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This book contains everything you want to know about how to gather a crop of heather honey, from selecting the right strains of bees and preparing the strongest colonies, to choosing and using various kinds of equipment, how and when to transport the bees to the heather and finally the involved process of extracting and processing the honey. The honey and its various tastes, textures and other properties is also studied in minute detail. There is plenty that would be of practical use to beekeepers in non-heather areas, with information about breeding techniques, swarm control, treatment of disease and how to produce cut comb honey and honey sections.
Beyond the practical beekeeping techniques, this book also goes into detail about how heather moorland evolved, mainly as a result of mankind’s activities, and how much of it only exists as a result of extensive management – largely in order to satisfy sporting interests. The various heathers and heaths and their influence on honey production are studied, and there is information about all 72 areas of heather moorland in the UK.
11 Foreword
15 Introduction
17 Section 1: Heather Moorland, its Ecology and Man the Beekeeper
17 A History of How the Heather Moorlands Came About to the Present Time
27 From Honey Hunter to Beekeeper
62 The Heather Plants
72 The Heather Moorlands of the British Isles
74 The Heather Honeys
94 Choosing a Moorland Heather Site
102 Section 1 Suggested Further Reading
Section 2: Heather Honey Production Strains of Bees for Honey Production
123 Types of Hive for Working Heather
150 Systems of Management for Bell Heather Honey Production
183 Systems of Management for Ling Heather Honey Production
204 Moving Bees to the Moors and Siting Hive Stances
235 Methods Used to Extract and Process Heather Honey
245 The Return from the Heather Moors
290 From Hive to Market: Presentation
298 Ling Heather Honey for Exhibition
303 Final Considerations
311 Section 2 Suggested Further Reading
Section 3: Historical Aspects of Heather and Other Floral Honey Production
A Brief History of Taking Bees to the Heather and Little-known Facts
317 Heather Honey for Medicinal Purposes
Appendices
324 Appendix A: Fermentation and Hydroxymethyfurfural (HMF)
359 Appendix B: The Dyce Method of Producing Crystallised Honey
364 Appendix C: A Method of Producing Soft-set Honey with Ling Heather Honey
367 Appendix D: Varroa Control for Heather Stocks
372 Indexes General
374 People
381 Places
