Candle Making, Bloom Survey, Changes to our WebSite

In January we continue with a lot of candle making. We are also checking our catalogs for new types of candles to make - Do you have any ideas of things that you would like? Please let me know.

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Last month we conducted a bloom survey. The results of the survey showed that the majority of people liked the Candle Luster applied to the decorative candles to protect them and enhance their looks. From now on we are going to apply Candle Luster to all our decorative candles and add the "bloom look" as an option.

The standard tapers and cylinders are not affected at all.

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We are going to make many changes to the Candle Shop E-Commerce portion of our site. In the past we have used a service called "Bigstep" which handles our "E-Commerce Store".

We have just purchased a new program called "Quikstore" that is installed on our server. This will allow us to do a lot of new things. There will be more accurate shipping charges (UPS and USPS will actually figure them for us and automatically enter it on your invoice), much more flexibility on the look of pages, and a comprehensive "search" portion of the program where you can search for whatever kind of candle you wish. It may take us a few months to get it up and running and all the info transfered, but until it is done the old program will still be in place.

January at the Honey Farm

The Honey Farm is quiet this time of the year, The honeybees are in their hives and keeping warm - just like people do in the winter.

A new interesting site to look at:
A Thousand Great Places to Bee on the Web!!
This is a great place to look for beekeeping information.

 

Bees key to Defense sting operations

by Chris Walz
Pentagram staff writer

from dcmilitary.com

 

Training animals to perform certain tasks ranges widely from force protection to entertainment. Researchers long ago realized dogs have an acute sense of smell and can be trained to detect bombs and drugs. Pet owners learned relatively recently they can train a dog to open the refrigerator, grab a beer and return to the couch so the human won't miss a moment of Monday Night Football -- a talent worthy of late night television talk show host David Letterman's segment "Stupid Pet Tricks."

But, there aren't many people who see the trick-performing capabilities of common insects. Most people often run for a can of Raid.

The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency, the government's think tank for radical ideas like the Internet and stealth technology, wanted to investigate insects -- especially flying ones.

Jan Walker, an agency spokesperson, said they are interested in learning if ordinary honeybees are able to help human investigators detect nuclear, biological or chemical weapons.

Jerry Bromenshenk, a biological sciences research professor at the University of Montana, served as the team leader for the three-and-a- half-year study. He said there are two modes, or ways, bees can be used for detection purposes.

One way is to send bees into an area of interest to collect data. A honeybee's body has a natural static electricity cling that collects air particles, including dangerous particles from an explosive device.

"We have demonstrated bees can be trained to prefer certain odorants over their usual food sources and this training persists for a useful amount of time," said Dr. Alan Rudolph, Defense Advanced Research Project Agency's Controlled Biological and Biomimetic Systems program manager. "In field tests, bees clustered at locations where we had placed explosives. We have measured probability of detection and false alarm for bees finding targets in the field and have found that they are quite robust. We are also investigating the passive collection of bees and other insects to determine environmental presence of chemical or biological threats."

"Bees can be trained to go to 'odors of interest' when associated with a food source -- similar to [Russian psychologist Ivan] Pavlov's theory," said Walker. "Bees fly around an environment, collect pollen and then go back to the hive. We can put instruments in the hive that detect molecules other than pollen -- like molecules one would find in explosive materials."

Bromenshenk said the static electricity also collects toxic metals, industrial and military chemicals, diseases and anthrax.

The other way to use detection bees is to train them to use their highly sensitive receptors to locate harmful chemicals. Bee handlers use either cameras or binoculars to see when their flight patterns change.

"We've trained bees to fly in a sharp 'zigzag' fashion when they detect a possible bomb," said Bromenshenk. "A colony of bees will fan out and search as far as two miles away. We convinced them an explosive device's vapors are desirable, like pollinating a new type of flower they've never been exposed to. They have a great ability to thoroughly canvas an area quickly."

A Defense Advanced Research Project Agency consultant, Bob Cartledge, told several publictions recently that bees have better sensors than humans and make looking for landmines a lot easier than searching "inch-by-inch with a knife."

Bees do, however, have some drawbacks. Like other detection animals, bees have trouble seeking explosive materials in heavily-sealed containers. A bomb needs to have a leak or a ventilation system for the bees to properly 'hit' on the device, the professor explained.

Bees also won't work in the night, when it's cold or during wetness, and, he added, research so far indicates bees are most likely unable to detect radiation.

Bromenshenk said his team was initially concerned bees may have problems when faced with multiple hits in an area, like a field heavily-saturated with landmines. He wondered if the whole bee colony would converge on the device with the strongest scent or biggest plume.

He said bees are actually easier to train than dogs and are equally reliable, if not more so. The professor claims bees are 90 to 98 percent reliable and have only a 1 to 2 percent false positive record. Bees, he added, can accurately find a cluster of landmines, drugs, biological spores and even decomposing bodies.

"They have an incredible sense of detection and can find particles ranging from a few parts per trillion, and possible even a few parts per quadrillion," he continued. "They are very reliable, very accurate and are on par with [the detection ability] of dogs. But, unlike dogs, bees don't feel the need to bond with their handlers."

A major strength of detection bees, as opposed to dogs, is that bees don't need a leash. Bromenshenk said the bees love their home hive and almost always return.

"Sending a whole colony of bees is more effective than one or two dogs," he said, explaining how his team trains the bees in bulk -- hundreds of thousands of them at a time.

Some critics have argued through various media outlets that bees trained in America may not be able to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq because of differences in the environment and climate. They also argue importing American honeybees into a foreign area, like Iraq, could disrupt fragile ecosystems.

Bromenshenk said it was never a consideration to train only a certain number of bees to detect chemicals and then transport them into foreign territories. His research involved creating a method to train the bees. Bee trainers, he said, can travel and collect native bees to perform searches -- meaning bee handlers would train Iraqi bees to help search for chemicals and other types of weapons.

Most of the technology and research was developed at the University of Montana and the Southwest Research Institute has been called on to validate Bromenshenk's findings.

"Bees," he said, "will help find needles in haystacks."

The Southwest Research Institute built a large mesh-covered tent in its backyard to continue studying bees. The tent is approximately one acre in size and 40-feet tall.

"The tent provides a bridge between the highly-controlled laboratory environment and the myriad conditions, variables, and unknowns associated with realistic field and operational testing," according to the insititute's Web site.

Executive vice president Walter Downing stated in a press release that the institute is also studying moths and rats to see if they can perform similar searches.

from dcmilitary.com

A Year at a Glance
All of our Candle/Honey Newsletter Articles in 2003

	Honey and Candles
January 2003	Wrapping colonies for winter Increase in Honey Prices
February 2003	Candle Burning Tips February at the Honey Farm Raw Honey? February Honey Recipe
March 2003	Candle Decorating Styles New Products World's Famous Beekeepers? March Honey Recipe SWEET & SPICY DIP
April 2003	Usefull Candle Tips Add a GIFT Card to your Order Bee Colony Winter Losses April Honey Recipe PUPPY CHOW
May 2003	Surving the Ice Storm with Candles - Installing Package Bees May Honey Recipe - Roast Turkey with Honey Cranberry Relish
June 2003	New Candle Catalog Making splits & checking colonies Pollination Month June Honey recipe - Orange Cream Spread
July/August 2003	Shedding Light on the Candle's History Checking colonies, Comb honey supers July Honey recipe Rosemary-Infused Honey & Apple-Honey Facial Toner
September 2003	Candle Safety Tips The Honey harvest is starting Raw & Unprocessed Honey? Unfiltered Honey? Pasteurized Honey? Whats the difference? Mead Makers September Honey recipe
October 2003	National Candle Association The Honey Harvest Continues The Importance of Bees in Wartime Boy Bees Have No Dads October Honey recipe From Our Readers Candle Winner & Laugh of the Month
November 2003	From Flower to Flame The Honey Harvest Continues Bees in Wartime Part II November Honey Recipe From Our Readers Candle Winner & Laugh of the Month
December 2003	5 New Items for Christmas Bloom or No Bloom Honey Harvest is Completed Free Book The Christmas Stocking December Honey Recipe From Our Readers Lapeer Concert Choir Candle Winner & Laugh of the Month

 

 

From our readers

This is a section for comments/questions/recipes from our readers. Please read the comments & feel free to put your 2 cents worth in.

Visit the Readers Comments page to view all the content of these messages. Here are samples of this months e-mails:  

Weight of the 12 inch pillars?  ••   Straining honey,  ••  Lead Free Wicks?  ••  Candle Information Sheets

The "From our Readers" Page

Candle W*nner & Laugh of the Month

Congratulations! January candle w*nner is:
ahiggins@ec.rr.com


Will this months w*nner, ahiggins@ec.rr.com
please contact us and so that I can ship your candles.

Our list of previous candle w*nners.

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Click below for something silly to end this newsletter with.

Laugh of the month: The System is Down

See You Next Month!

Honeyflow Farm
4939 Mill Rd.    PO Box 275
Dryden, Michigan 48428
(810) 796-2344 (Phone & Fax)

Comments or questions concerning Honeyflow Farm
should be addressed by clicking on the link: