Honey is full. Honey is full for bees Proportions of honey is full

Breeding bees is a complex process that requires constant attention and careful care of the breeder. One of the main issues that worries beekeepers is feeding bees in the spring. Many people doubt whether to choose sugar syrup or honey syrup. More experienced experts are inclined to believe that honey is still closer to a natural product and will bring more benefits to insects.

Roughly speaking, honey satiety is honey diluted with water. Only the proportions and methods of feeding change. The consistency depends on the time of year in which feeding will be carried out. For example, in the spring it is not recommended to give bees a large amount of liquid; Accordingly, to prepare honey satiation you need to use more honey and less water.

Find out more about the beneficial properties of different types of honey: sainfoin, chestnut, buckwheat, linden, phacelia, May, coriander, hawthorn, acacia, fireweed.

The natural components, vitamins and minerals included in its composition are very important for the life of insects and are as close as possible to their usual diet, consisting of pollen and nectar.

Important! Sugar feeding is acceptable for bees, but is high in carbohydrates and lacks the minerals and vitamins that they constantly need. Honey full used to encourage the queen to lay as many eggs as possible; This type of feeding is called incentive feeding and is used for brood production and apiary strengthening. Most often, it is added to the diet of insects in the spring, when food supplies in the hives are exhausted, and the flowers have not yet bloomed and the bees cannot feed themselves.

Cooking full

Honey satiety is very simple to prepare, and there are many recipes for its preparation. Many beekeepers, in addition to the main ingredients, add pieces of lard, dried insects (queens, ants), herbs and spices, and sometimes even vodka to the treat; however, the benefits of these impurities are difficult to assess. We offer basic classic recipes for this nutritious supplement.

"Thickly full". If absolutely all the honey is removed from the hive, it is necessary to take care of feeding the insects for the winter. To do this, you need to dilute honey with warm boiled water in a ratio of 4:1.

"Average full". This mixture is prepared so that bees reproduce better, and it is done as follows: add 1 liter of warm boiled water to 1 liter of honey and mix thoroughly.

"Liquid full". If the bees still have reserves, but they need to be encouraged to lay eggs, the feed is prepared as follows: for 1 liter of honey, take 2 liters of boiled warm water and mix well. Important! If you use bulk honey with wax residues for filling, you need to take ¼ more of the main ingredient. After combining with water, you need to strain the wax or simply squeeze it out with your hands.

What time to feed the bees

Bees are fed in spring, summer and early autumn.

The most important - choose the right time for spring feeding bees It should be started 5 weeks before the insects start swarming. Here, each beekeeper must rely on his own experience, because depending on climatic conditions, this period may occur at different times.

During the summer bees are given additional food only when insects are unable to fly out of the hives for nectar. This can happen due to bad weather, when it rains continuously and it is quite cool outside.

You can make a honey extractor, a wax refiner, a Dadan hive and a multi-body hive with your own hands.

Autumn feeding you can support the bees and give them the opportunity to reliably and abundantly stock up on supplies for the winter, which will definitely be enough. This method is used as reinsurance, or when absolutely all the honey has been removed from the hive.

Did you know? Bee colonies are staffed exclusively by females, who have many responsibilities. Each of them walks along the steps of the “career ladder”: initially the bees are allowed exclusively to warm up and ventilate the hive for the queen, then they clean the cells for her eggs, the next step is feeding the larvae, this is followed by receiving honey from the honey collectors, and only after that the long-awaited promotion, permission to fly out in search of honey.

How often and in what portions to feed

In order to feed 100 families, it is necessary to prepare 13-15 liters of food. On bad weather days, the bees are fed additionally by distributing half a liter of treats in the evening. Evening feeding is due to the fact that at this time it is unlikely that other bees will attack the meal of your insects. Portions of such a dinner should be distributed as follows: the weaker are given a little more, and the strong - a little less than the specified norm.

You should definitely pay attention to the amount of supplies that the inhabitants of the hive managed to prepare or did not have time to finish eating. If they are available, you can get by with a small amount of liquid satiety, but if they are sorely absent, you need to prepare a thick one. Here you need to navigate and act according to the situation, as well as based on your own experience.

