>>Tell me which continental European countries and I will ask my local Trading Standards people to look into it.

I visited my beekeeping uncle in south-western Poland last week.  We inspected a few of his hives together taking advantage of the unseasonably nice weather there (16C/64F in the shade).

My uncle uses in-hive heaters starting in February to get his colonies to full strength for the canola flow which normally starts in the 1st half of May.  (The bees transition from dandelion & fruit trees right into canola.)

With the mild weather this year, the canola plant development has already started and, if the weather pattern continues, the canola bloom may start in the 2nd half of April.

At this time, hazelnuts and alder trees are supplying good pollen.  My uncle selectively feeds thin sugar water to any colonies low on stores.

I asked him if there was a problem with sugar getting into the early honey.  He said the packer who typically buys his crop checks the honey for a number of chemicals, water content and sucrose contamination.  He said, based on his feeding practice, there should be very little if any sugar getting into the canola honey but that nevertheless the regulation allows for up to 15% sugar in the canola crop.

This allowance frankly surprised me as my own limit is zero although the size of my crop did not make testing economical.  Here in NY, I am nowhere near canola and my early crop is typcally from black locust and autumn olives in the 2nd half of May...

I am not sure what sucrose limits other countries set.

Waldemar
Long Island, NY

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