[Assam] Beekeeping at the Mahanta Apiary
Now that you asked Utpal :-): It has been quite an awesome journey for me since I took up beekeeping in the spring of 2010. Some of you read about the emotionally roller-coasting experiences: The loss of a queen, laying-worker colony, destruction of the colony, replacement with a new starter in early summer and so forth. Anyway, I managed to get two good colonies going thru the fall of 2010, overwintered them successfully, started the spring of 2011 with two solid colonies ready for the spring honey collection. I split off some combs from both the two strong colonies and made a third one with a new queen purchased thru our bee-club. The two older colonies started collecting honey in earnest as soon as the nectar-flow began and the third built up strength to join in the effort early in summer. I extracted my first honey during the Memorial-day weekend of ( last one of May) of 2011, and kept harvesting until mid-July. I extracted 327 lbs. of honey by the time I stopped. That was much more than my wildest expectations. Samples of our bounty traveled across the continent and beyond the oceans, all the way to Assam. I sold some too. But UPS got a whole lot more on shipping costs than my sales could make up for. My mentor in the club told me that our crop was much, much above the average yield of the club members. I attribute that to the strength of the colonies -- all the hard work paid off-- and the abundance of nectar in our environs. As if all that was not enough, I took up mead making. Mead is wine made from honey and is the earliest form of wine that humans ever brewed. Soma is speculated to be honey-wine, as was the Greeks' Ambrosia. 8 thousand year old Egyptian honey-wine remains have been discovered in the Pyramids. More recently, the merrymaking libations supplied by Friar Tuck to Robin Hood and and his band was mead. So, as you can see, mead has a sweet and intoxicating history. I used 15 lbs. of my finest clover honey to start a batch of 5 gallons of mead on New Years day, 2012. Today I am cleaning salvaged wine bottles to bottle 4.5 gallons of our very drinkable mead. It tastes like semi-sweet Riesling. If you pay us a visit, we shall break bread, or more precisely, partake of maasor-tenga with a fine bottle of Mahanta Mead of the Ole Jamestown Apiary, 2011 vintage. Experts say, however, that mead should be aged at least a year for it to taste good, better still with about three years of aging. I doubt my 4.5 gallons will last that long. That was the good news. My bees ran into trouble in the summer of 2012. By the end of fall I lost three of my hives. Only one overwintered successfully, but that hive got diseased by March, and after returning from Assam by the last week of March, I was without a single hive. It was devastating. The roller-coaster never seems to end. Next: A renewed Attempt at Rebuilding and Trapping Feral Swarms. c-da On Jun 3, 2012, at 3:26 PM, Utpal Brahma wrote: But Chandanda, Your Bee story was awsome. I -- nay am sure we -- look forward to reading more of it. Perhaps even some Hollywood producers can pick it up and make a new Blockbuster The Bee Story much like The Antz or The Toy Story. Very curious to know how is your Bee adventure going on . Utpal From: Chan Mahanta cmaha...@gmail.com To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world assam@assamnet.org Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: Re: [Assam] misuse of this mailing list That was perceptive of you Sushanta. Manoj, I know Bhuban Kokaideu, nearly 80, very well. He is from Namti, same place I grew up in. Worked for BBC for a long time and lives with his family at London and in Spain parts of the year. Jyotirmay does have a point. But I am quite sure BK has been doing what he has been, in his way of keeping the semblance of a life ticking in this net. I used to be a major trouble-maker in Assamnet. But I have gotten tired of the same old, same old, even though I am open to lighting small fires now and then. Unfortunately one or two participants cannot really generate a meaningful discourse. There is a dearth of participants, perhaps due to apathy, perhaps due to a lingering fear of speaking openly and frankly and perhaps because of a weariness, like yours truly's. Even though I have a nominal presence in Facebook, I rarely participate there either. So my absence from this net has had nothing to do with social or anti-social media of any kind :-). Best. cm On Jun 3, 2012, at 1:14 PM, Sushanta Kar wrote: Dear All, I was also thinking that way like all of you about B Baruah's mails. But, I gave another thought. Please don't take it otherwise. Have you noticed this mail group is no more as active as it was in pre-Facebook dates? All most all of us became less active here. It's only he who is keeping this mail
Re: [Assam] Beekeeping at the Mahanta Apiary
