smoothie, you know. Yes,
I love it. I know beekeepers who don't. I don't
know if you ever met beekeepers who don't like
honey. I actually know a couple. Yes, I love
honey. And the other thing I really just got
into this year is making propolis tincture. So,
you know, the propolis that I scrape off from
the frames, I collected them in this past years
and finally I had enough to mix it with alcohol.
It's like a high grade alcohol. It's from my
village. We do very strong alcohol in Hungary.
I don't know if you had the chance to taste any
of them when you were visiting. We have some
really strong alcohol in Hungary. One of them
is called pálinka, which is like a fruit schnapps,
essentially. But when they made in villages at
home they are very strong like over 70 percent.
So anyway we've been gifted a bottle from our
village and we knew that we will not be able
to drink it ever. So I put the propolis into,
again my husband have. work out the measures.
But yeah, it is just getting ready. So you need
to mix it and then shake the bottle every day
while the propolis and the alcohol dissolves.
And I think you're going to get a really nice
tincture in about three, four weeks. And we all
know propolis is a wonderful thing to have at
home. How much propolis do you use per alcohol?
Is it like two to one, two times alcohol to one
propolis or something along those lines? What
was the measure? I think we had about, we had
about 50 gram of propolis and we infused it with
about 200 milliliter alcohol. And then how do
you like to use it? For sore throats and things
like that? Anytime you feel a bit off, I would,
and it's also great for if you have any cuts,
you know, you want to sterilize, heal something
on your skin, and yeah, anytime you feel a bit
off, you have a cold, recovering from something,
couple of drops under the tongue. But I also
heard that actually the most effective way of
using propolis is actually breathing it. So inhaling
it to your lungs and that's where it gets the
best observation from your body. But tincture
will work too. But if you have the chance to
just sniff it, because I keep it because it just
smells lovely. You just breathe it? Mm -hmm.
So I try to have a sniff before I go to sleep
and when I wake up. Speaking of that, if you've
never done this, and I'm just talking to people
out there, If you've never taken off the lid
of a hive and before you do anything, just kind
of bend down and take a nice breath and just
smell it. It can be a great experience. It is.
And sounds like a healthy one too, from what
you're saying. Even if you walk into the apiary
without opening them on a nice warm sunny day,
you do have that sweet honey scent in the air,
I think. It is just so warm and lovely and you
just feel home instantly. Yeah, someone told
me recently that the best smell there is in the
world, the most like heaven, is in their honey
house when they're processing honey. Yeah, I
completely agree with that. Well, we can't give
medical advice on this show and anything we talked
about is not medical advice. We are not doctors.
But it's fun to experiment with some of this.
We've talked about some other apotherapy things.
Previously on the show I had an experience with
something just recently I got a burn on my hand
just taking something out of the oven I had read
and talked to someone about the medicinal uses
of honey for burns and I thought I'm just gonna
try it and I Painted a little honey on this thing
put a band -aid on it to keep the honey on it
Shocked at how fast it healed It's amazing. I
mean, I could not believe it. It was a bad burn
and it healed so fast, it was crazy. Well, we
healed a sunburn with it when we were just down
in... Really? Yeah, so we had a raw honey from
the island where we stayed and well, we got a
bad sunburn. Even though we weren't out in the
heat, you know, we just, yeah, we got a face
and shoulders and... I was telling my husband
that we have this honey now and it will work,
it will work. So we kept putting it on us and
we never peeled at all, you know, it just healed
it. i don't know how you do it on a big area
though because you're all sticky now yeah you're
gonna get very sticky so just be prepared you
have to have a towel and put your hands up if
you have long hair uh you only need 15 20 minutes
and then you can go to shower this is what i
we did 15 20 minutes just sitting still and trying
not to make your furniture or covered in honey
but it does work and We actually, I have to tell
you this as well, last year my cat Gimli, he
came home with a big scar just under the ear.
It looked awful, it was... oozing, it smelled,
so I was waiting for an appointment from the
vet but in the meantime I was like I'm gonna
put some honey on it and I had some chamomile
from the garden so my granny said that just put
honey on it and wipe it with chamomile water
and in two days the cat healed it looked absolutely
disgusting that thing you know it was oh And
yes, two days later, it all closed up, all the
stuff came out from it, and that was solely down
to raw honey from the bees and some chamomile
from the garden. We didn't need to go to the
vet. He did say that if it doesn't fully close
in three, four days, I will need to take him
in, but it fully closed the wound. You just saved
a couple hundred dollars on a vet bill, too.
Yeah. Nice job. All right. We are totally running
out of time. Do you have a wild and crazy beekeeping
story for us? I did have a swarm this year. It
was very shocking, you know, swarm usually happens,
this is what is in the book at least, that it
happens on a nice sunny day when the weather
is just dry. Now, not with these dark bees, you
know, they can just go in storm. This hive, they
swarmed on a day that was cold. it was cloudy
and it was big wind and they got scattered all
over my garden fence. It took me about five hours
to collect them and hive them and they anyway
just flew out and gone back home you know to
the original hive that they came out from. And
I was like, well, that was a waste, wasted five
hours that I will never get back, you know, because
they will just swarm again. But anyway, there
were still bees all over that hive. So I kept
bending down and picking up the bees. And suddenly
what I picked up was the queen herself. So there
was this queen bee in my hand who got lost and
separated from her bees. So I guess that's why
the bees decided to go back home anyway, so I
reunited them after like a couple of hours and
I put the queen bee back to the original hive
and the bees were so delighted, you know, you
could just hear the sound of the hive change.
So it made my wasted afternoon not wasted, you
know, I still managed to save the queen, so that
was quite cool. That's fun. And by the way if
you want to learn more about swarming behavior
we recently had Tom Seeley on the show. Episodes
232 and 233 they are very well worth listening
to as he knows more than anybody on this planet
about swarming behavior. All right any last words
you can teach us today Tija and then we'll let
you go. I just want to say that thank you for
everyone who keeps bees and loves the bees and
you know willing to willing to listen them I
think that's cool. All right thanks a ton have
a great afternoon in Scotland and I need your
husband to make me a meal sometime. Okay I think
he will be very happy to do that. Thank you very
much for having me Eric. Thanks for joining us
on Be Love Beekeeping presented by Man Lake.
If you like this content I hope you'll share
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BeLoveBeekeeping .com Also, just a shout out
to Vita B Health for their support, we appreciate
them. Vita's Varroa Control range of products
includes Apistan, Apigard, and now Varroxan,
Extended Release Oxalic Acid Strips. Thanks guys,
and remember, if you're not just in it for the
honey or the money, you're in it for the love.
See you next week.