Am I gonna die??

[Davepeg]

Rickomatic,
I for one continue to learn from all the "silly" questions asked by newbies and experienced beekers on this forum.  I had never even thought about poisonous plants!  Thank you for starting a most interesting thread.  I hope you live a very long and healthy life eating honey.

[kathyp]

the baby part is true.   

[WOB419]

Honey contains a low amount of botch-u-lism (I don't know how to spell it so welcome back to phonix.).  Baby's under 12 months have not developed the immunities to combat it effectively so you should not feed honey to children that young.  As a practical matter, I understand that it is a small percentage of the the children that would have a problem with the honey but it can be serious so why take a chance on any kid?

[Scadsobees]

Honey contains a low amount of botch-u-lism (I don't know how to spell it so welcome back to phonix.).  Baby's under 12 months have not developed the immunities to combat it effectively so you should not feed honey to children that young.  As a practical matter, I understand that it is a small percentage of the the children that would have a problem with the honey but it can be serious so why take a chance on any kid?

It actually has to do with the acidity and flora of the gut.  Botulism is a reletively weak bacteria that can only thrive and produce a lot of toxin in certain conditions, such as anaerobic non-acid environments (canned beans or a milk-eating baby's gut).  It isn't the bacteria that kills, it is the toxin that it produces. 
In the canned veggies it grows for a while and produces a lot of toxin which sickens or kills people , whereas in a baby that bacterium grows slowly in the gut releasing small amounts of the toxin as it grows which continually weakens the child.  It is hard to diagnose because it is more of a gradual weakening and sickness.

All raw vegetables (probably any uncooked food) can do the same thing that honey does to a baby.  So don't let your baby munch on raw carrots.  Honey mostly got the bad rap from people putting honey on the pacifier to get the kid to suck.

I'm not sure but I think the quicker a baby is put on solid, adult foods the sooner they aren't susceptable to that form of botulism because they develop the good gut bacteria and acidification sooner.

[Highlandsfreedom]

I agree your bees are elsewhere..... those are for the most part somone elses bees on the bush.

[Bee Happy]

babies don't have teeth...

[MikeG]

Hey, all, it was a great question asked in a most delightfully funny, tongue in cheek manner.

It may or may not have been answered in a "cross" or "disrespectful" manner but who knows what mood the answerer was in.

One of the greatest challenges we all face in the computer age is communicating in a written forum, absent facial expressions and body language to communicate attitudes.  It is HARD and it requires CARE and SKILL.  We don't always have the time or inclination to put the effort required to be sure our writing is written in such a way that it absolutely won't be miss-interpreted by someone.

And as it turned out, the question had a lot more valididity to it than many thought.

The questioner is quite good-natured.  I've seen serious arguments ensue on forums with considerably less inadvertent intimidation.

Congratulations to everyone.  This sure is a great forum and holds great people!  Everyone in this forum usually act as if they are full of sugar water, have a productive mother, are experiencing fair weather, and are just barely smoked.

[Scadsobees]

babies don't have teeth...

If you think so, then you've never breastfed an infant
(I haven't either but I've heard plenty of exclaimations from my wife while she did!!!)

The carrot reference was tounge in cheek and I think I may have meant "big people food" instead of "solid food"....

And we wouldn't be having all these great conversations if it weren't for those beginning questions!!!  I figure that if I get annoyed with answering the same beginner questions over and over, then it is time for me to sit back and let some of the newer members have equal opportunity at being a know-it-all. 

[bassman1977]

Highly unlikely you will die.  See this...

http://scribalterror.blogs.com/scribal_terror/2008/06/mad-honey.html

"Honey produced from the flowers of rhododendrons, mountain laurels, sheep laurel, and azaleas may cause honey intoxication. Symptoms include dizziness, weakness, excessive perspiration, nausea, and vomiting. Less commonly, low blood pressure, shock, heart rhythm irregularities, and convulsions may occur, with rare cases resulting in death."

[hankdog1]

I have to agree with everyone else here your gonna die unless you've got the foutain of youth in your back yard.  In that case how about sharing some of that stuff.  Oooh by the way the rhododendrons won't kill you.  It has to be in a high concentration while it will make you go unconcious and screw ya up for about a month you'll live.  Mind you that's only an exterme case not been alot of documented posionings by honey.  I'd be more worried about a significant other taking out a lage life insurance policy on me and then trying to stuff food down me.  I watch way too much Investigation Discovery though. 

