Honey comb, perfume and related ramblings

The color of honey comb can vary greatly depending on how much its been used by the honey bees. When the our little alchemist, along with her sisters, begin to build comb, it is almost pure white, as you can see from this piece which was only a few days old when we moved our first hive from the compost bin to a box.

Most often, at least when I have saved feral hives, the is an overabundance of dark brown, almost black comb. Early on in our bee saving missions were advised to keep this dark comb so that the bees have something already in place to start using immediately. However, over the years we have noticed that new and established colonies don't like old comb. I'm not sure why this is. I would guess that one hive might not like the "scent" of another tribes comb as being part of the challenge. Perhaps over time the comb has less vitality or nutrients, or an energetic blueprint which they no longer are interested in. These are all guesses.

Another challenge to the old, dark strange comb is that when melted down and used for perfume and other bee products it becomes a sticky black mess with relatively no usable beeswax, its also extreme fire hazard. I am still searching for creative ways to use this old comb.

Speaking of creativity, I can always tell when an individual is inspired by one of my elder creations, not only because my intuitive antennae starts twitching but also by e-mails I start getting. For example, a few months ago I was being bombarded with e-mail asking for To Bee. I thought perhaps it was that the fragrance had been recently featured on a blog, but after research throughout the web universe I found nothing. When I asked the people contacting me how they had heard about the perfume they either did not answer, or mention that they read about it online but would not share the link. Thus my Virgo aspects kicked in and I started wondering about those cats who copy because they aren't very tapped into their creativity. Sure enough, I was right. When this transpires I take a deep breath, pity the individual and move on to the notebook I have where I download my ideas onto paper on a daily basis from the Universe, instead of checking out what others are doing and secretly ordering samples to be copied...or attempting to copy.

As artist lifer, whose livelihood is based on my very unique self expression. It sucks when others recreate or re-use something I worked hard on with no respect for the original content, copyright, or trademark. It takes time, energy, blood, sweat, laughter and tears to produce this mini empire including original content as imagery, written texts, packaging, the actual products, etc. It's heart breaking when other grab images, words and ideas with absolutely no respect...even worse are the ones who are unconscious of what they are doing. Sure, we are all one big collective, and in that big consciousness soup ideas are available to everyone, but that's not what I'm referring to.

Meanwhile To Bee in her other formats will be back shortly. The fragrance was created in 2011 to bring attention to the challenges that this little insect is having due to GMO's, insecticides and an overall lack of consciousness from humans on the planet. Here's the link to a post here at the journal with the To Bee lookbook and a few comments I pulled from the Fragrantica site:

"A real, raw honey smell combined with some sort of spicy, animalistic notes. Not a edible honey, but closer to smelling an actual hive. LOVE. It has the low longevity and silage of natural perfumes, unfortunately, but it seems to perform relatively similar to other real botanical scents I own."

~ LauraB613, August 24, 2013

"I was expecting more honey notes, but I pick up a lot of woodsy, spicy ones too. 

The smell reminds me of the Sonoran desert after it rains. Rich + full bodied. 

This is a complex, well-balanced + grounding creation."  

~  priyalugus, January 13, 2016

"To Bee is olifactory joy. You think just honey and beeswax? No, this is more complex and spicy...a raw natural scent that makes you want to sniff, sniff, sniff.....to figure out all the ingredients. 

If you love edgy, raw nature scents, you'll love To Bee." 

~ Bab, October 8, 2012

Images and written context is not yours to steel, ask first. Opening photograph is by Rebecca Fishman during a photo shoot at our woodland cottage. Other photos and all content is ©Roxana Villa

The Flow Hive

Last Sunday morning Greg and I attended a HoneyLove meet up at the Rediscover Center in Venice Beach regarding the Flow Hive. Perhaps you heard about the IndieGogo campaign last year that raised over 12 million dollars for a beehive which miraculously gives you honey by the turn of a knob? I personally received loads of e-mails and facebook messages about this magical device.

What was clear to me and other fellow bee'ks upon seeing the campaign is that there were lots of things that didn't quite make complete sense, particularly in the first video (not the one shown above) and that it was all about honey and very little about bees..

