Buoyant roadside honey sales since lockdown

[Erichalfbee]

Trading Standards Institute Advice
Labelling of honey
This advice applies to all sales of honey to consumers and food businesses… (all that was stated by Enrico).
Where honey is sold loose or prepacked for direct sale (sold from the premises on which it was packed), the labelling information may appear on a label, ticket or notice that can be clearly seen by the purchaser.
Full document: www.bromley.gov.uk
In our case it will be the purchaser of a jar or two!

Yes I’ve linked to that already

 

[beeno]

For some reason now I cannot go back to previous posts on this thread and it often occurs after a moderator has posted. So, the conclusion is then that we do need labels when selling at the gate. The BBA seems to have made special arrangement for selling within their association with their local trading standards IMHO

 

[Jb.robert]

Home? How do you know? He? How can you be certain that it's his honey? From? Can you be certain that the honey wasn't unloaded from the back of an old Transit just back from the far side of Europe?

There are plenty of confused beekeepers out there and legislation is complex enough without this madness that will lead straight to the erosion of the reputation of good local honey.

For pity's sake, forget how Bridgend or Bromley interpret the regs., label your honey accurately and with pride and forget any small-print which may excuse you from the job; if a beekeeper can't be bothered to do that they shouldn't sell honey and muddy the waters for the rest of us.

PS: local means not much these days and a broad market is an advantage to sales at good prices .

I am sorry to say that sticking a label on a jar doesn’t improve the reliability regarding the origin of the honey but to provide the identification of the seller (ie his address or a way to find him).
The honey can still come from “the back of transit from east Europe” you wouldn’t know about it.

 

[enrico]

For some reason now I cannot go back to previous posts on this thread and it often occurs after a moderator has posted. So, the conclusion is then that we do need labels when selling at the gate. The BBA seems to have made special arrangement for selling within their association with their local trading standards IMHO

What!!!!!! Oh my god. I thought the conclusion was that we don't need labels to sell from the gate. I thought we had decided that prepacked meant packed by someone other than the seller. Hence prepacked needs labels because someone else will sell it on but sold directly by the producer to the final user does not!
I just give in!

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

What!!!!!! Oh my god. I thought the conclusion was that we don't need labels to sell from the gate

It is

 

[enrico]

It is

Phew. I can go on living!

 

[beekeepershens]

I believe, one point of the label is to trace the seller. If you by directly from his home, there is no secret of where the honey comes from... also it means buyers are locals.

 

[beekeepershens]

I sold one jar of honey from the gate to someone on a day's outing who had travelled from Ealing, London.

not necessarily, anyone can be going past your gate and choose to buy your honey, we had a couple of beekeepers from Australia visiting the UK last year and buying local honey from everyplace that they stopped at ... no way would they remember your address 2 days later!

 

[beeno]

not necessarily, anyone can be going past your gate and choose to buy your honey, we had a couple of beekeepers from Australia visiting the UK last year and buying local honey from everyplace that they stopped at ... no way would they remember your address 2 days later!

Exactly, that's why the label is there, so that they can trace you in case eg there was botulism in your honey.
I interpret the Trading Standards Institute Advice on the Labelling of Honey that selling at the gate means that we need a label or in my case it is a tag (ticket). If you don't comply you may be fined.
"General provisions
Any information required to be given must appear either on the packaging, on a label attached to the packaging, or on a label clearly visible through the packaging. The ticket or label must be easy to understand and indelible. Such information must not be hidden, obscured or interrupted by any other written or pictorial matter.

Where honey is sold loose or prepacked for direct sale (sold from the premises on which it was packed), the labelling information may appear on a label, ticket or notice that can be clearly seen by the purchaser.

Where honey is sold other than to the ultimate consumer, the required labelling information may be provided in an accompanying commercial document...
This information is intended for guidance; only the courts can give an authoritative interpretation of the law"
"
I find it very sad if the forum recommends that we should not label our honey jars!

 

[Swarm]

I find it sad that you should even come out with that. Can you point to a single post that recommends?

This info can be obtained from the relevant authorities, if anyone is in doubt, that's is the place to get clarity, not an internet forum.

 

[beeno]

I find it sad that you should even come out with that. Can you point to a single post that recommends?

This info can be obtained from the relevant authorities, if anyone is in doubt, that's is the place to get clarity, not an internet forum.

There are posts in this thread that states that labels are not needed something that I am not the only person that questioned. This is a public forum in as much as anyone can join it!

 

[Antipodes]

(post withdrawn)

 

[Erichalfbee]

I find it very sad if the forum recommends that we should not label our honey jars!