We can definitely say that feeding is needed even when there are reserves, since this stimulates the uterus to lay eggs more actively. In addition, a small amount of honey delicacy helps hard workers take a break from their continuous work. The 20-day break between the flowering of the first spring fruit trees and the beginning of the flowering of mustard and nuts is considered difficult for honey plants that live in fields.

Most often, this period occurs at the end of May, when lilac and viburnum bushes bloom. It is very important not to miss this hungry period of time due to the fact that it is during this period that active reproduction occurs and bees especially need nourishing food. Such situations do not arise only in flax apiaries, where such breaks practically do not occur.

Did you know? To fly into the hive, a bee must confirm its membership in the family. To do this, insects use a special smell that humans cannot smell, but bee guardians easily separate their own from strangers.

How to give food to bees

To carry out feeding, special feeders are installed inside the hives. They are frame or over-frame structures in which glassware is placed with several layers of gauze stretched over it. The jar is placed above the entrance to the house with the bottom up, which makes food easily accessible for absorption by insects. It is also allowed to fill the honeycombs with honey.

Feeding bees full honey is much better and safer than its sugar or even synthetic analogues. To guarantee a high-quality product at the end, that is, honey, you should not skimp on the bees’ nutrition, but feed them with natural, high-quality supplements. The result will pleasantly please you, and the insects will certainly be grateful.

Have you ever wondered what is better: sugar syrup for bees or honey? What is better, natural food or substitutes?

Of course, you can’t ask the bees themselves about this. All experienced beekeepers also have different opinions on this matter. Books on beekeeping topics, especially publications from Soviet times, clearly state that honey is for people, and honey substitutes are for honey-bearing insects.

But who decided this for the bees themselves? Of course, in his practice, a beekeeper has to feed his charges. But why, how and when is it better?

Of all the food for bees, the best is natural or natural, complete food - this is brought nectar, which, and fresh pollen, which becomes beebread in the honeycombs.

But due to the fact that overwintering bee colonies on natural honey is considered detrimental to the life of the bee colonies themselves, beekeepers replace it with sugar syrup.

Some beekeepers, in pursuit of profit, believe that it is necessary to take away all the natural food from the bees. So, replacing honey with feed substitutes is their direct job.

But, if you look from the outside, then replacing feed and feeding families means additional costs for purchasing sugar + work on unnecessary selection of honey +

Work on making syrups + work on giving this syrup to bee families + work on selling selected honey.

At the time of writing, the wholesale price of honey in Ukraine is slightly higher than the price of sugar.

So, not all beekeepers benefit from changing the food of their charges. But that's just my opinion.

Apiary farming must be managed in such a way as to ensure the availability of feed throughout the year. By the way, experienced beekeepers pump honey only from the upper buildings or honey stores.

Everything that is below in the nest belongs to the bees.

Printing honey in spring or fall to feed bees.

With this approach, beekeepers only print honey in spare combs in the fall and spring and place it in the hive behind a guard board.

Bee colonies use this food to transport it in the fall to a folded nest for the winter, and in the spring for their development and seeding.

But in practice, everything happens. Sometimes these feeds are not enough and you have to feed the bees with honey substitutes.

So what is better - sugar syrup for bees or honey satiety?

Honey is full

Cooked honey is full.

Of all the feed substitutes, only honey feed is closest to natural feed - honey.

And all because it is made entirely from a natural product. If prepared correctly, it is actually not inferior to the healing properties of honey.

But, flower nectar (bribes in nature) is still at least a little bit better, because it is natural.

Honey satiety is most often used for stimulating feeding in autumn or spring. But sometimes beekeepers use it to replenish food in winter, but very rarely.

Because there is no point in taking winter food reserves from bee colonies, and then again giving it to them for feeding.

Although this sometimes happens if you need to replenish supplies or replace food in one or more families.

For this, beekeepers most often use honey that is collected from the top of the container in which it is stored.

When selecting honey, it is filtered through a strainer and poured into a container. But still, some of the wax debris floats up after a while.

