Day #170 Credibility

In 1938, Bodog F. Beck, M.D. and Doreé Smedley wrote Honey & Your Health. The subtitle was a nutrimental, medicinal and historical commentary.

Sounds great, eh?

They start out talking about the ways honey has been used in the thousands of years that people have known about honey.

Ø  A pot of honey on the breakfast table is one of the oldest traditions that is still in effect for many people.

Ø  Egyptian tombs show paintings of folks harvesting honey using smoke as an aid

Ø  Ancient Greeks thought regular eating of honey would help them to live longer

Ø  Ancient Romans held honey-harvest feasts, much like our modern-day Thanksgiving

Ø  Honey was often used as a medium of exchange, all the more reason to celebrate the harvest, because honey meant prosperity.

So far, all of this sounds credible. I haven’t gotten to the part yet about how honey is used successfully in the treatment of all sorts of medical conditions, although I’ve browsed through the book and found many statements I concur with.

But then, I glanced at page 80. “The average back-lot beekeeper of a small city or town harvests between fifty and one hundred pounds of surplus honey a season.”

That sounded about right. Beck and Smedley lost points with me, though, when they wrote that, in an area with abundant nectar plants, an industrious beekeeper, who was willing to learn the most up-to-date methods, could “increase this yield to two hundred pounds of honey a season per hive.” Maybe I’m overly pessimistic, but that sounds way too high to me.

They went on to say that under “special conditions and ideal management, the yield may be stepped up to three hundred or even five hundred pounds per hive.” Grrr! Do you know how hard a beekeeper would have to push a hive to get that much honey? Over-management is one of the factors in the Colony Collapse Disorder that’s been rampant in this country. European countries have not experienced CCD. Doesn’t that tell you something right there?

Greedy people trying to get every possible dollar out of their hives ought to be strung up by their toes. A truly good management practice (respecting the natural way bees operate) gives the bees a break and results in a reasonable amount of honey per hive.

So, Beck and Smedley, I’ll read your recipes for good health and maybe follow a good many of them, but I’m going to ignore that other bunk you wrote.

BEEattitude for Day # 170:

       Blessed are they who give us a break and let us behave naturally, for their honey shall be infused with love and good health.

One thing Fran is grateful for right now:

       Singing with the Gwinnett Choral Guild    

p.s. I'll be teaching a seminar for Booklogix on April 16th. Here's the link to their April Seminars page:
https://www.booklogix.com/April_Free_Seminars.html
If you can't attend in person, you can hook up to it as a webinar.