>"Honey collected weekly during the flow."
No.  Honey is collected every four days during the flow.

We in the U.S. do not consider nectar processed with the China machine pure
natural  honey. Most books say it takes 3-4 pounds of nectar to make a pound
of honey.  The  method has been discussed at length at national meetings
and Chinese reps have tried to sell their machine to U.S. beekeepers.

By removing the drying process *from the bees* and drying in the factory you
will increase production but not a method U.S. beekeepers feel creates a
*natural* product.

The slang is "funny honey" but there is a technical name the Chinese use
for the process which Maybe others on the list will recall.


You are in Taiwan which may differ a bit from the China methods on minor
points but those touring China with the ABF tour report almost identical
methods in use in China. National Geographic did an article awhile back
describing the beekeepers using tents and had a picture or hives on a train
flat car with around 70 hives loaded and a tent also set on the flat car.
Said China beekeepers live and process honey in their bee yards.

The beekeepers on the tour reported no large beekeeping operations such as
we find in the U.S.

In the U.S. Peter C. our regulations would not permit processing honey using
your methods for sale as human food. The places we extract our honey has to
meet health department rules.
In China only the final processing facilities ( as a general rule) would
meet our standards.

>The processing factory in some cases but not all cases need to reduce the
>water content a bit.

I think if you check out the Chinese machine you will see the machine will
process nectar as comes from flowers into a *product* ( not honey in my
opinion) . The machine as explained to myself and other beekeepers the China
reps were trying to sell takes nectar and produces an 16-18 %
percent moisture product.

All bee books say it takes between 3-4 pounds of NECTAR to make a pound of 
honey. Honey does not come from flowers > Nectar does . Most of what is 
harvested every few days is nectar. Especially out of the antibiotic treated 
brood nest.

Thanks for your input Peter C. If I was born in your area of the world I 
imagine I would be doing as you do as you say the way its been done for 
generations dating back to Japan.

 It is true Dee Lusby extracts honey from
brood boxes but uses no treatments other than her propolis patties. Only 
uses her own beeswax for foundation!
Honey
was commonly extracted from brood boxes in the 1800's but when chemicals
were used in brood boxes after World War for foulbrood the practice  was
dropped. The method you describe clearly explains why so much antibiotics
are
found in honey from china.

When chloranphenical is used in a brood box residues remain in wax and
nectar/honey should NEVER be harvested for human food from such comb.

>China (China). But who cares where it is made.

The China invention in the opinion of both national organizations creates
what we term as funny honey .

>most bee keepers prefer not to sell to the processing factory since they 
>get
>a better price by either exporting directly or selling on the local market.
>It depends on the state of the market, the location of the bee keeper
>relative to the factory and the amount of honey he has available.

Exporting to countries with few health rules happens and because so little
is checked on arrival does make it to the U.S. but whole loads have been
dumped in land fills due to contamination. Once processed by the China
factory and in many cases pasteurized the product will pass many countries
entry standards and those buying the jars on the shelves have little idea of
*in some cases and certainly not all* the filth the honey was exposed to
before hitting the factory.

U.S. beekeepers were shocked by what they saw as the process *before* the
China process facilities. However they did tour a large similar to U.S.
honey process facility and a royal jelly facility.

The world needs bees and beekeepers. China beekeeping fills a need worldwide
but few know of the methods of production most China beekeepers use.

bob

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