This top of the settled product is most often used by beekeepers in honey feeding.

For stimulating feeding, it is prepared in a ratio of 1 X 1 with boiled water (per 1 kg of honey - 1 liter of water). But you can make it a little weaker, add less honey.

But to replenish feed for the winter, it is made thicker. For 1 liter of water you need 1.5 kg of honey. The basic rule for its preparation is that honey should not be overheated above 50˚C.

To do this, boil the calculated dose of water. Then they let it cool and then mix it with honey.

If during mixing, the honey has cooled down a little, then you can warm it up a little. And then distribute it slightly warm to the bees.

Sugar syrup for bees

If there are no spare combs with honey or nothing to make honey from, then beekeepers make sugar syrup for bees.

Although, some beekeepers believe that it is the best of all feedings. It also depends on the purpose of feeding.

For stimulating feeding 1 X 1 (1 kg of sugar per 1 liter of water). For making 2 kg of sugar - 1 liter of water.

The same proportion is given in early spring, when the bees cannot yet fly out of the hive, since it is still cold, but they have already made a cleansing flight.

It is made as follows. First, boil water and then add a dose of sugar.

To add flavor and to make the bees more willing to take the syrup, it is recommended to add a little honey to it. And then the slightly warm food is distributed to the bee colonies.

I would like to add that only white sugar is suitable for making winter food. It is believed that dark granulated sugar contains too many yeast impurities and the food from it can ferment.

Although this sugar is perfect in the spring. As for the use of beet or cane sugar, beekeepers do not see much difference when making fertilizer.

What's better

There is not much difference in distributing sugar syrup or honey to the bees.

To do this, use various types of feeders, plastic bottles, just sushi frames and other devices.

The only thing that needs to be taken care of is the safety of the event. Very often, inexperienced beekeepers feed bees. And it’s easier to prevent it than to fight it later.

But still, the best food for honey insects is their natural food (nectar - honey, pollen - beebread).

How can simple sugar syrup replace the natural ingredients found in honey and bee bread?

Hence the strength of the families, their development in the spring and the honey productivity of the apiary.

In my opinion, most beekeepers, due to remnants of past times, consider it unsuitable for wintering bees.

What did this lead to? In our area there are practically no bees in the wild anymore. And don't blame the varroa mite alone for this.

Natural feed cannot be replaced with sugar syrup, adding various additives to it in order to somehow improve its quality. Why invent all this?

Bees lived, live and will live in the wild on natural food, but, unfortunately, no longer in our area.

And they will live longer, in those places where they are preserved, if people stop interfering in their evolution, taking away their honey completely.

People who breed bees and have their own apiaries pay close attention to the issue of feeding. The leader in modern beekeeping is honey satiety. Let's consider all the important points in the article.

One of the most important issues in beekeeping is the issue of feeding. In the summer, the bees are sufficiently saturated with the nectars of the fruit-bearing plants, which spring cannot boast of, but even in the summer, before the honey-bearing season begins, they need additional food. During this period, the beekeeper is faced with the question: “What to choose? Sugar syrup or honey sati? And we will answer you: “I’m full of honey!”

This product is as close to natural as possible, so bees willingly absorb it and turn it into reserves, and this type of food will bring more benefits to working insects and, most importantly, will not cause harm. It is important to use natural honey, without any kind of injections.

Honey satiety is honey diluted with water in different proportions. The consistency, method of feeding and the ratio of ingredients depend on the time of year. So, for example, in the spring bees do not require a large amount of moisture, so the ideal honey-water ratio would be 3:1. This type of additional feed is convenient for the apiary owner himself.

A good owner always has a lot of honey, so there should be no problems when cooking. Moreover, it is not necessary to use fresh honey to prepare it; the surplus from last years is also perfect.

What are the other benefits of honey satiety? The beekeeping product that workers put into honeycombs is natural, not as candied as when fed with sugar syrup. On food that is as close as possible to natural food, bees increase their numbers faster, get sick less and survive the winter well.

This type of food is also used to stimulate the queen’s oviposition, in order to obtain a large bee family by spring, which will bring a large amount of nectar in one flight.

Composition and properties

The usual diet for bees consists of pollen and nectar, which they process into bee products. The composition of honey contains only natural ingredients, vitamins and minerals, which are contained in the nectar itself and clean, drinking water. They are extremely important for the life of insects, so a product that is as close as possible to the usual diet serves as a wonderful supplement.

The composition, unlike analogues, contains the correct ratio of microelements: proteins, fats and carbohydrates. For example, sugar syrup contains an excessive amount of carbohydrates and sugar, but the amount of vitamins and minerals is extremely small, so it may not provide the bees with a supply of necessary substances.

As mentioned earlier, honey nourishment supports the vital activity of bees better than its analogues. Thanks to the composition, bees get sick less, survive the winter well and receive the supply of vitamins, minerals and trace elements they need in the correct ratio. The honey product does not harm the health of bees, which cannot be said about sugar syrup, for example. It is very important to have the correct honey-water ratio at different times of the year so that insects receive the necessary supply of nutrients.

Honey is also used to stimulate egg laying by the uterus. This is done mainly in the spring. By spring, the bee colony thins out and in order for them to be able to feed themselves in the following months, they use this type of additional food, because it helps to increase the number of insects.

Application

Honey feed is directly used to feed the bee colony. At the beginning of spring, when the flight ends, the beekeeper becomes aware of how much food the bee colony has left. If the winter food is all eaten or there is very little of it left, and there are no completely filled frames, the owner of the apiary begins to feed the insects well enough.

Feeding is especially important for weak and poorly overwintered bees, because without the help of the owner it will be difficult for them to recover and regain their strength. Restoring poorly overwintered bees is only possible with careful feeding, with a balanced composition of carbohydrates and proteins, and in this situation, if the ratio of carbohydrates is slightly higher than proteins and fats, this will be beneficial, the main thing is not to overdo it.

In summer, only insects whose apiaries are located in regions with a large gap between honey collections need additional food. In “non-flying” weather, which is accompanied by heavy rains and frosts, insects also need a portion of food until they can feed themselves with nectar.

Preparation

To prepare this type of additional food, both liquid honey and a candied bee product are suitable.

From liquid honey

1. Pour water into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Then cool to 40°C and add the beekeeping product. Stir until completely dissolved.
2. Cool the resulting solution to room temperature so as not to harm insects. Feeding insects is carried out with a warm solution.

From candied honey

1. Candied honey is melted in a water bath; it is important not to overheat the beekeeping product.
2. Water is poured into a pan and brought to a boil, cooled to 40°C, and then mixed with melted nectar.
3. The resulting liquid is cooled to room temperature.
4. The honey is ready for use.

Top dressing

To feed 100+ families, you need from 14 to 17 kilograms of food. +/- 1–2 kilograms are prepared for bad weather.

It is very important to choose the right time to introduce additional food to the bees. The ideal time is 35 days before the insects start swarming. In different apiaries, in different regions, this process begins differently. Each beekeeper must calculate this period himself.

In the summer, feeding is carried out only when the insects do not have the opportunity to feed themselves on their own, that is, in the case of “non-flying” weather, then half a liter of food is usually poured out in the evening, because at this time of day there is an extremely low probability of alien bees attacking a treat for your apiary. It is better to distribute this food this way: give weak members of the family a little more than the given amount of food, and give strong and healthy members a little less.

In the fall, it is worth providing support to the working insects and feeding them plenty of honey so that they can prepare enough supplies for the winter. Feeding at this time of year is carried out for insurance purposes, or when all the reserves of the bee colony have been withdrawn.

Do not forget that the consistency of bee feeding depends on the time of year, it can be:

• Medium concentration. Used in early spring, when insects need to strengthen their strength and increase the size of their family;
• Thick concentration. It is used to increase the bees' food reserves after checking the food reserves, i.e. also in early spring. Honey-water ratio 5:1;
• Liquid. Used when connecting two colonies into one family, the honey-water concentration varies within 1:2.

