POISONED HONEY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 12775, 27 January 1905, Page 7

POISONED HONEY.

TO THE EDITOR. Sir, One day last week, with a friend, on looking at my bees at work, i'ud al&o some honey 1 'had taken, he remarked it strange that in Auckland you never see honey placed on the table as you do in the South and othei countries. ; I replied, Yes ; some blockheads have got lip a scaro here about, poisoned honey, but there is not such a thing." How could bees, the most particular insects living, imbibe and swallow poisoned honey, carry it perhaps three or four miles, deposit it in their combs to' feed their young, and livo on it without getting poisoned? It is not poison in the honey, but a gorge of a certain class ofhoney. I nan';remember in old Scotland' when the bees were brought home from the heather hills, often brimming full, of honey, some people would go for a gorge, and the heather,', like other, mountain dews, both honey and whisky, being something strong, honey colio was the result. 1 have, known not a few cases, and the antidote was whisky. 'Hence the Highlanders always mix their honey with whisky, and' in some districts add a handful of oatmeal (termed athol brose). I have known a Highlander" take that, for breakfast and work' a hard day's work on it.—l am, etc., ■'. •" , Thomas Alton. Avondale, January 22. P.S.—Since writing tho 'above I've seen tho warning by the Government apiarist as to wild honey and poison. Will he tell us what is wild honey, and what sort of bees gather it, as two swarms came to me this season, and they may be wild bees and gathering wild honey.T.A.