Buy American and local when you can.

[BilletHead]

                Please buy local when you can,

    It just isn't China either. Some honey harvesters are not exactually honest. Feeding sugar is not good for bees and real honey. Many keepers will overharvest during the summer and have to feed bees during the Fall so the bees can make what they think is honey to live off of during the winter. It gets harvested also at one time or another. It has been said you can add food coloring to that sugar water, and it will color what the bees store in the comb. Read this,

Beekeepers halt honey awards over ‘huge fraud’ in global supply chain | Food & drink industry | The Guardian

 

[Terrierman]

Honey sauce @KFC.  Might be what you mean?????

[tjm]

I've had some local honey gifted to me that I suspect  wouldn't pass lab tests, but since the second time with covid, my taste and smell are not what they used to be, so maybe I'm wrong, but, truthfully buying directly from the beekeeper doesn't really insure the honey is pure. If beekeepers are adulterating honey, then beekeepers are adulterating honey.  Some crooks are local, actually all crooks are local where they live.

[BilletHead]

1 hour ago, tjm said:

I've had some local honey gifted to me that I suspect  wouldn't pass lab tests, but since the second time with covid, my taste and smell are not what they used to be, so maybe I'm wrong, but, truthfully buying directly from the beekeeper doesn't really insure the honey is pure. If beekeepers are adulterating honey, then beekeepers are adulterating honey.  Some crooks are local, actually all crooks are local where they live.

I don't and I know another that doesn't. I only harvest once a year in the fall. I take only the extra. Leaving plenty for the colony to winter on. 

  If you buy local ask questions. 

[tjm]

I know one local guy that I'm sure doesn't tamper with his honey nor feed sugar, if he's still alive, it's been a couple years. And I'm sure most don't; but my point was that crooks are everywhere and like politicians they will tell lies when questioned and an average person wouldn't think to ask questions nor even know what to ask. Those guys in the link were fooling experts and even some of the lab tests.

[ness]

There's a similar issue with maple syrup. The real stuff is valuable and expensive to produce, so it's getting doctored up to increase the volume. I saw a documentary a while back on TV. 

Just Googled to remind myself. Canada actually has a strategic maple syrup reserve! https://news.uoguelph.ca/2023/04/maple-syrup-fraud-undermines-the-authenticity-of-canadas-liquid-gold/

[jdmidwest]

The only time I will feed sugar is when I split a hive.  The hive I make will only have nurse bees and capped brood about to hatch.  They will be short on foragers until the new queen catches up production in about 6 weeks.  The last few years, I have been able to provide the splits with enough honey from parent hive to skip the feed.

I have had comments about the taste of my honey. Some say it's the best they have eaten.

Commercial keepers have to feed to keep hives strong during dearths of nectar.  If done correctly, that will not enter the honey supers that are put on and taken off during peak flows.  The honey supers are what get harvested, boxes that were on hives during feeding will stay with the bees.