Analogues

The main analogue is definitely sugar syrup.

Sugar syrup is made by beekeepers only when honey supplies are exhausted. Some beekeepers claim that sugar syrup suits the bees better than honey syrup. Honey turns out sweeter and does not crystallize as quickly. Yes, this is the absolute truth. But very sweet honey loses 1/3 of its nutrients, and also increases calorie content. But that's not the main thing.

The insect family itself suffers from improper feeding with sugar syrup. Unscrupulous beekeepers feed bees syrup, often replacing their natural food with artificial food. As a result of this, insects do not have enough vitamins and minerals for normal life, so bees often get sick or die.

In addition, feeding bees with sugar syrup is unprofitable for the beekeeper himself. If we look at the profitability of the apiary and the prices for sugar syrup ingredients, we will get a difference in amounts, the preponderance of which will be in the ingredients.

Conclusion

Proper feeding of the bee colony is extremely important, especially in the spring, when bees that have wintered poorly are exhausted and need additional supplies of nutrients. The best choice is honey satiety, a product that is as close as possible to the usual insect food. The quantity, taste, aroma and characteristics of future honey, as well as the health and condition of the bees, depend on the quality and correctness of feeding.

A conscientious beekeeper must take a responsible approach to feeding his colonies and preparing honey, because the consistency of this type of feeding depends on the time of year, the condition of the bees and the size of the bee colony. Honey feed is the best feeding option for insects; unlike its analogues, it has the correct ratio of microelements that will be useful to bees and will not harm them.

Spring feeding of bees is important - the strength of the apiary during honey collection will significantly depend on it. Of course, it is necessary to provide the bee colonies with the necessary nutrition starting in the fall. But often the food runs out before the onset of stable heat. In this case, you will need to fertilize.

Each beekeeper selects the timing of spring feeding independently, depending on weather conditions and the beginning of mass flowering of honey plants. However, insects are most often fed in March-April, that is, during the first flyby.

General characteristics of spring feeding

Winter feeding is necessary to prevent the death of bee colonies. Feeding bees in the spring, in addition to the obvious provision of food for insects, has other purposes. It promotes increased egg laying of the “queen” and, consequently, an increase in the number of families and an increase in honey yield.

Also, such feeding inhibits the flight of bees and their possible death as a result, since in early spring the weather is still unstable and frosts often occur. It can also have the opposite effect - stimulating flight. In addition, if necessary, medications are added to it to prevent the development of diseases.

Depending on the purpose, the composition of the feed will vary. Usually, if it is necessary to replenish food supplies, honey is given. If necessary, stimulate reproductive abilities, bees are fed with syrup. To increase productivity, you will need protein feed.

Feeding with sugar syrup

Feeding bees with sugar syrup is the easiest and most convenient option. Typically, such food is given when a stable temperature occurs (within 10-15⁰C), as it stimulates insects to fly out. The syrup also improves immunity, facilitates the fight against diseases and prevents the formation of rot.

To prepare sugar syrup for bees, sugar is diluted with boiling water in equal proportions. Then the resulting solution is cooled and poured onto a frame or into a feeder.

This recipe is a classic. But, depending on the weather, the proportions may change. In case of sudden cold weather and strong winds that can kill bees, it is necessary to increase the concentration of syrup so that it becomes thicker and does not provoke flight. But often feeding thick food is not recommended, as it requires additional moisture. Do not use very thin syrup. Digesting it will require a lot of effort from insects and can provoke the extinction of the entire family.

If the beekeeper notices after the first flight that the bees are suffering from nosematosis (diarrhea is its sign), then a special remedy should be added to the food Nozemate. Adding to the syrup (kilogram) will help prevent the development of the disease. acetic acid(3 grams).

Inverted syrup, which contains honey in addition to sugar, will be especially beneficial to insects. For such food, 40 grams of honey per kilogram of sugar is enough. It is much more nutritious than regular syrup because it facilitates the conversion of sugar into glucose.