Lots of the concerns I and others were addressed quite succinctly by Faith Landsman (pictured above), a backward beekeeper and medical researcher at UCLA who describes herself as a dilettante. She delivered a fun, very well researched and objective presentation on all aspects of the hive including some of the ethics with the marketing of the campaign.

The lecture began with an introduction by Ceebs, one of the founders of HoneyLove who brought up how the timeline of when humans first started beekeeping has now been pushed back to 9000 years ago by Bee Culture magazine. She then mentioned that the Flow Hive has caused quite a lot of debate in the bee keeping community between those of us who are "bee-centric", the commercial bee keepers and the "newbees" who are fond of the honey on tap without interaction with bees idea.

The other bit of news is that HoneyLove founders Rob and Chelsea, have a new book called Save the Bees. I'll have copies of it at the perfumery shortly, just in time for holiday gift giving.

The power point presentation by Faith included commentary occurring on several online forums regarding the Flow Hive. The most disturbing were the folks who assumed that they would place the unit in their yards and bees would just make deposits of honey into the Flow Hive. Many people who saw the early video on IndieGogo made quite a lot of assumptions based on dis-information coupled with lack of knowledge.

Some of the main concerns of the Flow Hive are:
- Plastic sheets in the honey super affecting bees and sanitation.
- Relationship between bee keeper and bees.
- Brood in the honey super.
- Propolis and thick or crystalized honey clogging the mechanics.

The bee-centric community tends to avoid using plastic (propylene) in the hive, not only because its an environmental hazard but because bees don't tend to like it and its yet another human intrusion on the little creatures.

Holistic bee keeper Jonathan Powell of Beeswing.net says:

"But for bees, comb is far more than a tupperware container for somebody else's lunch; it is the tissue and frame of the hive and as such it forms multiple functions. Cells have wall thicknesses of just 0.07mm, and are made from over 300 different chemical components. Wax removes toxins from the honey. The resonant frequency (230-270 Hz) of the comb is matched to the bees' vibration sensors and acts as an information highway between bees on opposite sides of the comb. Bees manage the temperature of the cell rims to optimize transmissions of these messages. Wax holds history and memory via chemical signals put into it by the bees. Its smell and condition aid the bee in managing the hive.  It assists in the ripening and conditioning the honey and is the first line of defense against pathogens. Honey bees are able to recognize the smallest differences in wax composition ... but not polypropylene."

If you hunt around the forums you will notice a pretty thick and heated debate about this new gadget. Within the bee-centric community, where you have  large amounts of people who care about the bees as their primary focus, the concern about the product is evident with the verdict still pending.

After the lecture attendees had the opportunity to check out all the pieces and mechanics of a flow hive brought in by a community member.

Meanwhile here at the happy house I've been extracting beeswax via the crockpot method, so far the results have been quite good but its a heck of a lot of work! More about the technique with photos once the process is complete. In the meantime our home smells like honey 24/7!

Preservation photos by Blake Little

Photographer Blake Little has shot a series of humans and animals covered with honey. The images were created for his book and exhibition at the Kopeikin Gallery last Spring Mar.7- Apr.18, 2015. The Preservation Book was edited by Bil Yoelin

Here is the video of his shoot, keep in mind that some of the bodies are nude.

Spring Honey Harvest

The scent of honey emanating from our two hives has been pretty overwhelming for the last several months. Almost every time we go outside the fragrance of a sweet, slightly salty aroma wafts our way. This enchanting tang is most prevalent in the afternoon when the pacific ocean breezes start to move northward through the canyon. Speaking of canyons, aren't these pictures of two fused combs amazing!

Generally early Spring is a good time to harvest honey because the nectar flow has started and the bees will be able to restock whatever we take easily. The challenge this year was that the top boxes weren't just honey but a mix of brood (baby bees) and honey. In "normal" situations the bees keep their brood nests down below and use the upper boxes for honey. Thus, instead of taking the entire top box off we only took a few frames so as not to disturb their slumbering babes too much. Here's a photo of some crazy comb that was built across two frames. The image I am showing you has empty cells with capped honey cells, but deep within and on the other side it is all capped. I photographed this side because it was much more interesting visually with all the undulating levels. The perfectly capped comb is pretty boring, thus no photos of those.

This seasons crop is dark with rich notes of caramel. I am not entirely clear what imparted that imprint since what has been blooming in our woodland for the last six months has a more camphorous character. The rich, molasses type note might be from our California native everlasting, Pseudognaphalium californicum, although it hasn't bloomed in the woodland since last Spring.

