> I believe that the Bacillus spores of foulbrood may not be killed by
> simple boiling , even at the elevated temperatures of honey boiling
> .. If this is correct one will surely pose a contamination risk to
> clean colonies if the honey is contaminated I would surely like some
> knowledgable "expert" to comment if honey can be "pasturized"  by
> boiling
 
Well, I'm sure not an expert.  When I had 25 hives I was an expert,
but it seems that the longer I work with bees and the more bbes I
meet, the less I 'know' -- but the more I've heard  :)
 
> >David Eyre and others responded to my description of feeding
> >cooked honey back to my bees with warnings of bad results.
> >I have not experienced any trouble with this.  Perhaps I've
> >just been lucky or the quantities are too small do harm.
 
Yup.  Bees are amazingly resilient, and canwithstand most of the help we
give them (am I starting to sound like Andy here?)
 
> >I am aware that many beekeepers and beekeeping manuals warn
> >against it. But the beekeeper who mentored me did it routinely for
> >15 years with no observed bad effects, such as dysentery, and
> >expressed the opinion that the fear of risk was greatly overstated
> >(he compared it to the 19th c. caution against eating tomatoes).
 
Does that mean that we can actually EAT those things now?   Hmmm.
 
> >Now I'm scratching my head. Any other comment, observation on
> >this?  Apparently bad effects aren't inevitable, but what are
> >the variables?  Foolish luck? Quantity?
 
Yes.
 
Regards
 
Allen
 
W. Allen Dick, Beekeeper                                         VE6CFK
RR#1, Swalwell, Alberta  Canada T0M 1Y0
Internet:[log in to unmask] & [log in to unmask]
Honey. Bees, & Art <http://www.internode.net/~allend/>