Honey wanted Louth

DK man

Hi folks - I'm a first year beekeeper and I'm leaving all honey with bees this year - I want to buy about 10 jars - I'm in mid Louth and work in carrickmacross so can pick up dundalk / ardee / Carrick areas. I'm not a big fan of rape honey but all other types would be great. If you have any for sale can you pm me your details.

Ta

solargain

There is a local association in Louth , if you get on to them you should be able to get some directly

Oldtree

Louth Beekeepers Association

bpmurray

Ask at Carroll's Engineering outside Collon towards Ardee - that's also http://www.irishbeesupplies.com/

conor t

DK man wrote: »

Hi folks - I'm a first year beekeeper and I'm leaving all honey with bees this year - I want to buy about 10 jars - I'm in mid Louth and work in carrickmacross so can pick up dundalk / ardee / Carrick areas. I'm not a big fan of rape honey but all other types would be great. If you have any for sale can you pm me your details.

Ta

Do you have many supers on the hive? Unless there very strong wouldn't leave more then one on it

Rucking_Fetard

How do you know it's Irish Honey and not Tescos own brand or some such put in the Jar?

solargain

Irish beekeepers have a product of Ireland tamper proof label from the Federation of Irish Beekeepers available to put on their jar. Sample are regularly taken and checked and an analysis of the pollen in the honey can tell exactly where it came from and the type of plants the bees were on

Native Honey Bee

If one might digress slightly for a moment. It is very important NOT to dispose of used honey jars anywhere bees might gain access to them, which in practice is virtually anywhere. Many jars of honey, especially imported honey contain foulbrood spores which is a fatal and incurable disease of bees. Many of the unexplained outbreaks of foulbrood were probably caused in this way.
So please, always wash honey jars thoroughly before disposing of them, in doing so you will be helping to save the bees.

DK man

Thanks folks - I did manage to get some last week. I bought it from a beekeeper and unlike other honey that I have bought in the last 2 years it disappointingly tastes and has a very similar consistency to the kind of honey you buy in supermarkets like aldi / lidl!!!!!

Other honey that I bought from beekeepers was less viscous and had very distinct flavours - this stuff is just that sweet syrupy taste I'm only glad I didn't stock up too much as I would buy aldi honey as it is half price....

Only left 1 super on two of my hives the others are just brood boxes which I will feed up in a few weeks...

Rucking_Fetard

Probably a supermarket (chinese anti-biotic sugary syrup mashup shipped via Australia with Fraudulent paper work to hide it's origin) honey.

I wouldn't waste time/money buying honey off a Bee Keeper unless I knew him.

Native Honey Bee

It escapes me why FIBKA cannot or more likely will not take action to deal with this fraudulent behaviour. EU regulations "generously" allow food produced elsewhere to be labelled as Irish, if it is "processed" here. The contorted reasoning that allows this is beyond me.

However, if the above federation where to issue labels, in essence stating that "This jar contains only honey. This honey was produced wholly in Ireland and has not been blended with any produce from other countries" and a comprehensive contract to be entered into before an individual is allowed to join this quality control scheme. Then the opportunity for fraud would be severely hampered.

The sale of inverted syrup here and in the UK has increased dramatically in the past decade or so, draw your own conclusions!

DK man

I do know the bk but not overly well - I have to admit that I was surprised that he seemed to have so much for sale considering that he'd told me earlier in the summer that he has 10 hives. I said to him that you must have had a great year and he said that he did but after tasting his product I am just a bit disappointingly suspicious...

brianmc

DK man wrote: »

I do know the bk but not overly well - I have to admit that I was surprised that he seemed to have so much for sale considering that he'd told me earlier in the summer that he has 10 hives. I said to him that you must have had a great year and he said that he did but after tasting his product I am just a bit disappointingly suspicious...

Just to fairly, play devil's advocate... or the opposite in this case I guess...

With 10 hives and the season that has just gone the beekeeper could very reasonably have a couple of hundred kilos or more of a honey crop.

Also, <dons tin hat>, it is very easy to expect that all Irish honey has some unique and distinct flavours. A crop of honey that has been accumulated (and blended, effectively) over a full season in a fairly average bit of Irish countryside is likely to be a reasonably ubiquitous blend of dandelion, hawthorn, clover, bramble, sycamore, chestnut and so on. While that should be pretty delicious, it may not be as distinctive a flavour as you might expect.

Obviously I haven't tasted the honey in question (so my opinion is uneducated!) but I think the suggestion that the beekeeper has cheated in some way at this point in the conversation is a little too much.

In every honey show there are perfectly legitimate jars of honey that go nowhere in the competition, simply because the flavour is unremarkable due to the nectar sources.

Edit:

I don't intend the above as a direct reply to your post DK man, but rather, to balance the general trend of the conversation.

Native Honey Bee

My understanding is that honey shows were introduced to combat the menace of adulterated honey and sugary mixes that contained no honey, but were sold as such. These shows allowed producers to display the excellence of their products.
There is a warehouse in the southwest selling large drums of imported honey and there is apparently a ready market, as the drums get sold. The drums are a trifle large to be put the breakfast table. If FIBKA will not tackle fraudulent honey sales, then who will do it?

brianmc

Native Honey Bee wrote: »

My understanding is that honey shows were introduced to combat the menace of adulterated honey and sugary mixes that contained no honey, but were sold as such. These shows allowed producers to display the excellence of their products.
There is a warehouse in the southwest selling large drums of imported honey and there is apparently a ready market, as the drums get sold. The drums are a trifle large to be put the breakfast table. If FIBKA will not tackle fraudulent honey sales, then who will do it?