Each frame of completely capped cells contains about 1 gallon of honey. A honey bee gathers nectar from two million flowers for one pound of honey! Although I haven't actually measured the amount of wax from one of those frames will likely be in the ballpark of 5% of the yield. It's pretty amazing to think that such a small amount of beeswax is used to hold so much honey! We are told that the average worker bee makes 1/12th of a tspn of honey in her lifetime. Eight to ten pounds of honey will yield approximately one pound of wax.

Pretty staggering numbers, imagine if humans were that focused!

The Hive Report

The work on the garage roof and repair of the north retaining wall are done, thus we moved the two hives back. Moving hives is a messy matter and I don't advise it, unless there is no other choice. The bees take a huge hit, resulting in large losses of forage bees and massive hit to the hive as a whole. I'm super happy that they are back in place and can resume their bee-siness without further interruptions.

Just before moving them I did an inspection of the top two boxes on each hive. Both hives had sealed up all the spaces between the boxes, thus removing one box off the other was quite a challenge. During the work on the house our hive tool disappeared, thus I had to use a painting spatula instead, which didn't work so well.

The gals make a paste from tree resin which is called propolis. This paste acts as a sealant to prevent unwanted guests, reduce vibration and increase the stability of the hive body. I normally slide my  hive tool, or in this case the spatula, between the boxes on all four sides to "un-glue" them. Sometimes however, if we haven't done an inspection in a long time, the girls will adhere the interior frames to the hive top. Sigh, this is when things get messy. Such was the case and why I was particularly disappointed I didn't have the trusty hive tool. In either case, I scraped off quite a bit of propolis and have that now "alchemizing" in some organic grain alcohol for future use. The smell is a combination of resin, wood and honey with a strong spice note. The aroma has similar notes to the perfume To Bee.

The Warrior Girls, who arent' quite so fierce anymore, had empty frames in both top boxes. This was very odd and warrant a much bigger inspection in about a month once they have settled in. The other hive, with the Mische Girls, was a completely different scenario, although these gals were not as established as the Warrior Girls they have been jamming and have a top box of honey frames. Weeee! We saw no brood in that box what-so-ever and thus for the moment are suspecting that this box is their honey stores. Since we didn't do a full on inspection and thus do not know exactly how much honey they have stored up, we only stole one frame from them.

This is the derth part of the year for them, thus we mustn't take too much honey or they will not have enough to sustain the hive until January when Spring arrives here in LA. When the bees gather nectar from the plants they store it in the cells of the honey comb, when it is ready the seal the cell of honey with a layer of wax. Thus each cell in a honey comb serves as a jar with a cap.

After crushing and filtering that one frame we ended up with a 1 gallon of our very own chaparral woodland honey. This was a first for us and we are pretty thrilled.

Greg took the photos of me in the bee suit, these are of the hives back in their original location. Notice the California oaks to the right of me, those are the ones we saved which inspired the fragrance Q.

Photo of honey comb and honey jar ©Roxana Villa, ask before using, thank you.

Honey, Honey

The To Bee natural perfume LookBook is coming along quite fabulously but it is in need of more imagery. Since this fragrance is so new, I don't quite have the plethora of illuminations as the other fragrances. Thus I'm taking advantage of Eve's camera, before it leaves with her to college in Vermont, and taking some photos of honey and honey comb.


To Bee liquid perfume flacon is now back in stock!

The Bounty

The bonus that came from rescuing the Red Barn Bees last Monday was the huge amounts of honey that was part of that cutout. The honey stores in this hive were so vast they were split four ways amongst the three beekeepers and the bees. Since this is prime season for collecting nectar and pollen it is safe to take some honey from the little winged alchemists.

The preferred method of honey extraction for the niche bee keeper is the crush and strain method demonstrated at the end of this video of Kirkobeeo. I used a variation of this method and so far have eleven glass jars of honey!

Honey flavor varies according to the location of the hive and where the bees forage. Although I am no expert, yet, in honey flavor, I would guess this hive foraged among Eucalyptus, Buckwheat and Sage due to a slightly menthol note and the brilliant orange color.

