HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL BENEFITS

News:

Health Benefits

Money cannot buy fresh home grown vegetables nor can money buy hive products of this quality.

Field bees return to the hive with “specific” pollens and nectars where nurse bees receive and digest this food, adding enzymes to it before storing for baby food. Nurse bees only produce these enzymes during their first three weeks of bee life.

Nutrients, yeasts and enzymes within the pollen becomes digestible to humans and bee larvae “only after bee processing”.

Eating food grown in your area has a “well being” factor to it, connection to the land and seasons.

Each geographical area is unique in Auckland often with it’s own microclimate and vegetation, your honey will reflect the area in which you live.

Hive products, raw and natural are known to be the oldest medicinal and best foods known to mankind through the ages, after all it must have been bees that pollinated the apple Eve ate.

Key Points

1) Honey is a traditional topical treatment for infected wounds.

• It can be effective on antibiotic-resistant strains of bacteria.

2) Honey is produced from many different floral sources and its antibacterial activity varies with origin and processing.

• Honey selected for clinical use should be evaluated on the basis of antibacterial activity levels determined by laboratory testing.

3) The antibacterial properties of honey include the release of low levels of hydrogen peroxide.

• Some honeys have an additional phytochemical antibacterial component.

Many authors support the use of honey in infected wounds and some suggest its prophylactic use on the wounds of patients susceptible to MRSA and other antibiotic-resistant bacteria.

www.worldwidewounds.com/2001/november/Malan/honey-as-topical-agent-html.

Environmental Benefits

Beehives at home or farm create life in your environment by pollinating the surrounding area as well as your own fruit trees, vegetables and flower gardens.

Maintaining sufficient bees in an area leads to improved yields and fruit size, also white clover regeneration so vital to New Zealand’s parks and pastoral production.

• For more information call Kerry 09 622 3055
• email: beezthingz@hotmail.com

Bee Pollen:

Read more about it at www.honey.co.nz/index.asp?0

Books of interest:

• Honey and Health

  By Laurie Croft

• Plants and Honey Bees their relationships

  By David Aston and Sally Bucknall

• Pollen: The Hidden Sexuality of Flowers

  By Rob Kesseler and Madeline Harley