You should not prepare a lot of syrup in advance - the food must be fresh. In addition, bees eat a cold treat with reluctance, which is why it will have to be reheated regularly. You should not give burnt, fermented or long-stored product: it can be harmful to bee health.

Usually sugar syrup is poured into over-frame or sub-frame feeders, which should be washed well. You should select such an amount of food that the bees eat it completely. The over-frame feeder is filled no more than halfway. Weak families are given food in small portions, but more often.

Recently, bags have become especially popular among beekeepers. And this is no coincidence. First of all, the bags are much cheaper than feeders. In addition, there is no need to keep them clean (feeders often serve as breeding grounds for bacteria that infect insects): the bags are thrown away after use.

If the food is intended to stimulate flights, then it can be placed in small packaging bags. A liter of food is enough for one bee. If the product is used to replenish food supplies, then you will need to find more durable bags with a capacity of 3-4 liters.

First, syrup is poured into the bag, and then the air is removed from it and the edges are tied with a knot. The top of the bag is sprayed with syrup to attract insects.

Protein supplement

Protein food, which includes beebread, pollen and their substitutes (soy flour, milk powder and cow's milk), will help increase egg production and accelerate the development of brood.

Fertilizing with beebread

Bee bread is the main and irreplaceable type of protein food. If it is missing, the queen stops laying eggs, which leads to a stop in the development of the bee colony. To prevent such a situation, it is necessary to ensure that there are always frames with beebread in the hive. If in the summer the bees have prepared a lot of bee bread, then it can be partially removed and returned in the spring as additional feeding.

Before storage, bee bread is cut from the frames and rubbed through a sieve. Make balls from the resulting mass, put them in a jar and fill them with honey.

First, the necks of the jars are tied with gauze, which after a while is replaced with paper. If bee bread is not subjected to sudden temperature changes, it retains its properties until spring. Before preparing the fertilizer, place it in a water bath to melt. If desired, add an aqueous solution of sugar.

If there is no bee bread left in the hives and there are no reserves, and the bees cannot fly out due to bad weather, then substitutes will come to the rescue.

Fertilizing with beebread substitute

There are several recipes for preparing bee bread substitutes:

• Mix well last year's pollen (kilogram), honey (200 grams) and water (150 milliliters). The resulting food is placed on frames and added if necessary.
• Powdered milk (200 grams) and sugar (kilogram) are diluted in boiling water (800 milliliters) and placed in feeders, but little by little, since the mixture quickly sours. If you don't have powdered milk, you can use regular milk.
• Honey (a kilogram) and bee bread (half a kilogram) are mixed well in hot water (half a liter) and filtered through a sieve. Leave the mixture for 2 days to infuse. Each family is given half a liter of this food every 3 days.
• Low-fat soy flour is mixed with pollen in a ratio of 3:1 and kneaded with sugar syrup until dough-like.
• A full-fledged replacement for bee bread will be a protein dough called the Gaidak mixture. To prepare it, mix soy flour, dry milk and dry brewer's yeast in a ratio of 3:1:1. It is advisable to add pollen. They knead the dough, make flat cakes out of it and lay it out on frames.

Feeding with honey

Honey serves as the main food for bees. For the winter, one bee colony needs 20-30 kilograms of honey. If its reserves run out by spring, then you will need to provide the insects with additional feeding, for which you can take old supplies, having previously melted them.

Honey is full

Another undeservedly forgotten, but very effective type of food is honey feed. This is what is called an aqueous solution of honey. It is believed that such fertilizing is not economically profitable, since it requires more costs compared to syrup. But satiate contains vitamins, minerals and biologically active substances, making it as close as possible to nectar.

It has a beneficial effect on bees: it strengthens the immune system and stimulates the body’s activity. It is used to activate oviposition, and also, if necessary, to quickly grow a bee colony. You can add medications to it.

The effect of honey satiety depends on its concentration. It can be liquid, medium thick and thick.

A thick mass is usually used as food; a medium-thin mass is given, if necessary, to stimulate bees to reproduce and fly out. Insects from different families are sprayed with a well-fed liquid so that they quickly get used to each other.

