Honey laundering

Here’s another reason to buy honey from someone you know and trust.

You know the honey you buy at the grocery store? The honey labeled “pure” and “organic?”

Hmmm. Maybe not so pure.

In a special report on honey laundering, by Seattle Post-Intelligencer Senior correspondent Andrew Schneider, you’ll find a story of questionable dealings in the honey world. Honey shipped in from undisclosed countries of origin. Honey tainted with pesticides and antibiotics. Honey dumped on the U.S. honeymarket at unbelievably low prices. Reading this series will make you as hot as any Africanized bee hive.

On the home frontWe’re still treating our bees for mites. (Disclaimer: Formic acid is classified as organic. And we would not eat honey produced while the treatment was on the hive.)

The girls seem to agree with us; the formic acid treatment is nasty . Betty gets a treatment for a half a day only. We put the pad on in the morning and take it off in the evening. In the mornings, when we open her hive up, she’s fine. The bees are very calm, just buzzing quietly to themselves as contented bees do. But when we put on the formic acid pad, what an uproar!

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