GloryBee Blog

What Beekeeping Supplies Can You Buy Used?

When it comes to properly taking care of your bees and hives, you want to make sure you've got all the best equipment for doing so. Unfortunately, beekeeping can quickly become expensive; with all the different types of equipment you'll need, the costs can add up quickly and make affording the best for your bees difficult. When this happens, it's worth looking at used beekeeping supplies. Not all beekeeping supplies should be bought used, so here are the used beekeeping supplies you can rely on even when buying secondhand.

Bee Hive Smokers

Generally speaking, beehive smokers are fairly safe to purchase used if you're in a bind. As long as you properly inspect smokers for any sort of damage, they're likely safe to use. Disinfect and clean them thoroughly before using, and you'll be set for your bee smoker for your hives.

Beekeeping Tools

Miscellaneous tools and equipment are generally safe to purchase used, so long as they're properly disinfected and cleaned. Remove any beeswax or other residues that might have been left from previous hives. However, if you think the tools were used in managing a sick hive, don't take the chance and purchase new instead.

Beekeeping Suits And Clothing

These items are some of the safest to purchase used due to how easy they are to clean and sanitize. Make sure any used clothing items are properly laundered before you use them; it will be cleaner and safer for both you and your hives. Before you purchase these items used, however, make sure they're in good condition and not about to fall apart. This will keep you from wasting money and having to buy a new suit sooner.

**What Not To Buy Used**

No matter what, do not purchase your beekeeping hives or beekeeping kits used. If they come from a beekeeper who had sick bees or hives, it could put your colony in danger. While honey does have a pH low enough to stop the spread of some bacteria, used beekeeping hives might have traces of disease that could harm your bees.

Purchasing your beekeeping equipment used can help you save money. However, if you take this route, make sure you're careful about what equipment you buy to keep your bees safe from disease.

What to do with Crystallized Honey?

If you’ve noticed your jar of honey getting hard and granular, don’t fret! This process is called crystallization and is a normal process for honey. Different honeys will crystallize at different rates, depending on the moisture and glucose levels present. These can vary by varietal and from season to season

You Can Eat Crystallized Honey!

Crystallization is a natural process of honey and does not at all mean the honey has gone bad. Correctly stored, honey will never go bad, though it can crystallize. Crystallized honey dissolves great in a hot tea, tastes delicious spread onto toast, or adds a sweet crunch eating it by the spoonful!

Liquify Crystallized Honey

To return honey to a liquid state, you can set the jar in warm to near-boiling water with the lid off. Carefully stir the honey to distribute the warmth and return the crystals to liquid honey. Be careful not to scorch, boil, or burn the honey, which will cause the honey to caramelize. We NEVER recommend placing honey in the microwave.

Crystallized Honey as an ingredient

Crystallized honey is great to use as a substitute for sugar in baking. The lower moisture content of the crystallized honey means fewer adjustments to the liquids in your recipe while maintaining the classic honey sweetness. You can use it to make a honey simple syrup to sweeten drinks, add it to yogurt for texture and sweetness, brew mead, or really any way you would normally use honey!

Crystallized Honey in Body Care

Honey is a humectant, which means it helps lock in moisture. Use it in face masks, hair masks, scrubs, and balms for an extra dose of hydration and wonderfully sweet smell. Plus, honey is antibacterial and can be used on minor cuts and burns.

Our blog has tons of recipes that call for honey, most of which work great with crystallized honey. Controlled crystallization is even used to make our new line of creamed honey, which crystallizes as it is whipped together for a smooth and spreadable honey experience. The only wrong way to use crystallized honey is to not use it at all!

5 Essential Pieces of Equipment No Beekeeper Could Live Without

Beekeepers of all skill levels will utilize a few essential tools to keep their bees happy and healthy. Whether you're looking to grow your first colony or improve the beekeeping equipment collection you already have, here are five essential pieces of beekeeping equipment to use with your hive.

A smoker

Bee hive smokers are an essential tool for every beekeeper, young and old alike. You can use your smoker to deter bees from coming near you, but this tool does more than just heard your bees: it can also be used to make aggressive bees more docile. This works because it will convince bees that there is a wildfire is nearby. As such, they will begin to prepare for an impending move, making the bees eat more and become too heavy to fly and sting you.

The smell exuded by the smoker will also work to mask the smell of alarm pheromones. If you start to smell bananas, the strongest scent associated with this alarm pheromone, smoke your hive to calm down your bees. After all, a honey bee can fly up to 15 miles per hour, making them difficult to outrun.

A bee brush

Directing bees away from the comb of honey you hope to collect can be more difficult than you'd expect. Instead of swiping away these potentially angry bees with your hand, use a comb or brush to gently move them away. Of course, be sure to use it sparingly since bees aren't fond of the bristles.