Nobody has done that.
I simply stated that they were not mandatory in some circumstances which is the case
Yes this is indeed a public forum and the the links posted are also in the public domain.
My recommendation, for what it’s worth, is that if anybody is really concerned about labelling they contact their own trading standards office because it will be TS that will be feeling their collar.

 

[Erichalfbee]

This is a public forum in as much as anyone can join it!

Not anyone.

 

[Jowlpost]

Hi This has been going on for years but getting worse every year, we have had 1 swarm in our village in 3 years. The recent saga .. we informed the NBU and collected saples of dead bees in December 2019. 2 bee inspectors came out and went through all our hives and reposted back that thery could find no disease whatsoever and no varroa. These were the same bee inspectors who came out the previous year and could find nothing.

As far as S Oxfordsire is concerned Rowse Honey uesd to be a source of all sorts of junk when half empty containers were left in their yard but they have got their act together and their yard is immaculate. The most recent outbreak of EFB was from researcher at Reading University who took an imported colony home presumably as part of this Posh Bee project. This is the same university that 2 years ago were "researching" small cell. Unbeknown to us they had another local bee keeper on the project who did not treat for varroa at al.

We find the Bee Inspectors very helpful, its Natural England where the problems start. After all this time they are yet to test the water and we had to suggest to them they tested the stores but in the end got it done ourselves as NE typically take 8 months to do anything.

 

[Jowlpost]

Hi This has been going on for years but getting worse every year, we have had 1 swarm in our village in 3 years. The recent saga .. we informed the NBU and we collected samples of the few dead bees remaining in hives in December 2019. 3 months later 2 bee inspectors then came out and went through all our remaining hives, inspected the absconded ones and reposted back that they could find no disease whatsoever and no varroa. They commented that the brood nests were perfect with stores, pollen but no bees These were the same bee inspectors who came out the previous year and could find nothing.

As far as S Oxfordshire is concerned Rowse Honey used to be a source of all sorts of junk when half empty containers were left in their yard but they have got their act together and their yard is immaculate. The most recent outbreak of EFB was from a researcher at Reading University who took an imported colony home presumably as part of this Posh Bee project. This is the same university that 2 years ago were "researching" small cell. Unbeknown to us they had another local bee keeper on the project who did not treat for varroa at all. No one told us.
We find the NBU Bee Inspectors very good, its Natural England where the problems start. After all this time they are yet to test the local water and we had to suggest to them they tested the stores, but in the end got it done ourselves as NE typically take 8 months to do anything, and now we know have never tested for glyphosate.
We did have 2 very pretty girls turn up with a questionnaire but they know nothing about bees and we have not had anyone from NE come and discuss anything with us. It appears more and more they just don’t want to find anything as I they do all their WIIS records may as well be binned.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Hi This has been going on for years but getting worse every year, we have had 1 swarm in our village in 3 years. The recent saga .. we informed the NBU and collected saples of dead bees in December 2019. 2 bee inspectors came out and went through all our hives and reposted back that thery could find no disease whatsoever and no varroa. These were the same bee inspectors who came out the previous year and could find nothing.

As far as S Oxfordsire is concerned Rowse Honey uesd to be a source of all sorts of junk when half empty containers were left in their yard but they have got their act together and their yard is immaculate. The most recent outbreak of EFB was from researcher at Reading University who took an imported colony home presumably as part of this Posh Bee project. This is the same university that 2 years ago were "researching" small cell. Unbeknown to us they had another local bee keeper on the project who did not treat for varroa at al.

We find the Bee Inspectors very helpful, its Natural England where the problems start. After all this time they are yet to test the water and we had to suggest to them they tested the stores but in the end got it done ourselves as NE typically take 8 months to do anything.

Anybody near you have the same problem?

 

[Jowlpost]

You lost 31 out of 44 colonies in Oxfordshire last winter?

Correct .. We had 49 colonies in September, 44 were on their own stores and we set up 5 control nucs. We lost 31 of the 44 but all 5 of the nucs were fed sugar, and all survived.

 

[Jowlpost]

Well done you. Why don't you contact Rusty, scientificbeekeeping.com he is very interested in CCD and was hypothesing about Armitraz.

Hi Thanks for the suggestion ..

 

[Jowlpost]

Two dazzling inaccuracies/untruths here which makes me question the whole thing
FERA is a government body, not privately owned.
CCD is a phenomenon only occuring in the USA. no recorded or reported cases in the UK

1) You are 5 years out of date ... Fera Science Limited (Fera), formerly the Food and Environment Research Agency, is a joint venture based in the United Kingdom owned by Capita (75%) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) (25%). as you may understand from this the private sector has control of FERA.

2) If you want to know how good a company Capita is then check this link out .. Capita .. perhaps you will then understand our concerns.