Next on the agenda is the task of "rendering the beeswax", which is even more complicated than extracting the honey. Oh joy! The beeswax is intended for the solid aspect of the upcoming Bee perfume which is in formulation.

Read more about honey at this post from Perfume Illuminated series. Honey notes in perfumes I have created are most apparent in the perfume devoted to Peace and Vera, albeit there is no honey in either perfume.

Image: Honey jars ©Roxana Villa

Rangeland Honey

Gather and taste wild honeys from bees foraging native plants in the Arizona rangelands while supporting local organic beekeeper, Dee Lusby. Learn about the history of mead making & try your hand at wild mead making!

Sunday, Feb 13th
836 north 11th avenue 4-6pm

$20/person includes some light foraged snacks and tastings of honeys and aged wild mead.

All interested in making mead should bring 3 empty wine bottles(or similar bottles with necks), a cup of the best honey they've tasted and a 1 quart glass jar.

Ecological (since 1888) Arizona Rangeland Honey from Dee Lusby of Moyza/Arivaca will be available for purchase as well as airlocks.

Arizona Rangeland Honey, produced by beekeeper Dee Lusby, is from bees that live in the remote desert rangeland of southern Arizona. These bees forage entirely on wild desert flowers and blooming trees on ranches and wildlife preserves, far from cultivated agriculture. The honey that they produce is very thick (around 14% moisture content) with a natural crystal that ranges
from smooth and creamy to slightly crunchy as the seasons progress. The flavors and textures of each barrel of honey vary by bee yard location and time of season but generally have a unique buttery undertone with hints of caramel and citrus.

Questions? Contact Nance.

Image ©RoxanaVilla, honey bee painting on parchment, signed prints available.

BEE up: My turn

“To be or not to be isn't the question. The question is how to prolong being.”

~ Tom Robbins

Aligned with inspired artists from all over the world today's post is one of a whole. Begun on June 24th, arm and arm with the Holistic Beekeeping post on the Etsy Storque, a Blog it Forward: BEE up was birthed. My esteemed Etsy Artisan Gallery Team members are celebrating the honey bee by bee-ing part of this chain of posts. The festivities also include handmade marvels and Etsy treasuries.

Round and round we go, the earth spinning in the middle of the universe, while we humans attempt to learn the mysteries of life. Generation after generation, comes and goes and yet it seems that very little wisdom from the plant kingdom is honored. One such example is that of the plight of the little European honeybee.

I just read recently in the UK Telegraph that in 1910, Britain had a million bee hives; today that figure is 250,000. In 100 years while, the human population explodes, we have a loss of 75% of our main pollinators. I'm sure this is good news to big corporations like Monsanto who want to control the worlds food supply. In the meantime, a few conscious humans are choosing to affect the pattern. Like Galadrial states in Lord of the Rings "Even the smallest person can change the course of the future."


Like many of my Artisan Gallery team mates I too created a special item for this event, albeit I've run into a little snag in having it ready for today. I'm working on an edition of prints based on the bee image I did back in August for the Bee Here Now blogging event.

The bee image began first as an acrylic painting on gessoed board done in the same process as my illustration work. Once the painting was finished I scanned it and began to add layers in photoshop. The new image was recreated from scratch beginning with the original scanned image. This time, conscious that these would be high resolution prints, the image was created much larger. I also changed the parchment paper layer and Victorian embellishments.

The challenge with having it ready today is that our Epson printer has decided it does not like to print on the real fine Arches water color paper I purchased for this project. Since today is a national holiday, heading out to buy some high grade Epson paper is regrettably not an option. Sigh...thus we will have to wait until Tuesday for the edition of prints.

In the meantime I invite you to enjoy the sweet nectar my fellow teamies have crafted for you from their own hands. Yesterdays Blog it Forward Bee Up was by Estella on her Star of the East blog, tomorrows will be by fellow compatriot Irene of Aroluna posting from her blog.

