French Bees Create Blue Honey After Raiding M&M's Factory

Mike Kayatta

Minister of Secrets
Aug 2, 2011
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French Bees Create Blue Honey After Raiding M&M's Factory

A colony of candy-crazed bees has left French keepers broke and flower patches jilted.

Imagine, if you will, that you're a French beekeeper. After years of training in all things bee, there's little left in the world of apiculture to surprise you. Each day is mostly the same - you tend the hives, collect your honey, and live a nice, quiet life in the small town of Ribeauville. Then, one day, you see this:



Even though there's a distinctly small possibility that you're actually a French beekeeper, you've still probably seen Winnie the Pooh enough times to know that honey isn't supposed to be green. Or blue. Or brown. Needless to say, the sight also struck the actual beekeepers of Ribeauville as somewhat weird when the strange phenomenon first struck their hives back in August. A swift investigation into the oddly-hued honey led local bee authorities to a nearby M&M's factory where, it is believed, that a bunch of lazy-ass bees have been gobbling processed candy sugar instead of nectar-mining local flowers like nature intended.



While you may find this wacky honey totally tubular (and it totally is), it's nothing but a major bummer for Alain Frieh, president of the apiculturists' union in France. Reportedly, Frieh's amazing Technicolor dream honey tastes just like normal honey, but he still won't sell it. "For me," he said, "it's not honey. It's not sellable."

It's unclear whether Frieh believes this honey unsellable because of local product regulations, or simply because he thinks people wouldn't shell out for bright blue honey, but if the latter, I heartily disagree. Despite the somewhat unsanitary idea of factory waste-honey (sugary delicious, perhaps, but waste none the less), and the ecological repercussions of bees and flowers breaking up as BFFs, I would totally buy a jar.

Source: NY Daily News [http://www.nydailynews.com/news/world/french-bees-making-colored-honey-article-1.1175991]

Images: Reuters [http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/10/05/us-france-bees-idUSBRE8930MQ20121005]

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Aeshi

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Dec 22, 2009
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Well the important thing is, does it still taste good? Because if so it might make a good novelty food if nothing else.
 

Scarim Coral

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Oct 29, 2010
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Honestly I think he could of made good money for selling novelty colour honeys. I bet some company will try to recreate this now.
 

gardian06

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Jun 18, 2012
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um nothing says delisus quite like technicolor bee vomit. my question is why isn't M&M getting in on this. either they could try, and buy the swarm, and start making colored honey candy (they have flavors) I know blueberry flavored blue candy.

This is golden (well blue, green, and brown), but just think of the marketing potential. this bee keeper doesn't know what he is missing out on.
 

Andy Shandy

Fucked if I know
Jun 7, 2010
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Time to bring out one of my favourite GIFs.



Also, I'd love to have different colour honey.
 

gigastar

Insert one-liner here.
Sep 13, 2010
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I smell an internet petition for technicolour honey...

Or maybe its just flatulence, but im probably not far off.

Aeshi said:
Well the important thing is, does it still taste good? Because if so it might make a good novelty food if nothing else.
Given that the bees were eating sugar and most industry-approved food colouring tastes like stale water, i cant imagine the taste being affected that much.
 

Jack Rascal

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May 16, 2011
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I wonder if the bees themselves noticed this... Was there one bee wondering "am I the only one thinking something's different?"
 

omega 616

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May 1, 2009
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"While you may find this wacky honey totally tubular" ... "totally tubular" sounds like a sitcom where the parents are trying to speak like the kids, to hip and cool. =D

On topic. This guy would be mad to not sell it out of some kind of "the honey is mine, all mine!", if it's down to some kind of regulations then fair enough.

Kind of want some honey on toast now ...
 

Slythernite

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Jan 25, 2009
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I absolutely agree that he should be selling it for novelty honey, as long as it passes safety regulations. Red and green honey could be interesting for pancakes during holiday times; I imagine IHOP and similar businesses would be very interested in selling this.
 

userwhoquitthesite

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Jul 23, 2009
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that is GORGEOUS. I hate honey, and i would totally buy a jar of the blue crap. You could market it as "Sapphire Honey" and put that image of the comb on the label, and I would BUY A JAR
 

Xan Krieger

Completely insane
Feb 11, 2009
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Love how the moron is saying he wants to lose money. If he sold it he could probably even mark it up slightly because of it's association with M&Ms.
 

Slip05

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Oct 17, 2008
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First that is completely awesome

Second, is this honey still all natural?
 

MortisLegio

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Nov 5, 2008
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So France now has colored honey... I guess yellow honey went out of style?

I kid, but that seems really cool. I mean if it taste like normal honey than I would buy some of it.
 

Absimilliard

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Nov 4, 2009
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Being Norwegian, a part-time bartender, a history-buff and fond of alcohol, I'm thinking this should be used for mead-production. They should try to get the patent as soon as they can...
 

Tortilla the Hun

Decidedly on the Fence
May 7, 2011
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Considering how much I know of the bees' process to make honey (which isn't really that much, mind you), I can see why he wouldn't want to promote this. If beekeepers focus more on using (potentially) artificial, multi-colored nectar for the bees to consume, that essentially removes a decent amount of pollenation from the local plantlife. You'd be putting the weight of the task on all the butterflies, and I'm not sure if their delicate frames could handle the workload. Of course, this is all just theorizing from someone who knows little of the matter.
 

Shoggoth2588

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Aug 31, 2009
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I would totally shell out for some potentially hazardous honey if it's naturally blue...naturally as in, they don't use blue #-whatever. Here's to hoping it's safe to bottle and sell.