Labelling your honey.

[Chris Luck]

Good morning.

Continuing with the non treatment V treatment theme, do you state on your finished products, principally honey, what has been used in the hive? Or if on the other hand you don't use anything, do you state this?

One reason that I ask is because a French bee keeper, not a million kilometres from me, got very uppity with me for making it clear that I don't use any artificial products in the hive. Well, I would make that clear, wouldn't I? Equally it's surprising, (or maybe not), that the general public are generally ignorant of "what goes on and what goes in" with honey production.

Of course I realise there is no legal requirement to label if using permitted products, rather like drugs given to other livestock, but.....

Chris

 

[Friar Tuck]

Organically Managed Honey

 

[johnandyrob]

Do the general public know what other live stock are treated with and would they understand what its was and what it did. Not a criticism just a question.
Andrew

 

[Hivemaker.]

Pure and natural......but not so sure about the hundreds of chemicals/pesticides found in every colony, which is brought in by the bee's themselves,suppose they must be classed as natural as well.

 

[Rosti]

Chris, I am pretty certain (but have not got time to verify it at the mo) that you are well within your rights to make a positive assertion that you have used no agro-vetinary treatments in the management of your bees. With regard to declaring agro-vetinary treatments on a pack, no you don't have to (but have a due diligence duty of care to ensure that no resides above permitted levels find their way into the honey by observing hold periods of antibiotics etc). The guy you mention might be angry that you have a marketing advantage over him but I think that is his prob, not yours.

 

[Chris Luck]

Do the general public know what other live stock are treated with and would they understand what its was and what it did.

Fair comment Andrew but increasingly people are more interested in how livestock has been raised and what it has been subjected to. Often it's simply because it has never occurred to people to question honey production.

Chris

 

[RoofTops]

The position in France will be different but you can't call honey organic in this country unless all the land within 4 miles of the hives is classifed organic or is for example, something like moorland which has never been used for agriculture.

This criteria is all but impossible to meet for most parts of the UK because of houses with gardens and roadside verges. Curiously, the Soil Association permit the use of treatments like thymol or oxalic acid for organic honey.

I expect there is nothing to say you can't state on your jars how the bees have been treated (or not) but trading standards might ask you to prove it. Records would help here but if the bees have picked up pesticides from foraging you might come unstuck.

What the French laws are I don't know but I would tread warily and annoying your local beekeepers probably unwise.

 

[Chris Luck]

Curiously, the Soil Association permit the use of treatments like thymol or oxalic acid for organic honey.

Yes, curious it is indeed, perhaps I'll write to them.

What the French laws are I don't know but I would tread warily and annoying your local beekeepers probably unwise.

Now I know that was a joke, just forgot the "smile or wink" didn't you? They won't mess with me, (ask the chasse), and I'm always legal.

Chris

 

[victor meldrew]

Yes, curious it is indeed, perhaps I'll write to them.



Now I know that was a joke, just forgot the "smile or wink" didn't you? They won't mess with me, (ask the chasse), and I'm always legal.

Chris

Might set fire to your lambs

jw

 

[Chris Luck]

Might set fire to your lambs

Yes indeed, a particularly vile form of French behaviour, although it tends to be by the truck load and only committed by people in sufficiently large numbers as to feel safe.

Chris

 

[Hebeegeebee]

"Might set fire to your lambs"

No pyrethroids or nicotinoids were used during the cruelty to these animals. That's OK then!