I will rise to the bait against my better judgement...

Fraud happens. We all know that. There was the international conspiracy exposed a few years back where chinese honey (which is banned for consumption in the US due to their use of anitbiotics in treating bee diseases) was shipped around the world and rebadged until it could get into the US market. I'm sure lots more happens too on large and small scales.

However, I would be a bit slower to suggest that there is a warehouse of fraudulent honey in the South West. Just because honey is imported and/or stored in large barrels does not mean that it is something other than honey.

There's not that much that FIBKA can do about a company buying foreign honey in bulk and using the limits of the advertising regulations to get customers to put it in their basket if they're sticking within the rules (barely, I'll admit!).

People need to get educated about what they buy... Just because it has a pretty name like Boyne Valley, Kilcree Gold or whatever, doesn't mean that it's Irish honey - read the small print... It's always there... (no fraud)... "A blend of EU and NON-EU honeys".

Sometimes it doesn't even say Honey... I've seen "HONEY flavoured syrup" for sale, but again the ingredients tell the whole story... again... not fraud.

solargain

Native Honey Bee wrote: »

My understanding is that honey shows were introduced to combat the menace of adulterated honey and sugary mixes that contained no honey, but were sold as such. These shows allowed producers to display the excellence of their products.
There is a warehouse in the southwest selling large drums of imported honey and there is apparently a ready market, as the drums get sold. The drums are a trifle large to be put the breakfast table. If FIBKA will not tackle fraudulent honey sales, then who will do it?

My understanding is that the associations are affiliated to FIBKA and FIBKA has no statutory right to intervene in anybody's honey sale , nor has it any right to to tackle anybody's honey sales apart from the fact that they control the tamper proof label & lids that can only be used by totally Irish honey producers ( who do not import & that comply with the labelling). As a mater of fact it is the associations who instruct the federation . Bord Bia and the department of agriculture and health inspectors are the people with the authority to pull a product off the shelf. If you have proof of fraudulent activity in this area you should report it forth with , we all have a duty of care to our own product and the other beekeepers around us.

Native Honey Bee

Brianmc - there was no baiting, just simple statement of facts. If you re-read what I wrote, it will be clear that there was no suggestion the barrels in question contained anything other than honey.

Solargain - it would be good if there was no fraud. There are many conscientious producers of quality Irish honey but there are sadly some who do not fall into that category. If FIBKA ( whom I hold in high regard), the leading beekeepers organisation in this country cannot be more active in combating fraud, it is futile hoping the "inspectors" you mentioned will do anything. Remember the debacle of the beefburgers made from horsemeat and the beefburgers that contained no meat whatsoever? This went on for a long time under their noses! So I rest my case and wish you both a very good night.

DK man

My suspicions may well be unfounded and I hope they are and I would be very surprised if the individual concerned is fraudulently selling imported honey. I have bought honey from 3 other beekeepers before this purchase and the three other batches were all different but there was a distinct difference from the kind of honey that is sold in aldi / boyne valley etc. I have also tasted rape honey and this batch is not like rape... Meanwhile I'm craving the taste of wildflower honey similar to the batches I've bought before....

I have 12 colonies in3 different apiaries so I'm hoping that from next year on I will have no doubt about the sources of my honey

Native Honey Bee

The best of luck to you for next season, why not try for some cut comb? It makes for pleasant variation.

conor t

DK man wrote: »

My suspicions may well be unfounded and I hope they are and I would be very surprised if the individual concerned is fraudulently selling imported honey. I have bought honey from 3 other beekeepers before this purchase and the three other batches were all different but there was a distinct difference from the kind of honey that is sold in aldi / boyne valley etc. I have also tasted rape honey and this batch is not like rape... Meanwhile I'm craving the taste of wildflower honey similar to the batches I've bought before....

I have 12 colonies in3 different apiaries so I'm hoping that from next year on I will have no doubt about the sources of my honey

Its important to remember that just because honey is irish doesn't mean it will be anything special

giraffegoat

brianmc is correct in what he says, as someone who has been in the vanguard of this and a primary producer I have more reason than most to feel let down not just by FIBKA but by the majority of State bodies supposedly set up to protect the 'Green' image of Irish food including honey. Unfortunately its all to often left up to the individual to identify the error or wrongdoing of large corporate entities and pursue them!

solargain

giraffegoat wrote: »

brianmc is correct in what he says, as someone who has been in the vanguard of this and a primary producer I have more reason than most to feel let down not just by FIBKA but by the majority of State bodies supposedly set up to protect the 'Green' image of Irish food including honey. Unfortunately its all to often left up to the individual to identify the error or wrongdoing of large corporate entities and pursue them!

Just to clarfiy FIBKA is not a state body set up to protect Irish food. FIBKA is a voluntary group of beekeepers voted in by the Associations, none of which are paid. I am surprised that you would expect people that are not paid and are already giving their for free , to follow up on an assumption , with no proof and no statutaory right to do so. Its the beekeepers elect the people on to FIBKA and if you feel let down by them , perhaps the 58 associations around the country should take a small bit more interest in who they elect and submit peoples name for it . There were 14 of the 58 associations filled in nomination forms this year and about 70 out of 2800 people showed up at Congress. So if you feel let down , blame yourselves for lack of interest