[bassman1977]

Mind you that's only an exterme case not been alot of documented posionings by honey.

"Since the number of documented cases of "mad honey disease" in the United States in the last quarter-century add up to exactly none it'd be merely paranoid to worry about it."

Taken from http://www.paghat.com/toxichoney.html

[WOB419]

Rhododendrons don't kill...people kill...

[reinbeau]

Being surrounded by over eight acres of rhododendons, azaleas and mountain laurel, I was very concerned about this, too, when we started our beekeeping adventure - four years later we are still very much alive!

First of all, honeybees aren't particularly interested in rhodies or azaleas, you'll see far more bumblebees working the blossoms.  They bloom very early in the year, most all of the honey produced will be consumed over the spring season and not make it to your harvest.  Also, toxicity varies, the worst is from R. ponticum.  Grayanotoxin is the name of the disease, you can read more about it here.  You can read about the mad honey wars, etc. here.

In a nutshell, if you've got a couple two three rhodies you are safe, don't worry about it.  Even surrounded by a rhodie forest as we are, we don't worry about it.  If we were in the midst of R. ponticum, we'd think twice about eating our honey.

[tillie]

I believe it was Paul Arnold who is a palynologist (someone who studies pollen - why the spelling?  has to do with dinosaurs, not pollen) who said that a couple of years ago when we were in the worst of Georgia's drought, the honey in the mountains was made up of mostly mountain laurel - tasted bad and gave people indigestion and the beekeepers couldn't sell it because it did make people sick.....but that's pretty unusual.   

Luckily this year it has rained a lot during the honey flow....slows the bees down so they make less honey but what they make comes from better plants.

Linda T in Atlanta

[reinbeau]

Yea, if mountain laurel is all that's available, or rhodies, etc. then that's what they'll go to, but they prefer other nectar sources.

[tillie]

Absolutely, Ann - I wasn't very clear.  With the drought many other nectar sources didn't bloom so mountain laurel was the majority of the nectar flow unlike other years when there are lots of flowers from which to choose.  It's not the bees' flower of choice, rather of desperation!

LT

[wfuavenger]

What about Foxglove.... Digitalis comes from that plant and honey bees love it. It's a drug that strengthens the contraction of the heart muscle, slows the heart rate and helps eliminate fluid from body tissues. It's often used to treat congestive heart failure and is also used to treat certain arrhythmias. I know it is derived primarily from the leaves, but what about the flowers? Any thoughts?

[doak]

Looks like the subject in question has been well covered.
So on to this.

There is no such thing as a silly or stupid question.

Read the next line very carefully.

If anyone on this forum, or you know some body that knows all there is to know about every thing,
Please, please let me know.

Good night, love y'all :)doak

[johnnybigfish]

Hey Rickomatic!
 I didnt know you were a newbee!
I dont get in here as much as I used to but it seems that Ive seen you here for quite some time now!
 But,....Guess what I'm gonna do this year?
 I gonna plant tons of Angel trumpets!!!! They grow really great here and the bees love them!....On top of that, the plants are considered halucinogenic!
 I'm going to see if my bees can make me some "Happy Honey"!!...I'll be happy....my friends and family will be happy....and, most of all the bees will be happy!...and, if they sting me, I'll get even happier!..I think I'm even gonna run around in the yard naked!
Really tho,....Ive only heard of one plant so far that can be turned into poisonous honey but I just dont remember what it is at the moment...
And,....No,.....You wont die...You will, however, transfer over into another life!
Sometimes, I think I might have a heart attack from eating too much honey!
whewww......It started to get a little tense in here for a moment...I hate when that happens! ....If it happens again I might have to start drinkin again!
Hey Doak! did you ever get High Speed internet yet?

your friend,
john

[jsmob]

If you really want to know what the chance is of you having honey that will make you sick. Here are some known facts about the bee. You can do the math.

1*"Honeybees must visit between 100 and 1500 flowers in order to fill their honeystomachs."
2*"The honey stomach holds almost 70 mg of nectar"
3 There are roughly 60,000 to 80,000 bees per hive.
4 They forage in an area, on average, of 2 1/2 ml radius of the hive.
So go count the number of blooms in this area that bees are attracted to. Subtract the azaleas,  rhododendrons blossoms from the others, figure how many trips the bees could make to the blossoms. You know, do the math. so then you will have your chance of gitting sick from your honey in an urban setting.

* = fordshoneyfarm.com