Very interesting Chandan da. Will look forward to testing mead :) From: Chan Mahanta cmaha...@gmail.com To: Utpal Brahma utpal_bra...@yahoo.com; A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world assam@assamnet.org Cc: Chan Mahanta cmaha...@gmail.com Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2012 5:30 PM Subject: Beekeeping at the Mahanta Apiary Now that you asked Utpal :-): It has been quite an awesome journey for me since I took up beekeeping in the spring of 2010. Some of you read about the emotionally roller-coasting experiences: The loss of a queen, laying-worker colony, destruction of the colony, replacement with a new starter in early summer and so forth. Anyway, I managed to get two good colonies going thru the fall of 2010, overwintered them successfully, started the spring of 2011 with two solid colonies ready for the spring honey collection. I split off some combs from both the two strong colonies and made a third one with a new queen purchased thru our bee-club. The two older colonies started collecting honey in earnest as soon as the nectar-flow began and the third built up strength to join in the effort early in summer. I extracted my first honey during the Memorial-day weekend of ( last one of May) of 2011, and kept harvesting until mid-July. I extracted 327 lbs. of honey by the time I stopped. That was much more than my wildest expectations. Samples of our bounty traveled across the continent and beyond the oceans, all the way to Assam. I sold some too. But UPS got a whole lot more on shipping costs than my sales could make up for. My mentor in the club told me that our crop was much, much above the average yield of the club members. I attribute that to the strength of the colonies -- all the hard work paid off-- and the abundance of nectar in our environs. As if all that was not enough, I took up mead making. Mead is wine made from honey and is the earliest form of wine that humans ever brewed. Soma is speculated to be honey-wine, as was the Greeks' Ambrosia. 8 thousand year old Egyptian honey-wine remains have been discovered in the Pyramids. More recently, the merrymaking libations supplied by Friar Tuck to Robin Hood and and his band was mead. So, as you can see, mead has a sweet and intoxicating history. I used 15 lbs. of my finest clover honey to start a batch of 5 gallons of mead on New Years day, 2012. Today I am cleaning salvaged wine bottles to bottle 4.5 gallons of our very drinkable mead. It tastes like semi-sweet Riesling. If you pay us a visit, we shall break bread, or more precisely, partake of maasor-tenga with a fine bottle of Mahanta Mead of the Ole Jamestown Apiary, 2011 vintage. Experts say, however, that mead should be aged at least a year for it to taste good, better still with about three years of aging. I doubt my 4.5 gallons will last that long. That was the good news. My bees ran into trouble in the summer of 2012. By the end of fall I lost three of my hives. Only one overwintered successfully, but that hive got diseased by March, and after returning from Assam by the last week of March, I was without a single hive. It was devastating. The roller-coaster never seems to end. Next: A renewed Attempt at Rebuilding and Trapping Feral Swarms. c-da On Jun 3, 2012, at 3:26 PM, Utpal Brahma wrote: But Chandanda, Your Bee story was awsome. I -- nay am sure we -- look forward to reading more of it. Perhaps even some Hollywood producers can pick it up and make a new Blockbuster The Bee Story much like The Antz or The Toy Story. Very curious to know how is your Bee adventure going on . Utpal From: Chan Mahanta cmaha...@gmail.com To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world assam@assamnet.org Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: Re: [Assam] misuse of this mailing list That was perceptive of you Sushanta. Manoj, I know Bhuban Kokaideu, nearly 80, very well. He is from Namti, same place I grew up in. Worked for BBC for a long time and lives with his family at London and in Spain parts of the year. Jyotirmay does have a point. But I am quite sure BK has been doing what he has been, in his way of keeping the semblance of a life ticking in this net. I used to be a major trouble-maker in Assamnet. But I have gotten tired of the same old, same old, even though I am open to lighting small fires now and then. Unfortunately one or two participants cannot really generate a meaningful discourse. There is a dearth of participants, perhaps due to apathy, perhaps due to a lingering fear of speaking openly and frankly and perhaps because of a weariness, like yours truly's. Even though I have a nominal presence in Facebook, I rarely participate there either. So my absence from this net has had nothing to do with social or anti-social media of any kind :-). Best. cm
Re: [Assam] Beekeeping at the Mahanta Apiary
