Beemaster's International Beekeeping Forum

BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: Grandma_DOG on December 31, 2009, 05:59:25 PM

Title: Opium Honey?
Post by: Grandma_DOG on December 31, 2009, 05:59:25 PM
I was doing research on honey plants. Saw this and asked myself the obvious question - is Opium Honey narcotic?
Is there a dark underbelly of beekeeping smuggling honey?

Poppy, Opium     Papaver somniferum     Annual flower     Per acre:20 - 30 pounds honey; 80 - 120 pounds pollen, which is dark blue in color     Nectar and pollen     Showy garden flowers.

Data from here:
http://www.themelissagarden.com/TMG_Vetaley031608.htm (http://www.themelissagarden.com/TMG_Vetaley031608.htm)
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: rdy-b on December 31, 2009, 10:32:05 PM
    HONEY PLANTS OF NORTH AMERICA paint a diferant picture -they clam that a acre field would not produce a drop
of nectar-and bees work it for pollen-RDY-B
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Grandma_DOG on January 01, 2010, 03:16:21 AM
Well, darn, there goes my ideas of an action thriller movie involving lean, mean, beekeepers packing machine guns and smokers.

Quote from: rdy-b on December 31, 2009, 10:32:05 PM
    HONEY PLANTS OF NORTH AMERICA paint a diferant picture -they clam that a acre field would not produce a drop
of nectar-and bees work it for pollen-RDY-B
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Animator on January 02, 2010, 04:23:42 AM
I thought the same thing about cannabis. But it's just a not a bee friendly weed.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Finski on January 02, 2010, 05:25:19 AM
Quote from: Grandma_DOG on December 31, 2009, 05:59:25 PM
I was doing research on honey plants. Saw this and asked myself the obvious question

That opium milk is meant to be poison and to protect the plant and pollen is offered for food to pollinators. Nectar is  food too to pollinators.

These are the basics. Beekeeping will not offer  help in drug business.

(http://w2aiq.servebbs.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/09/opium-poppy.jpg)
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Mason on January 04, 2010, 04:41:51 PM
Even if the bees were to work cannabis it wouldn't give you a buzz.  The active ingredients in cannabis are THC and CDC.  Both require the resin pods to be heated to be released.  This is why eating raw marijuana doesn't have any or very little effect where brownies and smoking it do.

May I suggest mead......... It's legal.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Grandma_DOG on January 04, 2010, 07:49:15 PM
I don't drink, but thanks.

Actually part of my initial interest was that Osama Bin Laden was tied to honey trading companies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1594143.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1594143.stm)

Therefore, you connect that dot with the location dot of Afganistan and the Opium Dot, do you draw a picture of narcotic honey being smuggled?  If such a link were proved, it would do no good to the honey trade. 

However, as pointed out there is no known narcotic honey.

Quote from: Mason on January 04, 2010, 04:41:51 PM
Even if the bees were to work cannabis it wouldn't give you a buzz.  The active ingredients in cannabis are THC and CDC.  Both require the resin pods to be heated to be released.  This is why eating raw marijuana doesn't have any or very little effect where brownies and smoking it do.

May I suggest mead......... It's legal.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: wd on January 07, 2010, 07:56:46 PM
Hmm, maybe the honey needs to be cooked to have an affect ... j/k

For myself, with-out reading the link you provided, the dots I connect are with false bottoms, air tight bags, fake walls and so on. Of course smuggling isn't anything new. Thie practice has been done as the unthinkable as much as the obvious. Doesn't matter where funds for projects come from for some, pure or tainted sales, it spends the same.


Quote from: Grandma_DOG on January 04, 2010, 07:49:15 PM
I don't drink, but thanks.

Actually part of my initial interest was that Osama Bin Laden was tied to honey trading companies.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1594143.stm (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/1594143.stm)

Therefore, you connect that dot with the location dot of Afganistan and the Opium Dot, do you draw a picture of narcotic honey being smuggled?  If such a link were proved, it would do no good to the honey trade.  

However, as pointed out there is no known narcotic honey.

Quote from: Mason on January 04, 2010, 04:41:51 PM
Even if the bees were to work cannabis it wouldn't give you a buzz.  The active ingredients in cannabis are THC and CDC.  Both require the resin pods to be heated to be released.  This is why eating raw marijuana doesn't have any or very little effect where brownies and smoking it do.

May I suggest mead......... It's legal.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: melliphile on January 08, 2010, 01:47:08 PM
Still, wouldn't opium honey be a great novelty product?  Or pollen, for that matter. I wonder if the poppy growers bring in bees or rely on local pollinators. Any one know about Afghan beekeeping?
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: melliphile on January 12, 2010, 07:58:03 PM
This was all I could find:

http://healthmad.com/nutrition/honey-are-you-toxic/ (http://healthmad.com/nutrition/honey-are-you-toxic/)
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: joetraff on September 20, 2010, 05:48:21 AM

That helped a lot.
Keep up the good work of sharing.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Culley on September 20, 2010, 06:52:54 AM
In Mexico people gather/grow magic mushrooms, little dark ones, and pickle them fresh in honey. The honey becomes psychoactive too. They sell little jars to tourists.

