The quick and equally unclear answer is to make sure they only take nectar and pollen from "organic" plants, while you do nothing to contribute to an unorganic hive in your management.
To get honey certified as "organic" is as I understood it, nearly impossible and when I was paying more attention a few years back there was only 1 company that claimed to have certified or even certifiable "organic" honey and bee products. They were a company out of Illinois so I called them and asked how THAT was possible and they told me all the hives they got bee products from were located in remote areas of Canada - far enough away to be sure, and then they tested. We sold the products in our store and while we refused to use even formic acid in our own hives, we knew that our bees had access to nonorganic sources. The problem is of course is that the bees are harvesting in a radius that goes far enough to be uncontrolable and lack certainty that they have not encountered agri-toxins. We actually owned 100's of acres and were in the corn belt attempting to show that it was economically feasible to plant bee plants and bee in the honey business. We also devloped a mobil honey extraction unit, and generally had a labor intesive blast. We mostly planted and managed clover types - so even though we knew where most of our bees were we could not get certified "organic" (did not care for that blessing anyway)- but we by far had the best or one of the best quality honeys araound. Like I said the mites were our setback. With a couple hives one can do many things and still get by as a hobby. We were overwhelmed with 75 and we gave it heck. Or were you kidding? Knowing the wildness of bees..... radishes, Maz [email protected] wrote: Max-how do you get your bees to make organic honey? > --------------------------------- Yahoo! Autos. Looking for a sweet ride? Get pricing, reviews, & more on new and used cars.