A telescoping hive top

Your basic beehive top will deter the worst of the wind or rain, but a telescopic top will work hard to protect your hive from harsh weather. Try choosing a beehive top with eaves that direct water away from your hive.

A queen catcher

When you want to keep your queen away from the hive for a short while, the best thing you can use is a queen catcher. Capturing the queen will keep her safe from getting lost when you go through your hives. It can also aid in catching a swarm.

A hive stand

Hive stands are essential when you want to maintain the longevity and integrity of your hive. While you can store your hive on the ground, utilizing a strong plastic or metal stand will prevent soils, predators, and moisture from infiltrating your hive, especially during times of inclement weather. It also helps you navigate your hives since you won't have to bend over as much.

When you want the best beekeeping equipment, rely on the products offered by GloryBee to supply your hive. Soon enough, you'll have enough honey to craft honey bears, honeystix, honey candy, and more. Improve your hive and contact us today for more information.

GloryBee Honey is Now True Source Certified

Pure, delicious honey has always been a top priority for GloryBee, a honey and natural ingredient company that has been sourcing high-quality honey for decades. The True Source Certified® program, a program dedicated to certifying ethical and traceable honey, is a logical next step in their pure honey journey. Not all honey is legally and ethically sourced, and despite federal crackdowns, fraudulent honey may still be entering the United States and infiltrating grocery store shelves and pantries across the nation.

The True Source Certified Honey program was developed to distinguish honey that is pure and can be traced from hive to table. An internationally recognized third-party firm conducts audits to certify the source of the honey all the way up the supply chain. The program also confirms that packers and exporters test and analyze honey purity, which GloryBee has been doing for years. Currently, only 30% of honey sold in North America is True Source Certified.

“It has always been part of GloryBee’s nature to source high-quality, delicious honey from ethical beekeepers. GloryBee has many close relationships with honey producers and knows the value of hive to table traceable honey” says Jeanie Shrode, the company’s Quality Assurance Manager. She adds “We are proud to be certified by a program that protects customers, consumers, and the reputation of honey across the globe.”

Quinoa and Toasted Sweet Potato Salad

If clean eating is in your 2019 plans, we've got the perfect salad for you. Made with only real food ingredients, this Quinoa and Toasted Sweet Potato Salad will not disappoint. The Artisan Fermented Honey gives a tart kick to balance the flavors of the toasted sweet potatoes and cranberries. Give it a try and let us know what you think!

Ingredients

2 ½ cups peeled and cubed sweet potato

1 ½ cups red onion, cubed (same size as sweet potato)

2 Tbls olive oil

1 tsp kosher salt

1 ¼ cup uncooked tri-color quinoa (we like Bob’s Red Mill)

2 ½ cups of water (or low-sodium chicken broth – for cooking quinoa)

1/3 cup dried cherries or cranberries

¼ cup pepitas or sunflower seeds

¼ cup fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 oz. feta cheese

2 Tbls GloryBee Artisan Fermented Honey

2 Tbls olive oil

1 ½ tsp GloryBee Raw Clover Blossom Honey

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Add sweet potato and red onion on a lined baking sheet. Season with 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 1 teaspoon of kosher salt. Toss all to coat. Bake for 20-30 minutes until vegetables are cooked through.

2. Add quinoa and water (or chicken broth) in a small saucepan. Stir and bring mixture to a boil. Cover and reduce to a simmer and cook for 15 minutes until done. Remove from heat and fluff the quinoa with a fork.

3. In a large bowl, add all ingredients. Gently toss and mix until combined. Enjoy!

Salmon in Thai-Style Green Coconut Curry

This Salmon in Thai-Style Green Curry tastes clean and vibrant. So comforting, yet with bold flavors, it is loved by kids and adults alike. It's easy to make and as good as your favorite takeout. Enjoy meal

Ingredients

1 tablespoon coconut oil

¼ cup green curry paste

¼ cup GloryBeeⓇ Creamed Coconut

1 cup vegetable broth

1 tablespoon fish sauce or ½ teaspoon fine sea salt

1 tablespoon packed brown sugar

1 red bell pepper, seeded and thinly sliced

1 medium zucchini, halved lengthwise and cut into ¼” thick half moons

1 pound salmon, cut into 4 equal pieces

2 tablespoons fresh lime juice

Chopped cilantro

Thai basil leaves

Cooked jasmine rice, for serving

Directions

1. In a large skillet, melt coconut oil over medium heat. Add curry paste and cook, stirring, until fragrant and starting to brown, about 4 minutes. Stir in creamed coconut, broth, fish sauce or salt, and brown sugar. Stir to dissolve sugar.