If sytu is prepared from crystallized honey, it is first dissolved using a water bath and then stirred in water. To prepare a liquid product, honey is diluted with twice the volume of water. For a solution of medium consistency, equal proportions of components are used. For thick feed, honey is dissolved in water in a ratio of 4:1.

At a time, a bee colony eats 1-1.3 liters of food. Feeding is most often placed in ceiling feeders, in which a raft should be installed so that the bees can land on it.

Feeding Kandy

If honey reserves are running low, then you can use dough-like carbohydrate food, the recipe for which was developed by Scholz, to feed the bees. There are several Kandi recipes known. It is in this food that medications are usually added.

The best way to prepare honey kandi. For it, honey (26%), powdered sugar (74%), water (0.18%) and acetic acid (0.02%) are mixed. In the absence of honey, the food is prepared a little differently, mixing powdered sugar (70%), invert sugar (29.8%), water (0.18%) and acetic acid (0.02%). You should not replace powder with sugar. As a result of such a replacement, the mass will thicken and become inaccessible to insects. The resulting dough in one piece (weighing 200-300 grams) is placed on top of the frames.

Many beekeepers prefer syrup, believing that candy is inferior in comparison. But, in reality, this is not so. Syrup is preferable when it is necessary to direct the inhabitants of the hive in search of nectar. Kandi does things differently. It improves the immunity and performance of insects.

If you pay due attention to feeding bees in the spring, then your care will pay off handsomely and will allow you to get large and high-quality bribes.

Chapter:
RUSSIAN KITCHEN

Traditional Russian dishes

65th page of the section

Traditional ritual and ceremonial dishes
FULL

Syta is one of the everyday drinks of Ancient Rus' and the Moscow state of the pre-Petrine era. It was prepared by diluting natural bee honey with water, as well as from molasses, which was obtained by evaporating malt wort (barley was sprouted, dried, ground, brewed with hot water and the wort was drained).

Sita was an obligatory ritual dish at the funeral table, and it was usually served with thick jelly. “...On the tables appeared dishes with kutya and kanun, jugs with owl mash and eggplants with honey for the funeral oatmeal jelly...” (P. I. Melnikov-Pechersky. In the forests).

NOTE:
*
— recipes marked with an asterisk can be prepared on fasting days.

*Simple food

Ingredients:

50-60 g honey, 1 liter of water.

Preparation

Dilute the honey with water, boil, removing the foam, then strain and cool.
The amount of honey can be increased to 150-200 g per 1 liter of water if desired.

To prepare a spicy soup, add a few spices to the water to taste.

*Sita lemon

Ingredients:

50-100 g honey, juice of 1 lemon, 1 liter of water.

Preparation

Dilute honey in boiled warm water, cool, add lemon juice, grated zest and let it brew in a cold place.

*Sita fruit (berry)

Ingredients:

50 g honey, 1/2 cup fruit or berry juice, 2 cups water.

Preparation

Dilute honey in boiled warm water, cool, add fruit or berry juice.

You can add a little citric acid to your meal.

*Sita is fragrant

Prepare sati with a decoction of oregano, St. John's wort or other aromatic herb.

Information for the home cook

Honey is stored in glass or enamel containers and always in the dark. Jars of honey should not be kept near strong-smelling foods, as it quickly absorbs the smell, or in a damp place. Honey should not be left in sunlight, as it then loses its biological activity. If liquid honey is needed for consumption, then it is heated in a water bath at a temperature not exceeding 60°C.
You should know that when heated to a temperature of +45°C and above, honey loses its main beneficial properties, turning into a simple sweet syrup. Natural honey (except for some rare varieties) is candied by the end of October. Candied honey retains all its beneficial properties, and it is not advisable to heat it.

Honey can be liquid or thick, crystallized. Liquid honey is usually available in the summer (July-August) during the period of its pumping. After 1-2 months it crystallizes.
Therefore, if liquid honey is sold in winter or spring, it means that it is either heated or adulterated. The exception is honey from white acacia (acacia honey), which does not crystallize for a long time, and heather honey, which turns into a jelly-like mass.