Chemicals in the hives that produce your raw honey?

by Patrick Arden McNally
(Phoenix, AZ, USA)

Do you use chemicals on your bees that make your raw honey or their hives (including smoking)? Are the plants they gather the pollen from grown with pesticides, fertilizers or chemicals?

Thank you =)

Light and Love and Healing to you,
-Patrick Arden McNally

Angela's Comments:

Some beekeepers do spray their hives with chemicals regularly. The reason they do this is because of disease and parasites and lack of knowledge. We however, use an integrated pest management program that monitors the hives for disease and parasites so we rarely, if ever use chemicals at all. We would only use a chemical if and when there is a risk that a parasite or disease is in the hive and there is a risk that it may destroy our hives. We would also only use this if we are 100% sure there will be no contamination to the honey and we then test the honey for any residues up to parts per billion. So, as you can see we take great pride in producing 100% natural honey products and avoid chemicals at almost all costs. And no, we don't 'smoke' our hives.

Now, with regards to the where our bees pollinate. We have over 1500 hives and are not able to 100% control where our bees pollinate. While we do our best to put our hives in fields that haven't been sprayed, we can't be 100% certain that our bees aren't pollinating on fields that have been sprayed. We do test our honey for insecticide and pesticide residues to make sure none make it into the honey if in fact our bees do pollinate in non-organic fields. We test down to parts per billion, which is quite precise and sensitive.

I am a huge proponent of organic farming and eat almost 100% organic. Even though our honey is not certified organic, I still consume it regularly because I know the lengths we go to ensure a clean, healthy product.