Images
The opening collaged image began with an antique type case and three wood characters, from there I added some of my team mates items:
1. Tiny honey bee necklace in silver by Lulu Bug Jewelry in Santa Rosa, California
2. 2 Bees tiny tray stoneware pottery by One Clay Bead in Ashville, North Carolina
3. Baby Hare Polliner Soft Sculpture by Dragon House of Yuen in Edinburgh, Scotland
4. Madeira Citrine Sterling Hammered Earrings by Stein-Schmuck Design in Basel, Switzerland
5. Old Art Engraving of Antique Entomology by Slinkymalinkicat Latvia
6. Handmade Fabric Wasp/Bee Brooch by Blue Terracotta in Lyon, France
7. Your Childs Artwork Brooch by Betsy Bensen in Portland, Oregon
8. Honey Bee Ring by KathiRoussel in Buffalo, New York

Many thanks to the Artisan Gallery Team for their support, I am humbled by their contributions and generous spirits.

Perfume Illuminated: The Mead Moon

The full moon tomorrow is called the "Mead" moon in reference to the time of year when bee hives are full of honey, which in turn is used to create mead. When I hear the word mead I think of the Renaissance fair and times of old.


Mead is a wine beverage made with a combination of honey, water and yeast. The yeast is the alchemical component which transforms the the trio of ingredients into wine. Find a series of links here for Mead Making Tutorials.

FRAGRANCE

There is no "Mead" essential oil, however there is honey and beeswax absolute, as well as our own creativity.

Honey absolute, Apies millifera or Apis melliferra, is an extremely, viscous material with a delectable aroma. The raw material, in general comes from France and India, it resembles honey both visually and aromatically. Some honey absolute is only soluble in alcohol while others are soluble in both alcohol and an oil base.

Beeswax absolute, Apies millifera, also termed Absolue Cire d'Abeille in most cases comes from France. The material is either a waxy, paste-like mass or a viscous liquid. The aroma resembles pure beeswax with a stronger animalic and hay-like quality.

A few years ago there was a Wheat absolute on the market that would work nicely here as the "yeast" element of the mead. Another alternative is to make a Yeast accord including Hops. Since varieties include herbs, spice and fruits consider creating accords of each and adding them to create different versions of Mead perfumes.

FLAVOR

The flavor of mead is dependent on the honey as well as the addition of fruit, herbs and spices. Spices most often added to mead are cinnamon, nutmeg and clove, herbs tend to include hops, thyme, oregano, lavender and/or chamomile. These types of mead are called metheglin. Fruit meads, termed melomel, contain a berry such as blackberry, strawberry and raspberry. The spices, herbs and fruits included depend of the variety of local materials available.

For more mead flavor goodness visit Beth at the Windesphere Witch blog.

Reference: Wikipedia, Mead
Images: Old engravings digitally enhanced ©RoxanaVilla

Bee-ing there

Honey is the only food on the planet that will not spoil or rot. It will do what some call turning to sugar. In reality honey is always honey. However, when left in a cool dark place for a long time it will do what I rather call "crystallizing".   When this happens I loosen the lid, boil some water, and sit the honey container in the hot water, turn off the heat and let it liquefy. It is then as good as it ever was. Never boil honey or put it in a microwave. To do so will kill the enzymes in the honey.

Facts on Honey and Cinnamon:  It is found that a mixture of honey and Cinnamon cures most diseases. Honey is produced in most of the countries of the world. Scientists of today also accept honey as a 'Ram Ban' (very effective) medicine for all kinds of diseases.  Honey can be used without any side effects for any kind of diseases.

Today's science says that even though honey is sweet, if taken in the right dosage as a medicine, it does not harm diabetic patients.   Weekly World News, a magazine in Canada , in it's issue dated 17 January,1995 has given the following list of diseases that can be cured by honey and cinnamon as researched by western scientists:

HEART DISEASES:
Make a paste of honey and cinnamon powder, apply on bread, instead of jelly and jam, and eat it regularly for breakfast. It reduces the cholesterol in the arteries and saves the patient from heart attack.  Also, those who have already had an attack, if they do this process daily, they are kept miles away from the next attack.. Regular use of the above process relieves loss of breath and strengthens the heart beat.  In America and Canada , various nursing homes have treated patients successfully and have found that as you age, the arteries and veins lose their flexibility and get clogged; honey and cinnamon revitalize the arteries and veins.

ARTHRITIS:
Arthritis patients may take daily, morning and night, one cup of hot water with two spoons of honey and one small teaspoon of cinnamon powder. If taken regularly even chronic arthritis can be cured. In a recent research conducted at the Copenhagen University, it was found that when the doctors treated their patients with a mixture of one tablespoon Honey and half teaspoon Cinnamon powder before breakfast, they found that within a week, out of the 200 people so treated, practically 73 patients were totally relieved of pain, and within a month, mostly all the patients who could not walk or move around because of arthritis started walking without pain.