C-da: This is delightful! Three years of aging, did you say? I think you should be prepared for a run on your mead. Waiting eagerly for further posts - Santanu. From: assam-boun...@assamnet.org [assam-boun...@assamnet.org] on behalf of Chan Mahanta [cmaha...@gmail.com] Sent: Sunday, June 03, 2012 4:30 PM To: Utpal Brahma; A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world Subject: [Assam] Beekeeping at the Mahanta Apiary Now that you asked Utpal :-): It has been quite an awesome journey for me since I took up beekeeping in the spring of 2010. Some of you read about the emotionally roller-coasting experiences: The loss of a queen, laying-worker colony, destruction of the colony, replacement with a new starter in early summer and so forth. Anyway, I managed to get two good colonies going thru the fall of 2010, overwintered them successfully, started the spring of 2011 with two solid colonies ready for the spring honey collection. I split off some combs from both the two strong colonies and made a third one with a new queen purchased thru our bee-club. The two older colonies started collecting honey in earnest as soon as the nectar-flow began and the third built up strength to join in the effort early in summer. I extracted my first honey during the Memorial-day weekend of ( last one of May) of 2011, and kept harvesting until mid-July. I extracted 327 lbs. of honey by the time I stopped. That was much more than my wildest expectations. Samples of our bounty traveled across the continent and beyond the oceans, all the way to Assam. I sold some too. But UPS got a whole lot more on shipping costs than my sales could make up for. My mentor in the club told me that our crop was much, much above the average yield of the club members. I attribute that to the strength of the colonies -- all the hard work paid off-- and the abundance of nectar in our environs. As if all that was not enough, I took up mead making. Mead is wine made from honey and is the earliest form of wine that humans ever brewed. Soma is speculated to be honey-wine, as was the Greeks' Ambrosia. 8 thousand year old Egyptian honey-wine remains have been discovered in the Pyramids. More recently, the merrymaking libations supplied by Friar Tuck to Robin Hood and and his band was mead. So, as you can see, mead has a sweet and intoxicating history. I used 15 lbs. of my finest clover honey to start a batch of 5 gallons of mead on New Years day, 2012. Today I am cleaning salvaged wine bottles to bottle 4.5 gallons of our very drinkable mead. It tastes like semi-sweet Riesling. If you pay us a visit, we shall break bread, or more precisely, partake of maasor-tenga with a fine bottle of Mahanta Mead of the Ole Jamestown Apiary, 2011 vintage. Experts say, however, that mead should be aged at least a year for it to taste good, better still with about three years of aging. I doubt my 4.5 gallons will last that long. That was the good news. My bees ran into trouble in the summer of 2012. By the end of fall I lost three of my hives. Only one overwintered successfully, but that hive got diseased by March, and after returning from Assam by the last week of March, I was without a single hive. It was devastating. The roller-coaster never seems to end. Next: A renewed Attempt at Rebuilding and Trapping Feral Swarms. c-da On Jun 3, 2012, at 3:26 PM, Utpal Brahma wrote: But Chandanda, Your Bee story was awsome. I -- nay am sure we -- look forward to reading more of it. Perhaps even some Hollywood producers can pick it up and make a new Blockbuster The Bee Story much like The Antz or The Toy Story. Very curious to know how is your Bee adventure going on . Utpal From: Chan Mahanta cmaha...@gmail.com To: A Mailing list for people interested in Assam from around the world assam@assamnet.org Sent: Sunday, June 3, 2012 2:39 PM Subject: Re: [Assam] misuse of this mailing list That was perceptive of you Sushanta. Manoj, I know Bhuban Kokaideu, nearly 80, very well. He is from Namti, same place I grew up in. Worked for BBC for a long time and lives with his family at London and in Spain parts of the year. Jyotirmay does have a point. But I am quite sure BK has been doing what he has been, in his way of keeping the semblance of a life ticking in this net. I used to be a major trouble-maker in Assamnet. But I have gotten tired of the same old, same old, even though I am open to lighting small fires now and then. Unfortunately one or two participants cannot really generate a meaningful discourse. There is a dearth of participants, perhaps due to apathy, perhaps due to a lingering fear of speaking openly and frankly and perhaps because of a weariness, like yours truly's. Even though I have a nominal presence in Facebook, I rarely participate there either. So my absence from this net has had
Re: [Assam] Beekeeping at the Mahanta Apiary
