HONEY ?

We’re lucky that we have local producers so only use local honey. I was told once that eating local honey helps with allergies and asthma caused by locally grown crops such as oil seed rape. I suffered badly from coughing when rape was in flower all around us, but eating local honey from rape has helped enormously.

Our neighbours have a cotoneaster growing along a rock wall and in the spring it sings with all the bee activity! It's fascinating to watch.

I don't have any local producers near me, but will pick some up at farmers' markets when I see them. Canadian honey is quite strictly regulated, so even if I purchase it at the grocery store I make sure it is Canadian.

After reading this with interest..I had to go to morrisons..so decided to check out the different honeys...probably about 95% said non EU ..am shocked..will now also look for local honey ..

Someone from elsewhere had really bad gnat bites when she moved here.

The doctor told her our gnats are particularly nasty, but that the locals have more immunity to their bites.

He told her to eat locally produced honey, and it solved the problem.

That's interesting! I get terrible mozzie bites when I go to Australia, perhaps I should eat more of DD's own honey.

I thought you were going to say she spread it on the bites! Very sticky

You should start taking the honey a couple of weeks before you go to Australia.

Honey spread on ulcers is supposed to be good, though I have never seen it for myself.

Talking of mozzie bites, my daughter had a lot after camping. I cut a leaf off my aloe vera plant, cut it open and she rubbed it on her bites. It helped a great deal and stopped the itching.

Thankyou for this thread. We do all we can to include bee friendly plants and leave out shallow saucers of drinking water for bees. I’m hoping to do a course on beekeeping this year, what I know about bees and beekeeping already is really fascinating, but I didn’t know about the Chinese honey.

I did know about the Chinese honey.

I do buy Greek honey, hope that is not blended.
But I know a local beekeeper whose honey is sold in local shops, market stalls etc.

Bees are amazing we have had them on the farm with every generation, when my dad died a year ago his bees died a week later. We have just renewed the hives ready to begin again this year. Both dad and grandad never used protective clothing and as a child I would help in shorts and t shirt I don't ever remember getting stung. We talked to the bees every night and they gave us wonderful honey.

We do not have bees but near where my parents live there is a honey farm. We like to go there when we visit and buy honey and related products from there.

We 'foster' bees. A local bee keeper and enthusiast keeps one of his hives in our garden as it's large, sunny and packed with bee friendly plants and he was looking for other sites.He does the work and we get a few jars a year.It's delicious and lovely to know it's completely local.I have since found him another home happy to have a hive.Proud to say our hive had his best ever yield a couple of years ago.I was at first less keen because of grandchildren but am now a total bee lover,and both DH and myself have donned a spare suit and learnt some basics of beekeeping so we know what to do should our bee man be unavailable in an emergency. I talk to them each morning when I feed the birds!

We kept bees and as Mommawolf's family didn't use protective clothing or gloves. We did use a veil though. I have some much treasured pictures of the children out collecting swarms and doing various bee-related things. I do miss them so much.

The international honey situation is complex. The big issue was that in China in particular but also elsewhere (Argentina springs to mind) many beekeepers were dosing their hives with antibiotics. They were mainly using chloramphenicol and this was turning up in the finished products.
Importers of honey to the EU (such as Rowse) I understand, have a good testing regime and there is also a massive lab in Germany which is used by the EU to test honey imports. Within the EU we don't allow this routine use of antibiotics and some people in the honey industry have been working with China to help them comply with rather than circumvent the rule. The Chinese producers were getting round the ban by attempting to import via an intermediary country, usually somewhere with no honey industry of their own. This is why we still do have Chinese honey here in England but if it is imported through a reputable EU based company it is almost certainly not containing antibiotics these days.

