French Beekeepers in Ribeauville Abuzz over Blue Honey

The bees apparently ate waste from M&Ms.

Beekeepers in northeastern France have been alarmed to find their bees producing honey in unnatural shades of green and blue.

The beekeepers believe the source of the problem is a biogas plant close to Ribeauville in Alsace.

It is thought the bees have been eating the sugary waste from M&Ms, small chocolates in brightly-coloured shells.

The plant operator said it regretted the situation and had put in place a procedure to stop it happening again.

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The company, which deals with waste from a Mars chocolate factory, said it would clean out the containers, store all incoming waste in airtight containers and process it promptly, according to a company statement published in Le Monde newspaper.

A spokeswoman for the British Beekeepers’ Association, Gill Maclean, said it was possible that the coloured sugar could have contaminated the honey.

[...]

“Bees are clever enough to know where the best sources of sugar are, if there are no others available,” she said.

As for the blue honey, the beekeepers say it is unsellable.

Unsellable?  Bah; just a matter of marketing, surely.  ‘Limited edition organic blue honey’, or something; trendy people will lap it up…

City Workers Kill Honeybees, Mistake Them For Yellow Jackets

Stupid muncipal governments…

Residents of one Hillsboro, Oregon, neighborhood are angry after city workers sprayed a honeybee hive, killing many of the bees. City officials say they thought the bees were yellow jackets and were a danger to people walking on a nearby sidewalk.

Honey Leaking from Ceiling Leads to Discovery of 80,000 Bees inside Ontario Home

“Um, honey; I think we have a problem, here…”

Homeowner Loretta Yates said she knew she had a “sweet mess” on her hands at her home in the small southern Ontario community of Varney when a crack in the ceiling started oozing honey last week.

“I guess with the cracked ceiling in the kitchen and the honey dripping on me — that was (the) time to get help,” she said.

Ya figure?

Ms. Yates and her husband Kevin soon discovered the 1 1/2-storey house they live in with their 22-month-old son had a few unexpected guests: 80,000 bees nesting in two colonies in the first-floor ceiling.

Kevin Yates said he first noticed something strange around a week ago when he spotted a “blanket of bees” hovering in a thick swarm outside the kitchen door.

“They wanted in,” he said.

He didn’t realize the throng of bees at the doorstep were trying to do what thousands of the pests had already done — sneak themselves into the ceiling.

They couldn’t get in, he explained, because it was already full of bees.

He said it wasn’t long after that honey began to slowly drip from newly emerged cracks in the living room and kitchen ceilings, while a cascade of the sweet liquid even blew a lightbulb after filling it half-full of honey.

80,000; yikes!  Even worse than the 50,000 in that California home, a bit ago…

Calif. Man Finds 50,000 Bees Inside Home

I hate when that happens…

On July 7 a photojournalist discovered an estimated 50,000 bees living in the walls of his Los Angeles home, and he wasn’t even scared.

Spending little time at home because of work, Larry Chen, 27, initially didn’t notice the bees. According to the beekeeper he hired, the hive was an estimated six to eight months old.

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He found a man on Craigslist, who goes by the name Mike Bee, who said he would safely remove the bees. He is a member of the rescue organization Backwards Beekeepers, a group that works with HoneyLove.org in order to educate the public about bees.

“My policy is to relocate, not exterminate,” the beekeeper explained.

It took Mike Bee and his wife five hours to remove the bees from the wall. Mike Bee was stung four times.