In Praise of Eggs

What's in an Egg

Eggs have been a controversial food over the years. It has been insisted that because eggs contain cholesterol they must be bad for you. We have been exhorted to eat omelets made from just the white of the egg to minimise our fat intake and, in typical fashion we've lapped up this nonsense. But throwing away the egg yolk, that golden, sunny ball of complete and exceptional nutrition is nothing short of vandalism.

The egg yolk is one of nature's most complete and wonderful foods. Pasture raised organically handled hens produce the most wonderful delicious eggs and we really need to celebrate them. Sadly their caged raised sisters do not have access to such a wonderful diet and consequently their sacrifices result in eggs of lower nutritional standard. Let the girls out into the sunshine and the eggs they give us are orders of magnitude better for us, for the hens and for the planet.

It is by no means certain that cholesterol is the ogre it's been painted. It is the primary building block for the majority of our steroid hormones. Insufficient cholesterol can result in depression, muscle pain, personality change and menstrual problems in women. This is particularly evident in people taking Statin class drugs. I promise to stay off that particular soap box right now but suffice to say when government decides EVERYONE over a certain age should be on a drug we really have to wonder who is benefiting.

So What is in that gorgeous oval of flavour. The World's Healthiest Foods points out that a single egg contains 34% of our daily choline needs. Choline deficiency results in fatty liver disease and can cause cell signalling and nerve signalling defects. Consuming significant dietary choline can prevent these things. Eggs are the reference food for protein with a high biological value. This means they are easily digested and used to support the body's needs. Eggs are also a rich source of selenium and iodine. These minerals are significant because they are difficult to obtain from other sources and while they are freely available in fish, shell fish and mushrooms many folk avoid these foods but are happy to eat eggs.

According to Authority Nutrition eggs help weight loss. In a study of 30 overweight or obese women who ate either a bagel or eggs for breakfast, those who ate eggs ate less at lunch and less over the next 36 hours. The egg is certainly advocated by both Slimming World and Weight Watchers in the UK!

The egg is unusually nutrient dense. It is easily digested and forms a wonderful part of the human diet. It is possible but difficult to supplement in baking and, if ethically farmed or husbanded is an exceptionally sustainable food.

Our eggs come from rescued barn hens. Lovely ladies who hitch up their skirts to dash about the garden in search of insects, plants and entertainment. We know our hens have a truely relaxed and entertaining existance. If your breakfast comes from such a wonderful source its difficult to go to work without a smile on your face.

Happy Thursday
Katherine

Happy Easter and Honey Super Part The Second.

Now the bees are smoking....

Ok they aren't smoking we managed to smoke the hive so they calmed right down. Just so you know this shows some real close ups of bees so if you aren't too happy with insects watching this might not be your best idea.

What you see happening here is bees realising that they are being held over the main colony and without being encouraged at all walking down into the new honey super. Other bee keepers speed up the process by tapping the board so the bees fall off but we are really trying to look after our bees as gently and naturally as possible. Bob stood holding the board for about 15 minutes while they made up their mind and slowly trooped off back where they'd come from.

We loaded all the frames into the super and they look pristine and beautiful. In a few months no doubt they'll look exactly like all the other frames we have. Bees like things homely.

If the weather continues to be fairly mild we may get some early honey. I have to say I can't wait. However there are those out there, people who have seen me cook and decorate, who may feel that transferring honey from comb into jars is a job best left to the better organised. 

We put the crown board on top of the honey super and put the roof of the hive back. It doesn't really look that much bigger but we know there are possibilities in there. There is breeding going on, there are new bees hatching and soon there will be honey. The question is, will there be enough honey for us to share this year?

Easter is for many the celebration of the resurrection of Christ. In the pre christian/pagan calendar it is celebration of new life and fecundity. The harvest yet to come. The celebration of all that is possible. Our chickens have proven to us that a great deal is possible. The bees have shown us that a new skill is learned quickly where necessity dictates.  Introducing both into our lives have brought us the gifts of new friends and a greater appreciation of what is possible!.

