Blue honey – Bees eating M&Ms

French Bees Produce Blue Honey

By JUJU KIM |  October 5, 2012 |

VINCENT KESSLER/REUTERS

French apiarist Andre Frieh holds a sample of normal honey (right) besides a blue colored one (left) at his home in Ribeauville near Colmar, Eastern France, October 5, 2012.

Mars Incorporated has proclaimed that “Chocolate is better in color” with its M&Ms. But French beekeepers may beg to differ on that.

Since August, beekeepers near the town of Ribeauville, in the northeastern region of Alsace, have been reporting their bees are producing blue and green honey, according to Reuters. And they’ve traced the cause back to a biogas plant that processes waste from an M&Ms factory.

MKA Research Association Annual Conference 2012

Report by Tauseef Ahmad Khan

The Annual MKA Research Association Conference 2012 was held at Darul Amaan Mosque, Manchester on Friday 24th, Saturday 25th and Sunday 26th August 2012.

A total of 30 young enthusiastic Khuddam and 2 Atfal attended the conference [corrected the number of Atfal]. Seventeen Khuddam and two Atfal travelled from London to attend the conference, while one Khadim came from Netherlands to take part in this conference.

Start Beekeeping

If you have a garden and enjoy honey… Why not become a BeeKeeper!

Beekeeping is easy and fun. It looks daunting at first but Omlet’s Beehaus, a futuristic looking beehive, has brought a revolution to beekeeping and has made Urban Beekeeping a very viable hobby.

The Bee Revelation

A single honey bee worker produces about 1/12th of a teaspoon of honey in her lifetime.

The Holy Qur’an mentions six types of revelations of Allah to His creation. The first and foremost of them is the revelation to the Prophets (1,2).

“Surely, We have sent revelation to thee, as We sent revelation to Noah and the Prophets after him; and We sent revelation to Abraham and Ishmael and Isaac and Jacob and his children and to Jesus and Job and Jonah and Aaron and Solomon, and We gave David a Book.” [Al-Nisa', 4:164]

In addition five types of non-prophetic revelations are also mentioned in the Holy Qur’an.

Bee swarms behave just like neurons in the human brain

[Source for this article: http://io9.com/5866215/bee-swarms-behave-just-like-neurons-in-the-human-brain.html %5D

When it comes time for honeybee swarm to split off from their mother colony and find a new place to live, something remarkable happens. To communicate most effectively, they organize themselves exactly like the neurons of a complex brain.

Sometimes, a honeybee colony grows too large, and so a swarm breaks off in order to find a possible new home, usually somewhere like a secure opening in a tree. Different bees check out different possible new homes, and those that have found a suitable landing site communicate this to the others by dancing, repeating a simple figure eight pattern that the other bees can interpret in order to know the direction and distance of their potential new home.

Utah highway shut after 20m bees escape from lorry

A highway in the US state of Utah was temporarily closed after a lorry carrying at least 20 million bees overturned, freeing the insects.

The bees were being transported to California, ready to pollinate an almond crop next spring.

Dundee University research bees stolen

This is sad news. Honeybee research funding is already low and then you get people who steal your research!

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From BBC News, 9 May 2011

The bees were taken from the grounds of Ninewells Hospital in Dundee

Where will we find new antibacterial drugs? In honey?

This is an old article but I will link this and other old ones I collected overtime. I think honey news never gets old!

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Baillie is now on the hunt for a PhD student to work on the project full-time. Meanwhile, his early screening of samples has already yielded honeys with antimicrobial properties that can kill MRSA. 

I wish I had a background in Microbiology. I could have applied.

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From the Guardian, Monday 25 July 2011

Scientists are appealing for jars of honey to help them try to develop new antibacterial drugs

Professor Les Baillie and his team at the National Botanic Garden of Wales. Photograph: James Davies

Who knows what medicinal secrets lurk in a pot of honey? Scientists in Wales intend finding out and are asking beekeepers throughout the UK to send in their honey for inspection. They’re especially keen to know what plants their bees have been feeding on – information that could, in time, help to develop new antibacterial drugs.

How beekeeping pulled a woman from the edge

Beekeeping is a viable business as this story shows. If anyone wishes to start beekeeping then check out this great book: Guide to Bees & Honey: The World’s Best Selling Guide to Beekeeping  by Ted Hooper. Amazon UK

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By Fazal Khaliq

Published: September 26, 2011 in Express Tribune 

Bakhta was on the verge of giving up when the Sarhad Rural Support Programme, under the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), reached out to her. PHOTO: EXPRESS

SWAT: Shahi Bakhta has single-handedly steered her life and those of her children out from the depths of poverty and managed to economically stabilise her family.

My Passion

I am an Epidemiologist by profession finishing my PhD in Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Disease. I will be pursuing research in non-communicable disease Epidemiology .

I plan to understand honey and honey bees as it is my passion. I Insha’Allah plan to research this most fascinating tale of God’s revelation to the honeybee and how it has resulted in one of the wonders of science. In my research I will focus on honey rather than honey bees, but I will give insights into honey bees as without understanding it one cannot understand its product.

Most people just know of honey as a product of honey bees. It is worth noting that the Holy Qur’an does not mention honey per se but mentions the ‘from their bellies a drink of varying hues/properties.’ This includes the following products of the honey bee: