Ground-breaking News in the world of Stingless-bee Beekeeping: Today was a good day to check on the bees. Unfortunately my last transfer was not successful (bringing my success rate to a ridiculous 50%) and it was time to clean the dead hive and make some improvements for another transfer.
Dead Brood Comb in the Brood Chamber.Dead, Rotting Brood Removed.
After cleaning and disinfecting the hive I added some improvements to deal with the cause(s) of this problem: parasitic fly and too much space. Number One: Seal the hive with beeswax. No excuse for this really…it has been laziness on my part.
Sealing up the Hive Parts with Beeswax.
And Number Two: Bypass the honey pot chamber for three to six months (maybe longer) until the bees have completely taken over the brood chamber using blocks of wood that fit together in such a way that they only leave a small passage through the honey chamber.
Blocks of Wood Bypassing the Honey Chamber.
To commemorate this simple hive, I have called it the Gnome Mark III Stingless-bee Bee Hive. The previous UTOB Hive ended up having two established colonies (again), one in the honey chamber and one in the brood chamber.
Brood in the Honey Chamber (again).
This is what I transferred into the new GM III hive today.
The last few days, early morning rains have wreaked havoc on the plans of mice and men (and Gnome and Munchkin). So, what can mere mortals do under these circumstances when they are thwarted by the elements?
Munchkin rummaged around in the kitchen and came up with something tasty.
Dak “Chopped Ham.” Literally in Greek.
We ate Dak.
Dak is the Belize version of the familiar tinned chopped ham that you see on all supermarket shelves. I have no social qualms about broadcasting the fact that I eat this preserved flayed pork meat on occasion, as I grew up in a Chinese household where this food was seen as a legitimate food item. We used to steam it with rice and eat it with fresh green vegetables. Gnome, on the other hand, tells me that many other cultures do not deem this as a proper food. It is a food that might lurk in the back of somebody’s cupboard but most certainly, the harbouring of such an item should never be professed. It is eaten alone…in hushed tones with the lights dimmed down. Ooooh…sounds like fun…a secret society of underground Dak eaters!
Nobody is willing to openly admit that they eat Dak but those cases stacked in the back of Chinese supermarkets that we all see must be going into somebody’s belly! There are times of the year when there is not a single tin to be found on the shelf and everyone is hanging out for the Dak shipment.
So, today we ate Dak chopped ham cooked in onions, tomatoes and Italian herbs with cassava hash browns. Munch away quietly with dimmed lights:
Dak, Tomatoes and Cassava Hash-Browns.
We also had a nice dipping sauce which is so easy to make:
Munchkin’s Dango Dip:
2 tbsp honey
1 tsp soya sauce
Mix well and use as a dip.
You may have already surmised from the name “Dak” that this is Danish in origin. There is also a Chinese version available in Belize called Zwan; the label is written only in Chinese and to be honest, I am a bit wary of it! The name Zwan does not somehow hit the spot and cause me to salivate with hunger. This one definitely has to be hidden in the dark depths of the kitchen cupboard away from prying eyes!
A few years back, I tasted some Belizean food which incorporated this chopped ham. I was at a hospital medical meeting and we were given a buffet of sandwiches for lunch. All the sandwiches were one variety…they were white slices of bread with a filling of margarine and a whiff of pig. At the time, I didn’t say anything and just politely ate the food with no questions asked. The Belizeans were chomping happily away while the Nigerian medical staff had very dubious looks on their faces. Sometime afterwards, I enquired into the nature of these sandwiches whilst I was in the company of well-seasoned ex-pats (they had been around for about 20 years) and they explained that these were called “ham sandwiches” or even “Dak sandwiches.” The filling is made by pulverising the piece of chopped ham into a paste. Margarine is then spread on white soft bread and on top of this, a smear of Dak paste. Therefore, one tin of Dak (200g or 1/2lb) can go a long way and can economically feed a whole party of hungry people. Talk about Homeopathic Ham!
So there you go. How do you eat your Dak? Don’t be shy…we can form a secret society for eaters of forbidden Dak!
About a week ago, I opened up my stingless-bee, bee-hives to check up on the little darlings and discovered that in one of the hives the bees had started to build brood comb in the honey pot storage area. When I saw it, it was about half the size seen in the photo below. It doubled in size in a week!
Brood Being Built in the wrong place. This is where honey is supposed to be stored!
Out of curiosity, I got in closer to have a goosie:
Brood Comb Being extended with honey and pollen pots visible in the periphery.
It would appear that the bees have built an auxiliary brood area with new queen and everything in the middle of the honey chamber, co-existent with the original brood in the brood chamber with its own queen; so, two hives in one. I hypothesise that this is due to the depth of the honey chamber (which is currently set at 2 3/4 inches). The honey pots are about 1 inch tall so it is obvious that there is plenty of volume for a “nest” of brood comb even over a layer of honey pots.
I decided to test this hypothesis by reducing the depth of the honey chamber to 1 1/4 inches. Here is the new hive, which I have called the Gnome Mark II Modified UTOB Hive:
The New and Improved Gnome Mark II Modified UTOB Hive.
Compared to the original UTOB Hive:
Original UTOB Hive.
I admit, not a Mind-Boggling Difference but putting it together in Dry Season Super Heat Time made me feel like it was something amazing and deserving of its own name!
Anyway, I took the “extra” brood out and put it in the brood chamber of the new hive:
Transferring Brood from the Old Hive.
…Into the new hive:
Brood Placed in the New Hive.
Here’s another shot after more brood was moved over:
All the Brood Moved to the New Brood Chamber.
And that was that, all the hives were sealed up and put into their places. Now it is time to wait another month or so before checking on them again…
It is nice to have an alcoholic beverage at the end of the day to wind down after some hard work. After having lived here for so long and having tried all of the drinks available, I have had to go back to my student pass-time of brewing. In this climate, rum and spirits are generally too strong; the cheap spirits aren’t distilled well enough to enjoy; the expensive spirits that could be enjoyed burn a hole in our pockets; wine is also expensive and generally crap, no matter where it has come from (and has sat at customs in a container in 45C heat for weeks to months); and the beer is fine if you just like a light lager style. Unfortunately, this situation is unacceptable to a Gnome of my (lack) of sophistication and home brewing has become a necessity for a continued existence. Brewing is fun and, as the Italians would put it, the result doesn’t taste of copper.
I’ve already talked about malting corn and making gluten-free beer from it but this requires quite a bit of work to get happening: the sprouting, kilning, roasting, mashing…it all ends up taking something like six weeks to get accomplished. So, the next logical answer is mead. I’m not at the stage of producing my own honey but fortunately, rainforest honey is available here and turns out to be much easier to brew than beer.
Traditional mead ends up being quite strong, 12-14%, and I find that this level of alcohol only allows a small drink, any more and the price is a headache. So I have reduced the concentration of honey in my meads so that the final result is closer to a beer, say 4-5%. This allows one to drink a pint without getting drunk and also appreciate the flavour of something different.
This is the honey that I use:
About Four Litres of Rainforest Honey.
You can see that it is a dark honey and if you could taste it, the strong almost musky flavour would be very evident.
It all gets poured into a big pot with added water to make five gallons and boiled for five or ten minutes to sterilize it. Then the specific gravity is checked once cooled down…
Checking the Specific Gravity.
…to make sure that the concentration of sugar is right (to make a 5% strength mead). It is put in a brew bin and fermented with some lager yeast for a few months as mead generally takes longer to brew than normal beer.
I’ve been making “everyday” batches to drink early, like a Beaujolais nouveau (without being red, obviously), since Munchkin really likes mead for an evening drink and to cook with but I’ve also put some away to slowly clear and age. Eventually bottling it so that it can have a nice fizz.
I’ll let you know in a few months how the “special brew” turns out!
I had a colony of stingless bees living in my electricity breaker box; needless to say, not the best place for them…
Wild Bee Hive in Breaker Box.
The first thing was to remove the wax surrounding the brood chamber…
Brood Comb Exposed.
I then had to carefully pry all those combs out in out in one piece trying not to damage anything as much as possible. I then carefully halved the comb (since I made two hives) and put them in their new brood chambers…
Half of the Brood Combs Gently Placed in Each Hive.
The covers were then all sealed up and the hives moved closer to the house for protection and observation.
This was also the first time we tried stingless bee honey. It was delicious; sweet but more watery than normal honey and with a truly intense floral aroma. It was like drinking liquid flowers. We also tried some of the pollen and the only word I can think of to describe it is amazing.
Unlike the bees we are familiar with, the honey and pollen is stored in pots…
Stingless Bee Honey and Pollen Pots.
Here’s a closer look without my grimy paws in the way…
Honey and Pollen Pots.
I’ve spent the whole morning looking at my new friends and they are starting to zoom in and out of their new homes, making it nice and comfy for themselves.
I can’t wait to build more hives!!!
I hope you are having as wonderful a day as I am!!
Ground-breaking News in the world of Stingless-bee Beekeeping: Today was a good day to check on the bees. Unfortunately my last transfer was not successful (bringing my success rate to a ridiculous 50%) and it was time to clean the dead hive and make some improvements for another transfer.
