{"id":10672,"date":"2016-10-24T16:53:22","date_gmt":"2012-10-24T16:53:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.viamedic.com\/blog\/?p=628"},"modified":"2012-10-24T16:53:22","modified_gmt":"2012-10-24T16:53:22","slug":"mm-loving-bees-make-colored-honey","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.edrugstore.com\/blog\/current-health-news\/mm-loving-bees-make-colored-honey\/","title":{"rendered":"M&M Loving Bees Make Colored Honey"},"content":{"rendered":"

French beekeeper hives are producing colored batches of honey — red, blue, and green, the color of M&Ms processed at a nearby plant. —\u00a0Click to Tweet<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Honey bees can sometimes get confused, going after other sources of sugar besides plant nectar. (Photo by Scott Kinmartin on Flickr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The honey was confusing at first, until beekeepers realized it was being contaminated by bees that were collecting residue from M&M\u2019s that were being processed at a nearby biogas plant in northeastern France. The beekeepers found out after searching for a possible cause and realized the processing plant was over 2.5 miles away.<\/p>\n

The reason each hive remained the same color, rather than mixing the colors together, is that bees naturally targeted the \u201cflowers\u201d of one variety until they\u2019re all gone, which gives the highest chance of pollination. High rates of pollination are mutually beneficial for both the bees and the flowers, so such behavior is encouraged by evolution.<\/p>\n

How Do M&Ms Lead to Colored Honey?<\/strong>
\nThe honey bees naturally seek out sources of nectar, which they bring back to their nest. Ordinarily a bee accomplishes this by rubbings its legs in the nectar, which transfer to a \u201cspecial storage stomach<\/a>.\u201d Once they return to the hive, they complete a \u201ctongue-to-tongue\u201d transfer to honey bees, which process the nectar in their honey stomachs.<\/p>\n

After this process is complete, the honey bees deposit the mixture of processed sugars into a honeycomb, where it dries out, leaving behind the thick, sticky substance we know as honey.<\/p>\n

But because all of the sugars they\u2019re picking up from the plant are contaminated with dyes, the dyes make it all the way back to the honeycombs, surviving the entire process in between.<\/p>\n

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M&M dye is proving surprisingly stubborn when it comes to honeybee hives. (Photo by *MarS on Flickr.)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

M&M\u2019s Reaction<\/strong>
\nThe Mars candy company has declined to make any official comment, but the processing facility has since cleaned its containers and started storing its waste in a \u201ccovered hall<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Protective measures like this are absolute minimums for ensuring the continued safety of bee populations. There\u2019s been a dramatic decline in hive population numbers over the last decade or so, with much it caused by continued contamination from pesticides and herbicides used by farmers.<\/p>\n

The threat to France\u2019s economy is especially pronounced, as they\u2019re one of the largest producers of honey in the entire European Union.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

French beekeeper hives are producing colored batches of honey — red, blue, and green, the color of M&Ms processed at a nearby plant. —\u00a0Click to Tweet. The honey was confusing at first, until beekeepers realized it was being contaminated by bees that were collecting residue from M&M\u2019s that were being processed at a nearby biogas […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_autoblog_aioseo_focus_keyphrase":"","_autoblog_aioseo_title":"","_autoblog_aioseo_description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10672","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-health-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t