Lionel wrote, "I remember many years past, a man that got caught feeding his
bees sugar/water. He had to pay real hefty fines.

How could the FDA, I I don't know what KDA is, approve this???"

The red 1 to 1 sugar water with food grade dye was sprayed on tree leaves,
free of pesticide. When I extracted the red honey it was diluted with normal
honey on the same frames and from all 6 colonies. I separated the frames
with red and extracted them without further dilution. Oddly 2 of the 6 hives
had no red honey. KDA (Kansas Department of Agriculture), Division of Food
Safety, contacted the FDA to determine whether the honey could be sold. The
answer was that it could be sold but must include a label specifying that
the "honey contains small amounts of red food coloring". The zoo has elected
only to use it to sell to staff members. I don't particularly like that but
it has become quite popular as a unique product and it sold almost
immediately. It was suggested that we spray purple sugar water next year
because the Kansas State University color is purple. I turned that down
emphatically.

We just finished extracting a second harvest yesterday (2420 pounds) and
there was no red honey from the zoo portion. 

 

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