Organic Honey

[BrianO]

Anyone know the pre requisites to be able to label your Honey " Organic " .

Given the little gits fly approximately 3k radius , as I see, they would have to be surrounded by a 3K Pkus radius for truly to be able to declare your honey was " Organic ", along with no chemical teatments to hives.

Anyone know more , examined this in detail ?

Cheers

Brian.

 

[rook66]

Anyone know the pre requisites to be able to label your Honey " Organic " .

Given the little gits fly approximately 3k radius , as I see, they would have to be surrounded by a 3K Pkus radius for truly to be able to declare your honey was " Organic ", along with no chemical teatments to hives.

Anyone know more , examined this in detail ?

Cheers

Brian.

Good info here
http://www.organicguide.ie/organic_certification

 

[BrianO]

Thanks Rook.

Appreciate that, had seen it but was looking for beekeeping specific requirements or to see if anyone had achieved this Organic certification ?

 

[oliver90owner]

Wouldn't a description like 'natural' be better than calling it 'organic'. That is jumping on the bandwagon of the chemical- free producers.

After all, nearly all our food is organic, really. Just another word that has been adopted as something different/special than its simple basic original scientific description.

One thing is certain, you would have some number of hoops to jump through, to join the 'organic' lot. Is it really worth it? Manooky honey gets enough stick by those that realise it has likely been cut with other products.

Don't forget the agri-pratts wanting GM varieties, which would make things even more difficult. Thought about bees foraging in gardens?

Be sensible and give it a miss!

 

[BrianO]

I Hear Ya.

Not for now, really thinking about future plans, if bees sited on an organic smallholding, could work.... I can hoop jump as good as the best of them !

Would be great to be able onto put on jar labelling.

 

[For want of a better word]

Just takes one gardener with a spray bottle of Buggoff and any "Organic" title is out of the window.
Chloramphenicol an be traced down to 1ppm and most foreign honey is contaminated...

I am with Tractor Man on this!

Yeghes da

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Wouldn't a description like 'natural' be better than calling it 'organic'. That is jumping on the bandwagon of the chemical- free producers.

After all, nearly all our food is organic, really. Just another word that has been adopted as something different/special than its simple basic original scientific description.

One thing is certain, you would have some number of hoops to jump through, to join the 'organic' lot. Is it really worth it? Manooky honey gets enough stick by those that realise it has likely been cut with other products.

Don't forget the agri-pratts wanting GM varieties, which would make things even more difficult. Thought about bees foraging in gardens?

Be sensible and give it a miss!

I spotted a sign by a cottage gate a while ago - Naturally pure eggs from our own hens. No claims about organic or even free range but apparently they sold everything their hens laid

 

[Madge]

I Hear Ya.

Not for now, really thinking about future plans, if bees sited on an organic smallholding, could work.... I can hoop jump as good as the best of them !

Would be great to be able onto put on jar labelling.

The bees will just fly from their hives, possibly ignoring the organic offerings on your smallholding, and forage on somebody else's non-organic land. That's not 'organic' honey, is it? No matter how many hoops you jump.

 

[rook66]

Thanks Rook.

Appreciate that, had seen it but was looking for beekeeping specific requirements or to see if anyone had achieved this Organic certification ?

I checked it out a few years ago and came to the conclusion that it would be impossible to meet the required criteria. Factors that are considered include, proximity to industry, roads/motorways, intensive agriculture, essentially your hives would need to be surrounded by organic farming. You would need to have the hives in a well isolated mountainous area to come anywhere near getting certification. The cost when I was checking it out ( 10 years ago) was something like five k. I didnt pursue it.

 

[domino]

Call it 'raw' works a treat.

 

[pargyle]

Yes... I looked into it some time ago. Even the Soil Association (who police the 'Organic' status of UK farms) reckon that it's almost impossible to find anywhere sensible in the UK which is totally organic and of sufficient size to guarantee that the bees will only forage on organically farmed or maintained land. That's before you start and look at any beekeeping issues - try buying organic refined sugar if you needed to feed them ... and lets not even think about wax foundation. You would need to be an Olympic standard hoop jumper to even consider it .. RAB is right - why waste your time - Raw honey is what people understand - if you can go a step further and tell your punters that you let them build their own comb and you don't add anything to the hive that the bees have not brought it - I think that's a near 'organic' as you need to get - or do you really want to live on a deserted Scottish island with your bees ?

I could not find a single UK supplier of LEGITIMATE 'Organic' honey when I was looking into it - so you could have the opportunity to be first ! It might get you another £1 a pound if you can find the right punters ...

 

[dpearce4]

soil association rules for you:-

http://www.soilassociation.org/freq...d/2408/is-there-such-a-thing-as-organic-honey

and

5.0 Honey products
Hive sites (standards 15.4.2, 15.4.3 and 15.4.5)
5.1
In order to accept honey products, the hives must come from sites which
are far enough away from potential sources of contamination (urban centres,
motorways, industrial areas, waste dumps and waste incinerators) and are:
• either surrounded by four miles of land that is organic, compliant with wild
harvest requirements, or managed under recognised low input schemes, or
• the honey is tested to verify it is free from pesticide contamination.
Reason
The quality of honey depends on the areas the bees use to forage. Four
miles is the usual extent of any one hive’s foraging distance. Because land
use in a 50 square mile area (four mile radius from the hive) cannot always
be known, we accept analysis of each batch as an alternative to ensure no
contamination.
Artificial insemination of bees (standard 15.2.8)
5.2
You must not practice artificial insemination.
Reason
Artificial insemination is a practice of intensive bee keeping systems.
E q u i v a l e n c e annex 2
Pasteurised honey (standards 41.2.10 and 41.2.11)
5.3
We will not certify pasteurised honey. This includes honey liquefied with
temperatures over 60ºC, honey held at liquefying temperatures for over 6
hours and honey held above 50ºC for more than 8 hours.
Reason
Pasteurisation destroys beneficial enzymes and increases levels of
hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF).

 

[bpmurray]

Here's an interesting article from Scientific American - it basically says the same as has been discussed here.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Decaf. honey

Actually, the real question is not "organic v non-organic" or "raw v cooked" but caf. v decaf.

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/19/s...of-bees.html?smid=tw-nytimesscience&smtyp=cur

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

looks like some clown is trying to sell his honey as 'organic' on fleabay at the moment
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-PURE-...891783?hash=item1c5b7b4dc7:g:Uj0AAOSwhcJWJ9Ur

 

[pargyle]

looks like some clown is trying to sell his honey as 'organic' on fleabay at the moment
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-PURE-...891783?hash=item1c5b7b4dc7:g:Uj0AAOSwhcJWJ9Ur

From NORTHAMPTONSHIRE ... Probably got his hives sited behind Newport Pagnall Services to take advantage of the organically grown central reservation of the M1 ....

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

looks like some clown is trying to sell his honey as 'organic' on fleabay at the moment
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/100-PURE-...891783?hash=item1c5b7b4dc7:g:Uj0AAOSwhcJWJ9Ur

Back to "raw" now.

 

[TryingToLetThemBee]

Interesting related issue on GMO pollen making honey unsaleable here (4-y-o ECJ case) http://www.beekeepingforum.co.uk/showpost.php?p=255293&postcount=27