# Honey gathering



## caters (Sep 24, 2016)

I have decided on honey as an all year round supply of sugar, at least until a group of explorers finds a plant they can grind up into sugar or some other way to get sugar.

Here is my logic on this:

If 1 person goes to find honey both allergy chance and honey gathering chance are low.

If 10 people go to find honey allergy chance is still low but honey gathering chance is high.

Here are graphs that can show how fast both of these chances go:

Honey gathering chance:







Allergy chance:






The allergy chance goes up so slowly, it is essentially linear. The honey gathering chance however goes up really fast and is clearly exponential.

Here is more of my logic:

If 1 person gets allergies, no big deal.

If 10 people get allergies, significant in such a low population as 105.

If 10 people together get honey, yay.

If 1 person itself gets honey, amazing.

So I figured that 10 is a good number to send out for honey gathering.

This way allergy chance is minimized while honey gathering chance is still high.

At least 1 person will be mapping the path and surroundings.

But is my logic right? If not, what is wrong with it? If yes than yay.


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## Queshire (Sep 24, 2016)

Well for a year long supply then where they live has to not get cold enough for the bees to stay active year round.


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## caters (Sep 25, 2016)

Well it is warm enough for citrus to grow with no problems so that is definitely not a problem.


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## CupofJoe (Sep 25, 2016)

Allergic reactions to honey are rare, in fact it is usually to stuff in the honey rather than the honey itself. If your characters are allergic to bee stings, or pollen then they might have a problem but even then it's not common.
It has a medical uses too and is used in covers/bandages for wounds and burns to promote healing.


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## caters (Sep 25, 2016)

And I never said no to those things in my posts. And I do believe that pollen allergy is very common. Even I have a pollen allergy, just not seasonal like my mom's

In fact the first allergy that I know was an allergy and not just my nose acting up was severe(not anaphylactic but nonetheless bad)

Here is the progression of my first known allergy:

During exposure(so while outside): no  problem at all, completely normal
After exposure on same day: Very bad nasal congestion and lots of sneezing(blowing my nose didn't help 1 bit)
Next day: Ear pressure that wouldn't release without benedryl. Still really bad nasal congestion, sneezing started going down, postnasal drip
Next few days: Pretty much the same, near the end a cough meaning the allergen got to my lungs
Later: Cold virus soon after allergy ended, postnasal drip stopped, still congested, ear pressure went away, throat got sore, cough was still there.


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## caters (Sep 26, 2016)

Here is what I found about honey put in my own words:



> Honey is very sweet but is good for diabetics since it won't raise blood sugar as much as just sugar by itself. It also contributes a lot of trace minerals and vitamin B into the diet. Honey glucose oxidase, an enzyme, turns glucose into hydrogen peroxide which kills bacteria. It also has anti-viral and anti-fungal properties. It can help prevent cancer and stimulates antibody production. It also acts as an anti-inflammatory. It is very good at stopping a cough and soothing a sore throat. It can gradually vaccinate you against pollen allergies. It is better than ointment at killing bacteria in wounds.



So it sounds like these people can use honey for all these:

Sugar production
Wounds
Stopping allergies
Preventing allergies
Stomach flu remedy(anti-viral)
Cold and flu medicine(cough suppressant, throat soother, and anti-viral)
Controlling and potentially reversing diabetes
Most illnesses(bacterial, fungal, and viral)


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## Butterfly (Sep 26, 2016)

Queshire said:


> Well for a year long supply then where they live has to not get cold enough for the bees to stay active year round.



Not really. Typically, non-commercial beekeepers will harvest the honey only a few times a year and leave enough honey for the bees to get through the winter. Commercial beekeepers will take everything and feed them a sugar substitute. The amount of honey made depends on how good the weather is. The better the weather, the more nectar the bees will be able to harvest to make Honey, and Honey bees will make far more honey than they need to survive the winter. They will store it for later use. The surplus is what would be harvested.