2. Add pepper and zucchini, bring liquid to a simmer, and cook 5 minutes. Nestle salmon pieces into the skillet and cook, basting salmon with cooking liquid, until cooked through, about 8 minutes.

3. Transfer salmon to a serving dish. Add lime juice to skillet and stir in. Taste and add more lime juice and/or salt or fish sauce to taste. Pour sauce over salmon.

4. Garnish with cilantro and basil, and serve over rice.

The Pollen Project Day 8: Epilogue Part One

I have to say, it was a little strange going back to real (real-ish, we ate breakfast at a Waffle House) food Tuesday morning. I could probably have stuck it out a few more days but I learned what I set out to learn without the whole thing turning into a sideshow. I knew from the beginning that this was not a smart or sustainable way of eating, so returning to something a little more workable in the long term was inevitable, and I can’t say I was sorry to do so.

I got to spend the week sharing my experiences with people at ABF, some of whom were fascinated, and some of whom thought I was out of my mind. I made improvised pollen soda that I thought tasted halfway alright (Julia described it as “disgusting”) though I’m not a soda drinker so a thimbleful was all the sugar I could handle for the day, and liberally sprinkled my remaining travel pollen on anything that suited my fancy. I did my best to eat fairly cleanly and keep up my exercise during a long week, but I actually felt better while eating all that pollen! I’m keeping an eye on how I feel in the coming few weeks and working on how to integrate pollen into my diet in a more sensible way. I’m also sending some of the surpluses to a few of my former kitchen brothers, and we’re all going to see what we can come up with by way of making pollen taste good.

The Pollen Project Day 7: Pollen is Blessed

Found myself at the Eugene airport bright and early at 4:30AM, checked in and got in line at the TSA checkpoint. My bag was pulled aside for ‘additional screening’ and sure enough, in the middle of a pat-down I was asked about the hive-shaped clear plastic jar full of mysterious colorful granules in my carry-on. The TSA agents were kind enough to listen to my 30-second spiel about pollen and its properties before getting confused again when I told them it was all I had eaten in for the past week. I probably didn’t make any believers that morning, but my pollen and I made it through security and onto the gate for the flight to Myrtle Beach by way of Salt Lake City.

Speaking of believers, I had the good fortune of running into a Catholic priest on the way to my gate, who was amenable to blessing my pollen at a ridiculous hour of the morning -- thank you Father! Given the way I had reacted to the smell the night before I was in need of every bit of help I could get to make it through a long day of traveling and not eating, culminating in somehow soaking and mashing up pollen in a hotel room without a blender. A peripheral benefit, I’m hoping, is that blessed pollen grants me at least a +3 bonus against Zom-bees. The flights were uneventful and I felt fairly good about the fasting, though there was about a 4-hour car ride ahead of me from Raleigh to Myrtle Beach. I piled in with my colleagues Mike and Julia (who’s been editing the more tedious bits out of these blog posts, thanks Julia!) and we headed South. Once past Raleigh, they started looking for somewhere to eat dinner and I started thinking about the jar of now at least somewhat-sanctified pollen in my bag. They stopped at a pizza restaurant and that’s where I broke. Sitting there, staring at pizza...I knew I had reached my limit. I got the jar of pollen, ate a handful dead raw, and after a bunch of chewing called it breakfast. Ate another handful, called it lunch, and a third handful I called dinner. Having eaten pollen for breakfast, lunch, and dinner I grabbed a slice of pizza, sprinkled more pollen on, and ate real food for dessert. It was heavenly.

The Pollen Project Day 6: How Much is too Much?

I had so many plans today, most of which were put off by the wind storm that blew through the night before, knocking down our back privacy fence. I spent the morning getting the thing put back up and secured, and by the time breakfast came around at 1:00 PM I just got it over with as quickly as possible, and then downed ‘lunch’ immediately afterwards, with a plan to have an early dinner. I made a calculated decision to fast on Monday, as a diet of bee pollen and being in confined spaces for hours at a stretch would NOT earn me any points with my fellow travelers. There are definite downsides to a pollen-exclusive diet.

Once breakfast and lunch were done I went on to getting packed and set in order for my trip to South Carolina to attend the 2019 American Beekeeping Federation conference and tradeshow. I got all packed, house cleaned, everything set for me to be gone a week, and then caught a whiff of the stuff and gagged on dinner about halfway through the glass. I’d been developing a smell aversion since day 4 or so and I can’t say I was surprised that it finally got to me. I had to set the glass down, sip some water, and brace myself for the other half. I got it down without incident - but it was a clear signal that this experiment was nearing its end. I’m going to do my best to stick to it as long as reasonably possible.

