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Vincent Kessler / Reuters
A coloured honeycomb from a beehive is seen in Ribeauville near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5. Bees at a cluster of bee hives in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause. Since August, beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colourful substances that have turned their honey unnatural shades.
Vincent Kessler / Reuters
French apiarist Andre Frieh holds a sample green colored honey at his home in Ribeauville near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5.
Reuters -- Bees at a cluster of apiaries in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause.
Since August, beekeepers around the town of Ribeauville in the region of Alsace have seen bees returning to their hives carrying unidentified colorful substances that have turned their honey unnatural shades.
Mystified, the beekeepers embarked on an investigation and discovered that a biogas plant 4 km (2.5 miles) away has been processing waste from a Mars plant producing M&M's, bite-sized candies in bright red, blue, green, yellow and brown shells. Asked about the issue, Mars had no immediate comment.
The unsellable honey is a new headache for around a dozen affected beekeepers already dealing with high bee mortality rates and dwindling honey supplies following a harsh winter, said Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists' union.
Agrivalor, the company operating the biogas plant, said it had tried to address the problem after being notified of it by the beekeepers.
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Vincent Kessler / Reuters
The village of Ribeauville is seen near Colmar Eastern France, on Oct. 5.
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Beekeepers in France discovered their bees were visiting a nearby M & M candy bio-gas plant after their honey turned green and blue. NBCNews.com's Dara Brown reports.
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Why can't they sell it? Just market it as a special gourmet blend!
Test it, and if it's safe for human consumption, sell it. There're always kids and adults who like differently colored foods. And if they still don't want to sell it and it's safe for the bees, let the bees keep it.
if they sell it, Mars will probably sue for unauthorized use of their product....just like Monsanto sues independent farmers whose crops have been infected (pollinated) by neighboring gmo crops.
also, what's happening to nearby crops that's causing this? what other crops are being potentially affected? are the food dyes in the ground water? why only blue & green? it's not as though the bees are directly carrying back M&Ms, so there's clearly more going on here. the $$$$$ it would cost to adequately test the honey would not be worth any profits these beekeepers might see from their sale. maybe Mars should foot the bill for the testing, and if successful, pay these farmers to produce their M&M honey...
After the beekeepers harvest honey from the bees they replace some of the honey with corn syrup to feed the bees over winter. My Grandfather who was a beekeeper warned that this presents a problem because it teaches the bees they can eat man made sugar and the bees might "go stealing" instead of getting nectar from flowers. With our abundant life of sugar (a once precious commodity) bees are over-fed corn sugar and don't want to bother struggling to get nectar from flowers.
The solution is to plant and keep well watered abundant nectar producing flowers around the hive and let them keep more of the honey they produce. Hopefully enough that they do not need to be fed. If they keep "stealing" the bees may need to be destroyed. Bees can easily be pushed too hard especially when they are expected to make a constant profit in the face of poor weather conditions.