Dried blood.   Actually, I agree with Dick and his observation of bees and field-dressed deer.


The Greeks believed bees were produced from oxen.  Years ago, while sampling hives in a commercial apiary  near Helena, MT; the place reeked.  After I finished sampling, I went to find the source of the odor.  In a gully, I found several dead cows, pushed in by a bull-dozer, but not buried.  Bloated, oozing liquids, stink - and covered with bees.  


That answered one question - why the myth about oxen.  It also exploded another concept - honey is pure, bees are fastidious!   At another time, one of my colleagues who had a dog kennel noticed bees at the watering troughs.   A beekeeper kept bees on her property and gave her honey as  rent.  She brought me a sample of the honey. The honey was full of dog parasites.  


Sorry Aaron, but compared to Purina's dried blood, which has probably been steamed or cooked, my examples up the "Ewww!" factor.


And then, there was the radioactive honey, but that's for another discussion.  At least now days in USA, I don't see what was common in the 70s - honey extraction in galvanized, rusty extractors (good source of iron and zinc - maybe that should make the honey higher priced), extractor on wooden or uncleaned floors, and cigarettes hanging  out of the mouths of the crew, leaning over the extractors.  Some of our students worry about seeing hair-nets.  However, I have not seen in US what is common in some S. American countries - honey extraction facility walls have to be either tile or covered with sheets of stainless steel.













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