The Pollen Project Day 5: No Champagne Brunch

Got to sleep in today and opted to fast after I woke up. I was still feeling pretty full and honestly was not looking forward to breakfast - this stuff isn’t exactly a champagne brunch. So I went to the gym instead.

By the time I got home, showered, and stuffed my gear into the laundry I was starting to get hungry but slightly desperate for something other than pollen puree. I started experimenting by adding just enough water to dissolve the pollen and seeing what I could do with it. The answer is not much! It doesn’t hold any kind of structure when cooking and it definitely needs additional ingredients to make it stable. It did caramelize well (and burns super easily), and toasted pollen was actually fairly tasty and easy to break up, though I do not know what it did for the nutritional value.

I played around with a few ideas, creating a pollen pancake by adding egg (they didn’t hold together well), pollen muffins (they tasted like pollen and sadness), pollen dumplings (they fell apart), and eventually a pollen pancake with almond meal and coconut flour that tasted pretty darn good with some yogurt...but I couldn’t eat more than a taste of it because I was trying to stick to pollen as my sole source of nutrition! I soaked and blended more pollen and drank down yet another meal’s worth. I’d be a liar if I said this wasn’t getting a little tedious.

The Pollen Project Day 4: No Hunger Between Meals

While this has been an interesting and overall positive experience thus far, there are some downsides. I’m over the smell of this stuff. I got breakfast in just fine but when I went to add some more water to my bottle of puree and got a good whiff I did not have a great time. I think it’s probably a combination of appetite fatigue and being very full from drinking 3 pints of liquid in a couple of minutes (1 pint of pollen puree, ½ pint of water added to rinse the glass, 1 pint of water, psyllium husk, and creatine, and ½ pint of water to rinse that too), but it wasn’t fun.

I was wondering how long it’d take me to get to that point and I’m glad it takes me less than a minute to get in a meal and then it’s over with - if I had to eat my puree by the spoonful like soup I would have quit by now. I think it’s important to remember that this is an experiment - I’m not going to call it a diet because it’s neither smart nor sustainable in the long term. It does meet my daily nutrition needs in a better way than many foods you can buy off the shelves in the store, but it’s not something I’ll be able to do for a longer period of time.

While I still feel well sated in between doses of pollen (and this experiment has highlighted how my snack cravings are largely mental), I would be a liar if I said I was enjoying my meals - it’s fuel, not fun. That said, my energy levels are still high and I feel better than I expected to by this point in time - actually, I feel pretty good. I’ve been walking on my breaks like I usually do and then doing more walking during lunch as I now have an extra 29 minutes and 15 seconds to spare, been putting good work in at the gym, and want to make time to train Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu this weekend to see how my energy levels last in that setting. I’m guessing I’ll either be able to roll a little longer or I’ll wind up gassed out, face down getting smashed into the mats by my training partner while crying and throwing up pollen. We’ll see!

Important: Before starting this experiment, Jason carefully coordinated with his health care professional to ensure his own safety and nutritional needs would be met. We always recommend checking with your doctor before making any changes to your lifestyle or diet. We do not recommend pollen as a single source of nutrition.

Pollen Project Day 3: Vivid Dreams

Woke up after a night of strange and vivid dreams - don’t know if this was due to the pollen, the deadlifts, or watching ‘The Dirty Dozen’ before bedtime. I can’t say I was really looking forward to breakfast but I decided to add in some yogurt whey to try and save my gut bacteria and the flavor was surprisingly good. I’m considering doing a couple of shots of homemade sauerkraut brine to keep my electrolytes in good stead as well.

Work was pretty hectic so I didn’t get to lunch until 2:30PM but wasn’t at all hungry beforehand. A colleague suggested it might be because I wasn’t looking forward to another round of pollen, and to be entirely honest I can’t say that I was. I’m curious to see whether or not this is because I’m beginning to re-frame meals as fuel as opposed to a sensory experience (this is tough, given my professional background in the culinary world) or if it’s just because this stuff doesn’t taste all that great. I am grateful to have a quick and easy way to consume a ‘meal’ as it takes me all of 45 seconds to knock back a pint of liquefied pollen and then it’s done. Either way, I only have to deal with this a few times a day.

I’m really looking forward to the weekend and getting to move away from pollen as a raw source of nutrition and into its properties as an ingredient, the difference being similar to eating a green wheat berry fresh from the plant vs drying, grinding, fermenting, and converting into a baked loaf of sourdough bread.

Lunch and dinner passed uneventfully, still doing liquified pollen with a bit of yogurt whey, and adding in a pinch of salt as I only have so much sauerkraut brine sitting around. I haven’t noticed any issues with electrolyte balance and feel pretty good.