Subject: Re: bees on toxic plants?

From: [email-masked] (Marshall Dudley)
Date: Fri, 14 Oct 1994 16:58 -0500 (EST)

[email-masked] (Mark Alexander) writes:
 
-> I've has it said to me that honey produced when the bees are foaging
-> on rhododendron plants is toxic to humans. That is its okay, no effect to
-> the bees but not so good for us. I don't know who true this is but it
-> concerns me as a university nursery near my hive (approx 2 kilometres)
-> breeds rhododendrons.
->
-> any further comments?
-> Mark A. Alexander
 
Having kept bees for many years, I thought that there was no such thing as
poisonous honey.  Poison ivy honey is said to be quite good.  However just
last week I read in the Sunday Paper that Rhododendron honey is quite toxic,
and should be avoided.  So it must either be true, or at least quite widely
accepted as fact.
 
                                                             Marshall

---

From: [email-masked] (Michael Moroney)
Date: Sun, 16 Oct 1994 01:09:25 GMT

> and should be avoided.  So it must either be true, or at least quite widely

I have heard mountain laurel honey (related to rhododendron) is toxic but
bees don't care for its nectar/pollen so don't work it if there's anything
else available.  This is good since I have plenty of mountain laurel around
here yet I have never seen a honeybee interested in them.  Dandelion blooms
at the same time.

-Mike

---

From: [email-masked] (Owen Watson)
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 22:58:17 +1200

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked]

> here yet I have never seen a honeybee interested in them.  Dandelion blooms

In the warmer parts of New Zealand I've heard that there's a native plant
(tutu?) that is harvested by bees and is toxic to humans; beekeepers in
affected areas don't harvest the honey till well after its flowering time,
by which time it has been used by the bees.

Could someone confirm?

-- 
_______________________________________________
Owen Watson, The Royal Society of New Zealand
Web server: http://www.rsnz.govt.nz/