BLADDER INFECTIONS:
Take two tablespoons of cinnamon powder and one teaspoon of honey in a glass of lukewarm water and drink it. It destroys the germs in the bladder.

CHOLESTEROL:
Two tablespoons of honey and three teaspoons of Cinnamon Powder mixed in 16 ounces of tea water, given to a cholesterol patient, was found to reduce the level of cholesterol in the blood by 10 percent within two hours.   As mentioned for arthritic patients, if taken three times a day, any chronic cholesterol is cured. According to information received in the said Journal, pure honey taken with food daily relieves complaints of cholesterol.

COLDS:
Those suffering from common or severe colds should take one tablespoon lukewarm honey with 1/4 spoon cinnamon powder daily for three days. This process will cure most chronic cough, cold, and clear the sinuses.

UPSET STOMACH:
Honey taken with cinnamon powder cures stomach ache and also clears stomach ulcers from the root.

GAS:
According to the studies done in India and Japan, it is revealed that if Honey is taken with cinnamon powder the stomach is relieved of gas.

IMMUNE SYSTEM:
Daily use of honey and cinnamon powder strengthens the immune system and protects the body from bacterial and viral attacks. Scientists have found that honey has various vitamins and iron in large amounts. Constant use of Honey strengthens the white blood corpuscles to fight bacterial and viral diseases.

INDIGESTION:
Cinnamon powder sprinkled on two tablespoons of honey taken before food relieves acidity and digests the heaviest of meals.

INFLUENZA:
A scientist in Spain has proved that honey contains a natural ' Ingredient' which kills the influenza germs and saves the patient from flu.

LONGEVITY:
Tea made with honey and cinnamon powder, when taken regularly, arrests the ravages of old age. Take four spoons of honey, one spoon of cinnamon powder, and three cups of water and boil to make like tea. Drink 1/4 cup, three to four times a day. It keeps the skin fresh and soft and arrests old age. Life spans also increase and even a 100 year old, starts performing the chores of a 20-year-old..

PIMPLES:
Three tablespoons of honey and one teaspoon of cinnamon powder paste. Apply this paste on the pimples before sleeping and wash it next morning with warm water. If done daily for two weeks, it removes pimples from the root.

SKIN INFECTIONS:
Applying honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts on the affected parts cures eczema, ringworm and all types of skin infections.

WEIGHT LOSS:
Daily in the morning one half hour before breakfast on an empty stomach, and at night before sleeping, drink honey and cinnamon powder boiled in one cup of water. If taken regularly, it reduces the weight of even the most obese person. Also, drinking this mixture regularly does not allow the fat to accumulate in the body even though the person may eat a high calorie diet.

CANCER:
Recent research in Japan and Australia has revealed that advanced cancer of the stomach and bones have been cured successfully. Patients suffering from these kinds of cancer should daily take one tablespoon of honey with one teaspoon of cinnamon powder for one month three times a day.

FATIGUE:
Recent studies have shown that the sugar content of honey is more helpful rather than being detrimental to the strength of the body. Senior citizens, who take honey and cinnamon powder in equal parts, are more alert and flexible. Dr. Milton, who has done research, says that a half tablespoon of honey taken in a glass of water and sprinkled with cinnamon powder, taken daily after brushing and in the afternoon at about 3:00 P.M. when the vitality of the body starts to decrease, increases the vitality of the body within a week.

BAD BREATH:
People of South America, first thing in the morning, gargle with one teaspoon of honey and cinnamon powder mixed in hot water, so their breath stays fresh throughout the day.

HEARING LOSS:
Daily morning and night honey and cinnamon powder, taken in equal parts restores hearing. Remember when we were kids? We had toast with real butter and cinnamon sprinkled on it!

Source of this material is unknown, it was sent to me by my lovely friend Monica. Thank you Monica.
Here is a link that was twittered today on Unconventional Uses for Honey, make sure to ignore the first part where they talk about fearing the bee...NOT!

Images: Top is the mini solid of Page 47, bottom and just above is the purple bee art deco necklace with the Illuminated Perfume bee logo.