Plenty of reports of toxic honey, especially in Asia and the tropics. I read a National Geographic article about people taking honey from Apis dorsata nests, and then putting a little in the palm of the hand. If it tingles, it's not safe.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Finski on September 21, 2010, 01:53:56 AM
Quote from: Grandma_DOG on December 31, 2009, 05:59:25 PM
   Nectar and pollen     Showy garden flowers.


As fas as I know, poppies give only pollen.

The link tells too that Rosa canina gives nectar. It is false.

The link says about willows that "The very highest quality pollen you can find anywhere".
That is not true. The raw protein content is about 15% and the need is 22%.


That data makes don't know twhat he has done. Too many clear  mistakes.

http://www.themelissagarden.com/TMG_Vetaley031608.htm (http://www.themelissagarden.com/TMG_Vetaley031608.htm)

  *********************

And here too. salix is wind pollinating. Where you can trust on?
http://www.sonomabees.org/plants/index.html (http://www.sonomabees.org/plants/index.html)
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: zubaer on January 26, 2011, 02:56:53 AM
We are thinking to start a business like this.Please help us by providing the necessary information about this.We wanna self-stablished by this business.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: jdnewberry on February 09, 2011, 04:54:43 PM
If you're thinking of making opium honey as a business, it would be a very BAD idea.  Assuming the bees can actually collect nectar from poppies, posession of any part of the plant (except the seed) is illegal and would carry the same fine as a schedule II narcotic.  If the honey contains any alkaloids, it stands to reason that it would carry the same penalty.  

Any attempt to grow the number of plants that would be required to obtain a large enough crop to be profitable is sure to be discovered by the authorities.  According to the link referenced earlier in this thread, you would need at least an acre of plants to produce 7-10 quarts of honey.  If you actually succeed in producing the honey, you still need to be able to sell it.  Opium is no longer popular.  It was replaced by heroin because it's lighter and more concentrated, making it easier to smuggle or store.  Making honey is working in the opposite direction - it would be heavier and bulkier.

I admit that the thought of narcotic honey is amusing, but an attempt to produce it is asking for trouble in a very big way.  For a first time offender, posession of opiates carries a 5-year prison term and up to $1,000,000 fine.  Growing the plants carries a 20-year prison term.  NOT WORTH IT!
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Finski on February 10, 2011, 12:49:15 AM
Quote from: jdnewberry on February 09, 2011, 04:54:43 PM
If you're thinking of making opium honey as a business, !

It needs a good explanation because poppy flowers have no nectar. They offer only pollen to pollinators.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: jdnewberry on February 10, 2011, 12:54:13 AM
I was always under the same impression about poppies not producing nectar.  The link above states, however, that 1 acre can yield 20-30 lbs of honey.  It's likely misinformation sice there are a few other incorrect statements in their list, but I've also never had poppies as the only available source for my bees.  I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt!
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Finski on February 10, 2011, 02:49:21 AM
Quote from: jdnewberry on February 10, 2011, 12:54:13 AM
.  The link above states, however, that 1 acre can yield 20-30 lbs of honey. 

Many links have mistakes what they inform about nectar plants. Perhaps there are weeds in the poppyfield where they got nectar.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: kluger1372 on August 01, 2011, 07:51:17 AM
Is it another kind of drug?
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: jdave1372 on August 20, 2011, 04:20:41 AM
Honey of opium? This is the most bizarre thing I've ever heard.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: kingbee on August 20, 2011, 10:15:50 PM
Quote from: Grandma_DOG on December 31, 2009, 05:59:25 PM... is Opium Honey narcotic?...

Very intresting.  Would that mean if you ate some you won't feel any stings? 
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Finski on August 20, 2011, 10:30:19 PM
.
I had a good business dream too. I have dreamed that my bee army would pick blueberries from woods.

A billberry normaly weights 0,7 g.  if a bee carry one berry in hour, 30 000 bees can pick in a day 300 000 berries which is 20 kg a day.  10 hives =200 kg a day, 100 hives........

It is only one problem in my business that a bee can carry 0,07 g loads.
I need 10 bees to carry one berry. How to teach them team work?

My next door neigbour said: don't worry about that. You have a whole long winter to do that!



Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Mason on September 02, 2011, 05:51:22 PM
QuoteIt is only one problem in my business that a bee can carry 0,07 g loads.
I need 10 bees to carry one berry. How to teach them team work?

In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Finski on September 03, 2011, 12:58:47 AM
Quote from: Mason on September 02, 2011, 05:51:22 PM

In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?

A honeybee beat its wings 240 faps in second. Mosuito flaps 400 times.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: spyder1372 on September 13, 2011, 09:11:58 AM
It's too expensive to drink.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: ithorp1372 on September 20, 2011, 11:58:59 AM
If you can't drink it then try to eat.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: Grandma_DOG on September 24, 2011, 04:33:54 AM
Is that an English or an African swallow?

Quote from: Mason on September 02, 2011, 05:51:22 PM
QuoteIt is only one problem in my business that a bee can carry 0,07 g loads.
I need 10 bees to carry one berry. How to teach them team work?

In order to maintain air-speed velocity, a swallow needs to beat its wings forty-three times every second, right?
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: runner4410 on October 29, 2011, 01:02:38 PM
We need more bee here.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: krain450 on November 11, 2011, 06:36:25 AM
It's so addictive.
Title: Re: Opium Honey?
Post by: lancewalter24 on December 09, 2011, 02:05:15 AM
I'm feeling so freak.