So raise with us a glass, a mug, a cup or a bottle to what is possible and what is new.

Watching in hope

Katherine

Adding a Honey Super.

DIY Bee Keeping.

When we got our hive it arrived complete, put together and full of bees. They'd had a holiday in Tollerton and were happy to move lock stock and two smoking barrels into our 'hood. So, having done it the easy way it has come as something of a shock to the system to realise that pretty much all bee paraphernalia comes flat pack. There are numerous bee keeping Ikea stores out there selling bits you have to put together in order to enhance the "des' res'" you maintain for your ladies.

When Alex came over a few weeks ago he said he'd order some super frames for us-apparently its cheaper to buy in bulk. Two days later the above carrier bag arrived containing the bits to make our honey frames. Over the last week or so I put the bits together. I didn't realise the pins supplied came in two different lengths till after I'd put the frames in the hive so it is possible that at some point hence the frames may become over burdened with honey and fall apart. All part of the learning curve I guess.

What you see here is a wooden frame which sandwiches and supports a sheet of bees wax "foundation" This is sterile beeswax which has been pressed into an appropriate shape to help bees make comb in a convenient shape for people to work with. What you can't tell from the picture is how delicious the combination of new pine wood and fresh beeswax smells. Having suffered the smell of three cat litter tray during the wettest winter in living memory the pure fresh smell is such a balm to the senses.Ultimately I had pile of ten frames and felt pretty pleased with myself. The next job was to put the frames in the super so the bees can begin to make use of them. 

You will recall from previous posts that a combination of inexperience and hubris had lead me to several unfortunate incidents where I thought it would be ok to "just do this little job" without putting on a bee keeping suit or lighting the smoker. This time we both suited up, put on our gloves, zipped up sensibly and lit the smoker in proper preparation for our work. Our colony is pretty gentle but when you take the lid off, move the frames around and make strange noises even the most gentle strains of bees will locate their warrior genes.

Lighting the smoker is always more of a palaver than it ought to be. For goodness sake dry wood shavings in a metal can should light perfectly easily with the aid of a blow torch. Sounds easy. However the reality is impeded by basic physics. Because the shavings are, effectively, in the bottom of a brass can, when you put the flame of the blow torch near the tinder the FLAME GOES OUT. Insufficient oxygen in the enclosed space for the butane flame. Blessed ridiculous. Ultimately we put some dry holly leaves in and they set light but only after the bees had started to get a little jittery because we'd taken a frame out.

The ladies from the bottom of the garden have been pretty busy. What comb they have is completely full. The queen has been laying and it is clear that if they are going to maintain colony strength they are going to need more stores. Recently night time temperatures have been as low as 4 degrees Celsius again. It is only April and in the UK that certainly doesn't signal the end of frost on the ground. Bob went out and bought fleece to put over plants at the allotment because they still need protection. However it is a record year for blossom-and tree pollen as a result. No fun for hay fever sufferers however it means that our bees have a good supply of nectar to start spring production. Pollen is coming in by the basket load and is notably paler than the honey they collected in the later months of last year.

Back to the matter in hand. We smoked them down so they went about their business and took the crown board off the hive. Everything looked and smelled right. We took one of the frames out but, given that we were about to give their home a spring makeover we decided not to do a full inspection. 

Instead of replacing the crown board we put a small rectangle of pine on top of the brood body. this is the exact dimensions of the hive but only 2 inches high. This gives a bit of extra space before you put on a screen made of what look like wooden skewers. This is known as a queen excluder. Basically it prevents the queen from getting through and laying eggs in what you hope will be the frames that provide you with pure honey.

In this image you can see the new frames and the queen excluder between the brood body and the super. It doesn't really look like the gaps are wide enough for a bee to squeeze through but we realised, from observation, that clearly the bee is capable of sneaking through extremely small spaces.

Anyway. It's late and there's much more to tell you so I'll get this out there and follow up tomorrow.

Happy thoughts.

Katherine