Regarding the USA (please bear in mind that this info may not be 100% up to date) they banned Chinese honey because it was too cheap and not because of the antibiotics issue. The US particularly liked Chinese honey in fact, as lots of it is of the "ultrafiltered" sort which stays runny in the bottle/jar and is barely recognizable to us here. It has had most of the "goodness" washed out in the filtration process (obviously this removes impurities such as bits of dead bees but it also removes pollen for example). It also involves heating to high temperatures to drive off the water which was added to the honey to help "wash" it through the filters. This means the honey will stay runny. The US likes its honey pale, clear, runny and smooth on the whole. They filter their own honey there beyond recognition using the ultrafiltration methods including using diatamacious earth as well as the heat treatment. In Europe we aren't allowed to do this and don't allow imports of honey filtered this way. The truth us that here in Europe and in Canada and other places we are happy with honey that sets or crystalizes so that is less of a problem.

Another scandal in the honey industry was (and probably still is) that unscrupulous producers were diluting the honey with sugar-water. I personally believe that if your honey is stronger tasting this is very unlikely.

Obviously I think we should all be eating local honey really but in truth I know we can't all afford it. In my opinion we need to uphold our food standards once we leave the EU if we are to retain any honey protections.

Yes. We love bees in this house.
... And I personally will remember forever the sweet smoky smell of my husband during our beekeeping days after a day working with the hives.
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I love the taste of lavender in biscuits, chocolates etc. Can anyone recommend honey with lavender in it ?

I will definitely check my honey in future Marmight.

NanKate have you tried lavender honey? It's a bit medicinal for my taste but there are beekeepers who set their bees on the lavender in Provence. It will be available online. It is usually expensive.
Or you could infuse your own honey with lavender maybe? I had this with cheese and figs once and it was totally delicious!

I discussed this with a vet friend yesterday. She says many Chinese bees are fed solely on sugar
Where I used to live in Scotland, I ate honey produced in the village to fend off hay fever. I have yet to find a local producer in my new area.
Thanks for all your posts! Good to have a friendly, informative, non-political discussion!

I have often wondered if the practice of feeding sugar to bees has led to their unhealthy and susceptibility to mites etc.
It takes 12 bees to make one teaspoon of honey in their lifetimes so we plunder it at our peril!

We need to look after our bees.

Thank you NotSpag for the info. Never tried it with lavender but hope to do so.

I saw some Manuka honey in Tesco, and it's VERY expensive.Does anyone know why?
www.tesco.com/groceries/en-GB/products/297860903

I love honey, have a small teaspoonful every morning.
Mainly local honey, but Rowse or Sainsburys own set honey is delicious.
When on holiday in UK I always buy some local honey.When cooking Bramley apples ( for pies and crumbles) I use honey instead of sugar.

If bees are managed for honey production then feeding with a sugar solution is often practiced where the beekeeper has taken too much honey from the bees for them to get through the winter months. Even careful beekeepers may need to sugar feed occasionally though.

With the weather and climate as it is, the intensive mono-crop agriculture and grubbing out of our hedgerows it’s no wonder really that bees are under stress. There was an Argentinian study of essential oils as a way of protecting colonies from Varroa - they tried a number of oils including lavender, eucalyptus, laurel and thyme. I think thyme was most successful. We had planted a variety of thymes and lavenders near our garden-based hives as it happens but never had to contend with Varroa - neither there nor at the farm sites where the other hives were kept.

Fennel, the Manuka flower only blooms for a matter of days a year (about 14 I think) and it only grows wild in specific remote areas of New Zealand (and possibly, Australia?), mainly in the forest areas.
I think it’s simply rare and hard to harvest.
Also, there will be variations as to how much manuka is actually in manuka honey so I suppose that also will reflect the price (some will have more mixed wildflowers than others).

I just bought a bottle of Squeezy Honey in a local supermarket and was pleased to see it was produce of Belgium.
I use a lot of it but had never before thought to check the country of origin.

The bees do seem to love any herb flowers NotSpaghetti, oregano too. I let it flower because the bees love it but then it seeds itself everywhere!

Perhaps they know what is good for them - I bought some throat sweets containing thyme and they do seem to be effective.