Real Food in Amherst: BEE DAY in Southern NH

The Goodness of Honey and Hive Byproducts

As promised, this week’s blog continues with coverage on bees. I waited until today so I could share with you some photos of “BEE DAY” in southern New Hampshire. I, along with 600 other folks from the area all descended upon B-line apiary in Hudson to get our packages of bees - brought up from Georgia and available only 2 days a year. It’s a party of sorts, with hot coffee, homemade cookies served on card tables and the proprietor and his wife doling out everyone’s bees which we all ordered last winter. 

Here is a photo of my 3-pound package of Italian honeybees ready to go into their new home.

And here is a photo of the girls (all 30,000 of them) moving in and welcoming their new queen. 

I love bee day and keeping bees. They make the yard seem so full of goodness. 

In a few months, we’ll start reaping the benefits of our 2 hives. Honey, pollen, wax and propolis are the bounty we’ll harvest, in addition to their pollination service.

Raw local honey is amazingly flavorful and unlike store-bought honey which is made of a blend of honey from commercial Midwest farms. They blend it to unify the flavor and heat and filter all the goodness right out. Honey from this area of New Hampshire captures all the flavors of our summer season. And, if eaten “raw” you will also get the allergy fighting benefits of local pollen. A spoonful or two a day through allergy season will help immensely. Some beekeepers will sell you a bag of plain pollen (harvested with “door mats” at the entrance of the hive). 

If you don’t keep your own bees, try to buy local honey from a variety of suppliers. It can usually be found at Earthward or Moultons here in Amherst. Check the label - it must tell you where the honey was harvested. Look for something in Hillsborough county. Each container will be unique in flavor - depending on what flowers and season were foraged to make it. By the way, there is no such thing as “organic honey” because no beekeeper can possibly know where his or her bees have been grazing. So, don’t go looking for organic honey - it doesn’t exist (and it is not allowed to be labeled as such). Besides being good to eat plain, honey has many benefits as an anti-inflammatory agent, burn treatment, and a boost for your immune system. 

If you do keep bees, or know a beekeeper, try to get a few ounces of propolis - that brown, hard resin stuff that bees use like cement. They glue their hive parts with it, fill holes, and seal cracks. Beekeepers can scrape it off the hive for you.  Put a bit of it in a jar and fill with vodka (use the cheap stuff). Wait a month or so until the liquid is brown. You now have the most amazing anti-itch medicine for mosquito season. 

It’s good for a lot of skin ailments - try it. Some people claim that chewing a piece of propolis relieves a sore throat. 

I’ll keep you posted as the bee season gets buzzing. Just know that 600+ hives in our area are now stocked and ready to help your garden this year. What we could really use now is a few days of warmth and sunshine to get those girls out and working! ). Feel free to post questions or contact me through our family website:  NHHoney.com

Kathie Nunley is an Amherst resident who feeds her family on their 2 acres.