Heather honey plant, which is a shrub evergreen plant. This perennial can be found in peat bogs and wastelands. In mass quantities, it grows in burnt-out areas and deforested areas, forming dense thickets.
The content of the article
- 1 Significance for agriculture
- 1.1 Types
- 2 Agrotechnics
- 3 Honey productivity
- 3.1 Pumping features
- 4 Useful Properties
Significance for agriculture
With a spectacular appearance, the shrub is absolutely unpretentious to weather conditions. Designers willingly use it for landscape decoration, for example, in Japanese gardens. After all, this perennial is an absolute record holder in life expectancy – it grows in one place up to 40 years, depending on the variety, it reaches a height of 25 to 90 centimeters, blooms brightly and for a long time, goes well with dwarf trees, shrubs, conifers (juniper, cypress).
Types
In biology, this plant is considered monotypic. But due to the peculiarity of the location and flowering time, beekeepers distinguish two types of honey plants:
1.Heather mountain – shrub reaching half a meter in height. It has dark emerald lanceolate leaves. Its purple one-sided inflorescences are collected in tassels, exuding a specific aroma. The variety blooms in the third decade of July. The flowering period lasts until late autumn.
2. Heather swamp – a shrub plant growing up to 0,9-1 meters in height. In appearance, it is similar to the so-called mountain variety. It also has a pungent honey smell. It dissolves twelve days earlier than the mountain – about mid-July. It pumps to bloom by mid-August.
Why are woodland and sandy varieties not included in this list? These varieties are extremely sensitive to weather conditions, so they are not suitable for constant honey collection.
Agrotechnics
It propagates in the spring in several ways at once: by seeds (used for growing seedlings), layering, cuttings, seedlings.
The easiest way is to divide the rhizomes… In October, the plant is dug up, removed together with a lump of earth, carefully divided the bush in half and both parts are placed in the ground, placing them in different holes.
Cuttings are obtained from the tops of the strongest plants. The resulting branches are planted for the winter in a mixture of peat and sand (one part to three). The temperature in the room during wintering should not exceed 20-21 degrees.
In the spring, the rooted seedlings are transferred to open ground. The distance between the holes is 0,4-0,5 meters. The bottom is mulched with coniferous sawdust or small chips.
When growing seedlings from seeds, the transfer of seedlings to the ground is possible only after 18 months. Therefore, this method is not very popular.
Honey productivity
From one hectare of heather plantations, you can get from 150 to 200 kilograms of nectar.
The nectar content of this plant depends on the moisture content of the air.… Because of this specific feature, beekeepers try to keep a special diary, recording the weather in a particular area.
In dry times, the bog variety releases nectar much more intensively than the mountain variety – the honey collection from it is more stable. And in the rainy season, the mountain variety, on the contrary, develops better and releases much more nectar of the marsh variety.
One bee colony can bring from 15 to 60 kilograms of nectar during the flowering period, as well as a large amount of pollen.
As already noted, honey productivity directly depends on favorable climatic conditions. To ensure a safe bribe in a nomadic apiary, beekeepers keep regular records, recording changes in weather conditions. This helps to avoid annoying mistakes – families do not work for nothing.
Bee colonies wandering to heather thickets always grow stronger in winter, in contrast to stationary bee colonies.
To do this, promising nests are strengthened with brood, and up to five frames of foundation are added to them, providing a sufficient number of honeycombs.
If the colonies are weak, they are united. After all, only a strong nest can work to the maximum. At the same time, the “queen” is artificially changed by inoculating mature queen cells between store combs. The young “queen” begins to sow in the second or third decade of August, thereby increasing the bee colony to bribe from heather plantations.
Pumping features
The honey is pumped out unsealed! Frames are best drained when the temperature of the hive is maintained. At the same time, about half of the honeycombs must be cut off from the nest honeycombs with a hot knife.
After pumping out, honey is kept in an open container at a temperature of 20 to 30 degrees for seven days. During this time, it matures and becomes ready for long-term storage.
There is an opinion that bees do not tolerate wintering well on heather honey. But there is no separate ban on it.
Useful Properties
Heather honey is usually reddish or dark brownish in color. It tastes with a characteristic bitterness, has a strong persistent aroma.
The product contains many protein compounds, thanks to which it does not crystallize, but coagulates, acquiring a jelly-like form. Blending is not typical of this variety – it does not mix with other types of honey.
Traditional medicine claims that heather honey helps:
- with rheumatic pains;
- with dropsy;
- with bronchitis and asthma;
- with diseases of the gastrointestinal tract;
- with prolonged diarrhea and low acidity of gastric juice.
Heather honey is recommended to improve appetite, relieve headaches, and calm nerves.
For those who do not sleep well at night, it is enough to eat just one teaspoon of a sweet treat – the sleep is guaranteed to be strong and restful.
