Last October I posted an article about bees that were producing blue and green honey in France. It turned out they were feeding on the waste products of M&Ms. Earlier this month, several commercial hives in Utah started seeing red honey. It appears that one of the large beekeeping operations began “open-feeding” the bees. They mixed up crushed rehydrated candy canes and other candy materials for the bees to eat. Apparently, other bees from surrounding areas got into it and they have contaminated several other bee yards.
One of the bee keepers has had to remove the “breeder queens” for evaluation because he has observed a problem with brood production. He has also collected genetic material from the drones and the dye was found to be in the genetic material.
Fortunately, none of the red honey is believed to have made it to market so we shouldn’t see any red honey on the shelves. Technically, this isn’t really pure honey since honey is made from the nectar from plants.
If the red dye is in the genetic material of these bees, what about humans, especially children who eat these candy canes and other products with these harmful dyes in them? Doesn’t sound to promising to me.
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