Important: Most Store-bought Honey is NOT Honey!

[Flying Crane]

I am not surprised. This is what you get when you involve big money in food making and cut corners. Although I am not a big fan of honey I do keep a jar or two at home. I buy them from the beekeeper himself and if you keep it in the right conditions the real honey doesn't spoil. I recently read an artikle about a jar of honey found in an Egyptian tomb, it had lost some of its qualities but it was still edible, this can make you think

Honey simply does not spoil, so the issue of "increasing shelf life" just doesn't makes sense. Honey can crystalize over time, but if you put the jar into a pot of boiling water it will liquify again and is perfectly good.

I don't understand where antibiotics would come from, that could get into honey. Bees are not fed antibiotics, I cannot imagine how one would even try to do that.

How does removing the pollen turn honey into "not honey?"

I think these issues kinda make the original article a little iffy, not sure if someone is trying to push an agenda and might be making some things up?

 

[Instructor]

Honey simply does not spoil, so the issue of "increasing shelf life" just doesn't makes sense. Honey can crystalize over time, but if you put the jar into a pot of boiling water it will liquify again and is perfectly good.

I don't understand where antibiotics would come from, that could get into honey. Bees are not fed antibiotics, I cannot imagine how one would even try to do that.

How does removing the pollen turn honey into "not honey?"

I think these issues kinda make the original article a little iffy, not sure if someone is trying to push an agenda and might be making some things up?

Commercial Honey is sometimes filtered to remove some of the visible pollen. It is still Honey.

Antibiotics and Miticides are sometimes added to the Beehive in order to fight a number of bee diseases and pests. Many hobby keepers such as myself do not use them and prefer an organic approach. Bee maladies such as nosema and varroa are completely harmless to humans.

Much of the honey you buy at the local Wal-Mart is imported from China. Honey from China has been tested to show a lot of things that aren't honey such as beet sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and even lactose (milk stuff). The Chinese keepers are selling the 'funny honey' cheaper than you can buy water per gallon in this country and trying to run american beekeepers like myself out of business.

It isn't working though because when you give people real honey strait from the hive they can taste it's superiority to the store bought stuff. I can't keep the stuff in stock. Locals buy it here just as fast as my bees can produce it.

 

[Flying Crane]

Commercial Honey is sometimes filtered to remove some of the visible pollen. It is still Honey.

Antibiotics and Miticides are sometimes added to the Beehive in order to fight a number of bee diseases and pests. Many hobby keepers such as myself do not use them and prefer an organic approach. Bee maladies such as nosema and varroa are completely harmless to humans.

Much of the honey you buy at the local Wal-Mart is imported from China. Honey from China has been tested to show a lot of things that aren't honey such as beet sugar, high fructose corn syrup, and even lactose (milk stuff). The Chinese keepers are selling the 'funny honey' cheaper than you can buy water per gallon in this country and trying to run american beekeepers like myself out of business.

It isn't working though because when you give people real honey strait from the hive they can taste it's superiority to the store bought stuff. I can't keep the stuff in stock. Locals buy it here just as fast as my bees can produce it.

thanks, informative post.

 

[Instructor]

No problem Michael. The bottom line is it really is best to buy local honey if you can. You will get a great product and help support your local economy, plus you just might make a friend.

 

[Steve]

And you can't make mead from cheap honey. Gives a man his halo, does mead.

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[Bob Hubbard]

And you can't make mead from cheap honey. Gives a man his halo, does mead.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk 2

mmmm Mead.

 

[Flying Crane]

No problem Michael. The bottom line is it really is best to buy local honey if you can. You will get a great product and help support your local economy, plus you just might make a friend.

no argument there!

 

[K-man]

I am a beekeeper and I produce local honey right from the hive.

Here are some pictures of me working with bees.

http://sweetjujuhoney.weebly.com/beekeeping-gallery.html

That is an awesome Gi!!!

 

[Shuto]

Local honey *may* have an additional advantage; some say that eating honey produced by local bees may help to reduce allergic responses some have to local pollens and things floating around in the air. I can't say it's true, but there are some who believe this.

The problem with that theory is that the pollen that bees collect is sticky. This makes it more likely to stick to the bees but it also makes it too heavy to float around in the air. Allergies caused by wind blown pollen would be different pollen than that collected by bees.

 

[Tez3]

We've been having problems with bees dying off, all types of bee from Bumble bees to solitary bees, there's a lot of work and research going on to help find ways to save the bees here. It's not just a case of saving the bees it's also to save the agricultural industry that relies on them.
http://www.bbka.org.uk/

 

[Instructor]

I believe that the agricultural industry is part of the problem. The large monoculture plantings and chemical dependency is really tough on bees who rely on biodiversity to thrive. Systemic pesticide really has to go. That stuff is bad, bad, bad.

 

[MikeBielat]

I believe that the agricultural industry is part of the problem. The large monoculture plantings and chemical dependency is really tough on bees who rely on biodiversity to thrive. Systemic pesticide really has to go. That stuff is bad, bad, bad.

...But I'm sure it's great for us to be eating and breathing in.