# Is old honey poisonous to bees?



## Jeanette (Jul 7, 2012)

I had never heard of this idea before today. I was reading a report from the US Dept. of Agriculture about the health/poison effects of different types of sugars on bees. In the middle was this statement:

"Bailey also found that 8-year-old honey had dysenteric effects much like poisonous sugars: an absorption peak matching hydroxymethyl furfural correlated with toxicity of old honey and of acid-hydrolyzed syrups."

Has anyone else heard of this before?

_http://www.sugarindia.com/invert_syrup_honey_bee.htm_


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## Jeanette (Jul 7, 2012)

Just a wild guess - no replies to the thread means that no-one else has heard of this before either. It did sound a little unusual.


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## Michael Bush (Aug 2, 2002)

HMF build up as honey gets heated and as it gets older and HMF is poisonous to bees. That doesn't mean it will kill them, but it may give them dysentery and in the middle of winter that can kill them.


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## Jeanette (Jul 7, 2012)

Thanks for the explanation, Michael.


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