It's my 3rd year of keeping bees. The first year I had about 50lb (50 jars) of honey from one hive, for a summer with good weather, and took off honey in mid August and early September, and they still had enough honey for the winter.

last year was a low year, I had 9lb from the same hive as well as leaving them enough for the winter, and this year the one colony swarmed 3 times, and I managed to get them both into empty hives and ended up with 3 queenless colonies until two of the three queens made it back from their mating flights and started laying eggs, meaning 1 colony didn't survive as there were no young bees to keep it going, and none that I could beeknap from other colonies. I now have two colonies, and had 12lb of honey from them from the summer, and it came late in the season. (Not enough bees to gather it all in at the right time, and the weather has been rubbish).  The rain flushes the nectar out of the flowers, so there's less around for the bees to harvest and turn into honey.

Typically around early to end of September, the honey flow is mostly finished, (also depends on the length and timing of the summer season, and the availability of flowers, trees, etc and ivy-which makes hard useless honey which is usually impossible to harvest and is best left to the bees to sort out). Some regions may even get a second honey flow around September-early October, extending the season. march and June are the starvation-risk months, where March is when they generally run out of stores, and need feeding, and the spring flowers haven't yet opened. June is when the spring flower have finished, and the summer flowers haven't yet opened. The main flow come July - August, and part of early September, extended later with good weather.

basically, with enough hives, colonies, and jars, or pots, Honey can be harvested and stored for the winter even for a number of years (approx 5). Pure raw honey will crystallise and can be turned liquid by gently warming it. Meaning, all you need for a year long supply of honey is a good summer and enough hives with busy colonies to meet the demand of the population.


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## caters (Sep 27, 2016)

Butterfly said:


> Not really. Typically, non-commercial beekeepers will harvest the honey only a few times a year and leave enough honey for the bees to get through the winter. Commercial beekeepers will take everything and feed them a sugar substitute. The amount of honey made depends on how good the weather is. The better the weather, the more nectar the bees will be able to harvest to make Honey, and Honey bees will make far more honey than they need to survive the winter. They will store it for later use. The surplus is what would be harvested.
> 
> It's my 3rd year of keeping bees. The first year I had about 50lb (50 jars) of honey from one hive, for a summer with good weather, and took off honey in mid August and early September, and they still had enough honey for the winter.
> 
> ...



Well currently they only have wild honey and that can be super hard to find(the hives can be hidden in tree trunks or in logs).

This is why I thought the bee sting rate would be high even if allergy chance is low. 

They don't have any bee repellant to prevent stings and they don't have fabric for making a torch either(all they have for a torch is sticks and stones) to calm the bees down.

I don't know how they would prevent or at least lower the chance of bee stings then other than some people staying away from the hive but still close enough.

I mean, I have been super close to bees and wasps without them stinging me but I think it is mostly luck.

Sometimes honey bees fly right around my nose but they never sting me.

Bumblebees never sting me, even if I chase them around. They just fly and do their own business.

I remember 1 super close wasp encounter where there was a wasp in the grass and as I was walking the wasp flew right towards me and I just froze for few seconds to tell the wasp "Don't sting me."

I even remember once seeing a hornet this year(It was like about 1 inch long or so). I was surprised that I saw it because Columbus, Ohio is not in the normal hornet range.


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## Butterfly (Sep 27, 2016)

Peppermint oil, is a natural bee repellent. They don't like the smell of it, and it can be made at home. There are a few recipes online.


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## Efigenia (Oct 1, 2016)

Primitive Harvesting Honey in the Forest - Amazing harvest honey in the forest - YouTube
Tribals harvest honey without killing bees, destroying hives - TAMIL NADU - The Hindu
The Primitive Mind and Modern Man - John Alan Cohan - Google Books

Google is your friend


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## Bruce McKnight (Oct 5, 2016)

Of course Patrick Rothfuss has his thoughts on beekeeping, too:
This Author Bought a Flow Hive: What Happened Next Will Amaze You!

There's not a lot of content in his actual post, but it is entertaining - the one he links to, however, is very informative and may help you with some bee and honey background (if not necessarily your statistics).


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