Honey

[Hopkirk]

I find it hard to believe that the huge amounts of cheap honey are produced in the traditional way.

Do they actually have an army of bee keepers tending thousands of hives, or do they have huge vats of syrup and wave a couple of bees near them?

[EDDIE51]

Most honey is 'diluted ' with sugar syrup !

[Hopkirk]

Yeah, I guessed so.

Not really honey then, is it?

[1ozzy]

It's all to do with the size of the bee Hoppy.

Here in Oz we have genetically engineered bees to cater for the world demand of honey.

http://images.moc-pages.com/user_images/1/1335888623m_SPLASH.jpg

[Hopkirk]

You Aussies do like your insects, don't you?

[waterboatman]

I get my honey from the same farm I get my potatoes. Up to then it's travelled all of 50 yards and is the real deal!

[Hopkirk]

I envy your lifestyle, WBM.

Mind you, I envy 1ozzy too.

[EDDIE51]

Read this, it turns out that syrup made from beet sugar can not be identified by 'isotope' analysis, so it is impossible to tell if honey contains it. Cane sugar syrup can be identified though so it does not get used as much.
https://honeybeesuite.com/is-your-honey-cut-with-sugar-syrup/
Another way to get more honey is to feed your bees on sugar syrup rather than have them flying round looking for flowers. They eat the syrup and turn it into 'Honey'.

[Peter Pedant]

// http://www.mybeeline.co/en/p/how-can-we-differentiate-100-pure-honey-and-adulterated-honey//

tells you about it

[Peter Pedant]

//Another way to get more honey is to feed your bees on sugar syrup rather than have them flying round looking for flowers.//

bee keepers call it feeding the bees
and you could do it to keep them alive
times of the year when there are no flowers

[1ozzy]

We've learn't to love insects Hoppy.

There's so darn many of them here ;-)

[EDDIE51]

Waterboatman, getting your honey from the farm does not mean that the farmer has not fed the bees on syrup to increase the yield. The problem is very widespread and is not illegal, the product can still be called honey. As I just said, if the syrup is made from beet sugar it can not be identified as such. Virtually all beekeepers feed sugar syrup to some extent, in bad weather there are too few flowers so they have to feed sugar syrup to keep the bees from starving.

[douglas9401]

I too often think about bees when I'm rambling.

[Old_Geezer]

I did not know this; not that I eat much honey anyway.

I think that there is a massive difference in feeding your bees sugar syrup, and adulterating your honey with it. That's fraud.

How do wild bees cope in the winter then ?

[Peter Pedant]

http://wonderopolis.org/wonder/what-do-bees-do-in-winter

answers the question
in short they eat the honey they have made- -

( Darwin would confirm: honey bees didnt sit down and think with pencils in their mouths - oh what can we do to help Humans ? Oh I know ( well we know) we will make honey for them to eat ....
altho at the time he was doing his stuff 1859 there WOULD be people around who would say "that is in fact EXACTLY what happened"- god made the world and it is unchanging etc)

[1ozzy]

Most of Ozs' honey is produced by introduced European bees.
The best honey comes from native bees, which are not good producers.
In Oz different plants flower in different seasons. There is always some thing in flower.

Try some Iron Bark honey one day, very dark and rich.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australian_native_bees

[murraymints]

I buy manuka..great for colds /sore throats

[Peter Pedant]

a small jar of manuka costs an arm and a leg innit ?

and is particularly prone to fraud - subsitution and adulteration

[murraymints]

it is expensive..I buy it in multipack from COSTCO ....if it is NOT expensive.it is NOT genuine !

[Peter Pedant]

an example of 'luxury pricing' Murraymints

helena rubinstein was the first to realise that in lugzury pricing if you doubled the price you doubled the sales !! ( yes really !)

whereas for the rest of us artisans scraping a living doubling the price will halve sales .... (but we call crave getting on THAT escalator)