Most Store-Bought Honey Isn’t Honey At All, Tests Show

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Howard County Beekeepers Association Inc.

Our purpose is to promote honey beekeeping in Howard County, Md by providing a forum in which current honey beekeepers may become more knowledgeable of best practices and the public can become more, and accurately, informed on the benefits of honey bees.

Abstract: (Note: oxytetracycline is an active ingredient in Terramycin which is currently used for control of American Foul Brood)

Read the complete article in "ApiNews": Paper prepared by David J. Hawthorne and Galen P. Dively

USA- KILLING THEM WITH KINDNESS? IN-HIVE MEDICATIONS MAY INHIBIT XENOBIOTIC EFFLUX TRANSPORTERS AND ENDANGER HONEY BEES

Background

Honey bees (Apis mellifera) have recently experienced higher than normal overwintering colony losses. Many factors have been evoked to explain the losses, among which are the presence of residues of pesticides and veterinary products in hives. Multiple residues are present at the same time, though most often in low concentrations so that no single product has yet been associated with losses. Involvement of a combination of residues to losses may however not be excluded. To understand the impact of an exposure to combined residues on honey bees, we propose a mechanism-based strategy, focusing here on Multi-Drug Resistance (MDR) transporters as mediators of those interactions.

Zombie" Fly Parasite Killing Honeybees

By Katherine Harmon | Scientific American

http://news.yahoo.com/zombie-fly-parasite-killing-honeybees-230200867.html

A parasitic fly landing on a honeybee. Courtesy of Christopher Quock

A heap of dead bees was supposed to become food for a newly captured praying mantis. Instead, the pile ended up revealing a previously unrecognized suspect in colony collapse disorder a mysterious condition that for several years has been causing declines in U.S. honeybee populations, which are needed to pollinate many important crops. This new potential culprit is a bizarre and potentially devastating parasitic fly that has been taking over the bodies of honeybees (Apis mellifera) in Northern California.

In Search of a Better Bee

By Adrian Higgins, Published: December 27

From: Washington Post, Dec. 27.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/local/in-search-of-a-better-bee/2011/11/07/gIQA5e3RLP_story.html

On a farm on the outskirts of Frederick, Kelly Rausch and Adam Finkelstein crack open a wooden beehive whose design dates to the 19th century. Inside, they point out a superbee they have made for the 21st century.

In two months, the carefully bred queen bee has built a large, productive colony that knows how to cluster against the cold and fill the winter larder with honey.

More important, her bees have sought out and destroyed a sneaky parasitic mite that feeds on their baby sisters. “The bees are definitely taking care of everything,” said Finkelstein from behind his veil.

Thomas Hybrid Hive

Meme Thomas, President of Baltimore Honey, has designed a unique honey bee hive that incorporates the benefits of a top bar hive and a Langstroth hive. See the hybrid hive at the ThomasHybridHive.com website.

Thomas Hybrid Hive .

FLL Food Factor: Help the Bees

Film produced by 4-H Robotics group in Howard County called Green Machine. Their project this year was related to honey and food safety. In meeting with Ms. Carol Link, one of our HCBA members, we learned about the problem with Colony Collapse Disorder. We wanted to help give information to the public on how to help the honeybees, so we made this YouTube video. We are sharing it with you so you can see we support your efforts. If you would like to share it with anyone else or put a link to it on your website, we would be happy for you to do so!

If you love using honey as a natural sweetener, this news may come as a buzzkill: More than 75 percent of the honey sold in the U.S. isn’t the unadulterated form that most consumers expect, according to testing performed recently by Food Safety News. In fact, most honey sold in the United States is processed through major filtration that removes virtually all of the pollen naturally occurring in the product. This practice would flunk quality standards in many of the world’s food safety agencies; in other words, it’s not technically honey anymore.

Beware of food label liesThe problem with removing these microscopic pollen particles is this: without the pollen, there’s really no way to trace where the honey originated, or if the source is safe and uncontaminated. (Previous reports have found honey laced with antibiotics and heavy metals.) And for this filtration to work, the honey is often heated, which can damage some of the natural products’ disease-fighting properties.

To analyze the state of honey sold in America, Food Safety News purchased more than 60 jars, jugs, and plastic bears of honey in supermarkets, discount warehouses, big box stores, pharmacies, and honey packets served in mini-markets and fast-food joints in 10 states and the District of Columbia. An expert in pollen in honey from Texas A&M University studied the samples and found most had the pollen removed, making traceability impossible. However, honey sold at farmer’s markets, co-ops, and natural stores contained normal amounts of pollen.

The Workaround: If you want real honey, look for local sources and buy directly from the beekeeper. By knowing where your food comes from, you can ask about how the bees are treated and how the honey is processed. Sure, raw honey might not be crystal clear like the little honey bear bottles you see in the store, but it’s swimming in health-promoting antioxidants and left in its natural form, which is definitely a good thing when it comes to honey.

Provided by Prevention

Howard County Beekeepers Association Inc.

USA- KILLING THEM WITH KINDNESS? IN-HIVE MEDICATIONS MAY INHIBIT XENOBIOTIC EFFLUX TRANSPORTERS AND ENDANGER HONEY BEES

In Search of a Better Bee

Most Store-Bought Honey Isn’t Honey At All, Tests Show

Filtration process removes virtually all of the pollen naturally occurring in the product.