Mark D Egloff asked how beekeepers on the list sell, distribute, or oth= erwise market their honey crops. Hi Mark, I am but a small scale hobbyist beekeeper [6 hives] but my best customer = is the largest chemical company in the UK! In order to demonstrate committment to the environment and to involve the= local communities, many of ICI's factories have made over peripheral land withi= n their boundaries as ecological study areas. A factory local to me has such an = area and to increase interest for local schools who visit the ecological reser= ve, I manage two hives on it; the factory is in a rural setting, processes no = agressive chemicals and is within a security fence. My colonies do extremely well and the company BUY! honey produced in them= to give to visiting VIPs who have an environmental interest to reinforce the= ir 'green credentials' - and very effective it is too; my honey has gone to Japan, = India, Israel, USA, Korea and many European countries too. I appreciate that this situation is not one that many beekeepers will be = able to repeat but the lesson for me is that niche markets can be profitable and = reliable, perhaps this may point a way for others. In this case the sale of my honey is very dependant on the perceived pur= ity of the product, mercifully Scotland is still Varroa free and I have run colo= nies for several years without needing to administer medication of any kind, I hop= e that I can continue for many more but recent threads on BEE L re treatments whic= h minimise the likelyhood of chemical contamination are of great interest = to me. Here in the UK we are witnessing in a forcible way, what happens when pub= lic trust is lost in a food product - with the banning of British beef in man= y countries because of the BSE/CJ disease scares. Geoff Allison Dalbeattie, Scotland Email [log in to unmask]