Beekeeping has to be an interesting work. I congratulate Mahanta da for his success and hope it would encourage people back home in Assam. Traditional activities of such types can only be carried out if we have a 'mati-ghor' (of even a small in size). Increasing 'flat-culture' may have advantages, but such a life-style would also prevent us doing many things in our lives. Specifically traditional activities such as bee-keeping, gardening (maintaining both - phul and xaakoni bari), keeping orchids, if possible keeping a small fishery, etc can be great stress-relievers and for many if seriously carried out (with interest and self-respect) can be source of good income. During my childhood, I had seen one of my uncles (mumaideo), keeping bee; later he concentrated only on his fisheries and tea-plantations. What is the present status of bee-keeping in Assam? Does anyone still produces honey in Assam? Is there any local firm/ a local brand? Is there any local expert? In Assam, we had/ have maximum potentials for these activities; while at the same time, I still remember how low-quality-adulterated these products were, when we tried to buy from market. As far as Baruah bordeuta's mail-links, I believe he can provide us with examples and mail-links with his experience in the European countries, which can be thought provoking and can be related to Assam and her development or related to Assamese lives. As few of the members have already pointed out that with internet and interest, majority of the members follow common news portals. And let us stick to the issues related 'global' Assamese lives (including the Assamese in Assam) and stick to Assam focused news (including that, say something in Spain, which can be related to us or Assam) in this group. Amitabh Kakoty On Mon, Jun 4, 2012 at 12:30 AM, Chan Mahanta cmaha...@gmail.com wrote: Now that you asked Utpal :-): It has been quite an awesome journey for me since I took up beekeeping in the spring of 2010. Some of you read about the emotionally roller-coasting experiences: The loss of a queen, laying-worker colony, destruction of the colony, replacement with a new starter in early summer and so forth. Anyway, I managed to get two good colonies going thru the fall of 2010, overwintered them successfully, started the spring of 2011 with two solid colonies ready for the spring honey collection. I split off some combs from both the two strong colonies and made a third one with a new queen purchased thru our bee-club. The two older colonies started collecting honey in earnest as soon as the nectar-flow began and the third built up strength to join in the effort early in summer. I extracted my first honey during the Memorial-day weekend of ( last one of May) of 2011, and kept harvesting until mid-July. I extracted 327 lbs. of honey by the time I stopped. That was much more than my wildest expectations. Samples of our bounty traveled across the continent and beyond the oceans, all the way to Assam. I sold some too. But UPS got a whole lot more on shipping costs than my sales could make up for. My mentor in the club told me that our crop was much, much above the average yield of the club members. I attribute that to the strength of the colonies -- all the hard work paid off-- and the abundance of nectar in our environs. As if all that was not enough, I took up mead making. Mead is wine made from honey and is the earliest form of wine that humans ever brewed. Soma is speculated to be honey-wine, as was the Greeks' Ambrosia. 8 thousand year old Egyptian honey-wine remains have been discovered in the Pyramids. More recently, the merrymaking libations supplied by Friar Tuck to Robin Hood and and his band was mead. So, as you can see, mead has a sweet and intoxicating history. I used 15 lbs. of my finest clover honey to start a batch of 5 gallons of mead on New Years day, 2012. Today I am cleaning salvaged wine bottles to bottle 4.5 gallons of our very drinkable mead. It tastes like semi-sweet Riesling. If you pay us a visit, we shall break bread, or more precisely, partake of maasor-tenga with a fine bottle of Mahanta Mead of the Ole Jamestown Apiary, 2011 vintage. Experts say, however, that mead should be aged at least a year for it to taste good, better still with about three years of aging. I doubt my 4.5 gallons will last that long. That was the good news. My bees ran into trouble in the summer of 2012. By the end of fall I lost three of my hives. Only one overwintered successfully, but that hive got diseased by March, and after returning from Assam by the last week of March, I was without a single hive. It was devastating. The roller-coaster never seems to end. Next: A renewed Attempt at Rebuilding and Trapping Feral Swarms. c-da On Jun 3, 2012, at 3:26 PM, Utpal Brahma wrote: But Chandanda, Your Bee story was awsome. I -- nay am sure we -- look forward to reading more of it. Perhaps even
