What’s Wrong with the Bees?

I have pondered this one for awhile and have gone back and forth trying to understand just why honey did not feel right. It is not an animal product per se, as it is produced by bees and does not come from their bodies such as milk would from a cow. 

We can safely remove some honey from bees and not kill or harm them, and honey has many beneficial healing properties. It was only after I became a beekeeper myself and got involved in the industry that I discovered the problem with commercial honey and perhaps the problem with the bees. 

Commercial honey producers supplement (there is that word again) their honey bees with white sugar made into a thick syrup. In a wet rainy summer like we have had for the past fews years in Ireland, the bees may be supplemented with this ‘food’ several times. 

This does a couple of things, it allows them to continue producing honey no matter what the weather, and it must also make them sick. As these are the bees that farmers are losing.

A commercial hive is bigger then a traditional one, housing more bees, feeding them is a common and expected practice, and then producers harvest all of the honey produced only to leave the bees with more sugar water for the winter and none of their own real food. 

This is a recipe for disaster- I finally knew what was wrong with the honey I bought in the shops, it was made from sugar, and not entirely from the pollen of various plants. Therefore with the energy and vibration of sugar, it aided in the depletion of the immune function (for the bees) and no longer acted in a therapeutic manner (for the humans). 

So we crossed commercial honey off our lists and now hopefully we will eventually produce our own from gently handled bees who are not fed anything other then what they can forage and they live in small eco friendly hives. 

I keep a herb and bee garden as well with many herbs and flowers that they like and hope to expand it from year to year. I would urge everyone to get some bees, and get going with bringing back this wonderful creature into its natural state - treat them right and nature will reward you. 

Have a healthy day,

April

The boys with the bees in the back garden