In a message dated 2/15/99 7:53:19 AM Eastern Standard Time,
[log in to unmask] (Anthony N Morgan)  writes:
 
> Is the solids content of heather honey (and others) exaggerated/a myth
>  or is conventional wisdom here (presumably based on experience) actually
>  correct?
 
    Shame!   You are wintering bees on sugar instead of the "all-natural
goodness of Heather Honey!   Horrors!
 
    This is not a technical problem as the good Doctor Stefan has clearly
pointed out. It is a MORAL problem.
 
    You'd better change your ways, right away.  Don't bother to test the
question with a few hives. You've got to winter ALL of them on heather -- no
further questions asked!!!
 
    (Your resultant bankruptcy should not interfere with Dr. Stefan's logic.
The self-appointed expert already knows it all.)
 
    ( --Kinda reminds me of the definition of the modern American liberal, who
KNOWS things are getting better, and resolutely plows ahead despite mounting
evidence to the contrary.....)
 
    It's interesting to note that the guys who do bees for a living, who
cumulatively represent hundreds of years of experience readily unite on these
points:
 
1.  Sugar/corn syrup is better than starvation.
 
2.  Sugar/corn syrup is a superior winter food than honey with a high solids
content.
 
3.  No evidence of damage has ever been documented, or even observed, in
feeding sugar/corn syrup to bees. Sugar is simply stored up energy. It is NOT
nutrition, but energy is also needed, especially in winter.
 
4.  Of course the bees need nutrition as well, a great deal more when rearing
brood. This is readily supplied by pollen, which may be naturally sufficient,
or may need supplementation, according to the forage available in the area.
 
    Dr. Stefan claims to know beekeepers who make their living from "organic"
honey. If they are genuine, my hat's off to them. But I doubt there are many
places in eastern Europe, sufficiently uncontaminated to truly produce organic
honey. Many areas were in the plume of radioactive dust from Chernoble (sp?);
aw shucks, there goes the "organic" label right there, if the producer is
honest.
 
    Anyone from the Americas who claims to be producing organic honey would
have to lead a very lonely life, way out in the wilderness. Perhaps it would
be possible in areas of northern Canada/Alaska, the higher Smokies/Blue
Ridge/Adirondaks (where bees would starve, except for brief flows), some areas
of the Rockies/Andes, the US/Mexican/Chilean deserts, and some rainforest
areas, that are relatively untouched by modern technology. These areas are
shrinking.
 
     I am convinced that you cannot produce organic honey in any of the modern
populated areas of the world. This is simply a marketing technique, which may
add "value" to honey, but certainly violates my own ethics.
 
     I'm gonna' keep my honey just as clean and pure as is possible. I'll use
pesticides as sparingly as possible, but not to the point of going bankrupt by
losing my bees. I'll do my best to bring to justice those pesticide
applicators who misuse insecticides on crops, forests or swamps in this area,
but I'm not going to try to stop them from spraying altogether, just to get
them to obey the label. I will not dis-honestly label my honey as organic,
because I know the fields and forests around here are sometimes contaminated
with pesticides, and always contaminated at a low level with industrial
chemicals, acid rain, etc.
 
    And I will feed sugar/corn syrup proudly, because it is the mark of a good
beekeeper to keep his bees healthy and strong. The bees are my livestock. I
want to open a hive in the spring and have bees "flowing" out and over the
edges of the box. I want them to look clean and smell sweet. I want powerful
hives, raring to go, whether to make honey, or to make cukes, melons, apples,
peaches, or squash.
 
    I know that a little sugar/corn syrup at the right time will keep my bees
FROM being feeble and sickly, despite the good doctor. I know that my growers
will not be willing to pay me, if I bring sorry hives to pollinate their
crops.
 
[log in to unmask]     Dave Green  Hemingway, SC  USA
The Pollination Scene:  http://users.aol.com/pollinator/polpage1.html
The Pollination Home Page:    http://www.pollinator.com
 
Jan's Sweetness and Light Shop    (Varietal Honeys and Beeswax Candles)
http://users.aol.com/SweetnessL/sweetlit.htm