Just curious. No one would advise that a person ever kneel at a flowing stream or a pristine (looking) pond and drink deeply of the water within. Likely twenty four hours later or less, one would deeply regret it. Any camper can tell you this.
How is it then that bees can use for themselves the water from such sources (and worse) and produce honey fit for consumption??
G*D made 'em that way. To make us clueless humans ask why. :?
Your reply was both good humored and good natured. :) Thanks.
But I really am curious for a particular reason. Throughout a cutout I was doing recently, I had to use water from a very questionable source to clean my knife, my hands, my cutting board. I forgot and ate some of the honey that the water came into contact with. I paid for it the next few days. I thought of feeding this back to the bees but I'm hesitant. I don't want to risk tainting the honey they make or contaminating the hive in any way. (Actually, as I think of it, the hive was already tainted in the act of using that knife to cut through the comb with brood and honey!)
And that's when I started thinking of the question I posted. We certainly don't know where bees get their moisture from. I saw honeybees go to a puddle of animal urine once. They sure must have one heck of a filtration system! Or maybe organisms that affect us do not affect them.
So if anyone knows what the explanation is, I sure would like to know.
Organisms and good old bacteria is what got you. The bees do not have such a problem when processing the water. I do have problems with bad water so I drink Guinness. If I am outside watching the hive (10' away) and am not careful, my bees will drink Guinness also. :cheer: :lau: :lau: :lau: -Mike
Guinness is good. I like Pinot Grigio. :)
Same reason you don't see squirrels, deer, and racoons bent over retching! :roll:
a) the organisms don't attack their species
b) if they did, the bees build up immunity
If you drank that water with any regularity, after a period of super-regularity :-D you'd probably not have any other problems, other than some parasites.
After all, our ancestors all had to drink that water, and they weren't incapacitated that way on a regular basis, even if they did die at age 40.
Bees like water with a bit of smell to it, and will often prefer water containing chlorine or sewage over "pure" sources. My bees get their water out of the runoff creek from the water treatment plant up the street. Well, that's what I tell myself, but I bet they get it from the settling ponds too. Ugh.
The bees themselves either have the intestinal fortitude to withstand whatever pathogens are in the water, or in many cases, have "intestines" that are not targeted by the bugs that would make us sick. I'm sure my girls pick up plenty of e.coli, but e.coli only selects warm blooded animals for hosts and does not colonize the bee gut, so no symptoms.
As for the honey, it is so acidic and hygroscopic that few microbes can survive in it and even fewer can reproduce. So say a bee lands by the sewage plant and steps in e. coli-contaminated water. It tracks some of those bacteria into the hive, and maybe a few end up in a cell of honey.....and they die right there because honey is a deadly environment for bacteria. If you licked the comb, or accidentally ingested contaminated water along with the honey like you did with your cutout, then you might get sick, but the honey by itself is very nearly sterile.
Quote from: Scadsobees on July 20, 2011, 04:33:58 PM
After all, our ancestors all had to drink that water, and they weren't incapacitated that way on a regular basis, even if they did die at age 40.
Learned in an archaeology class I once took that forensic analysis of old skeletons shows that, at least after the development of agriculture, something like a third of people died from sepsis caused by dental abscesses. Death by bad water might be more merciful.
I take it that not many of you have spent much time around a cow pasture....those big piles of brown stuff is often covered with bees. I can tell you one thing those brown piles of stuff are not pecan pies.....but bees find something in them that they really like and it ain't water...I don't think!
I think scads hit it when he said you would build an immunity to it. I drank the water from creeks and springs the whole time I was growing up, and never had a problem. Until I found an apple tree with green apples. I always loved them, but they refused to stay around long.
Honey has some antibacterial properties to it. That's always a good thing with the way some people bottle honey.
Thank you all for your input. Very informative. And caticind, your explanation makes things very clear....and makes me feel a whole lot better. I was going to dump about ten pounds of honey into the stream before this discussion. This forum has been wonderful. :)
Michael Bush posted here about how the bees can filter out the impurities in the water. Can't remember exactly. Anyone remember?
Bees can filter very small particles all the way down to a pollen grain through their tongue. I wouldn't bet on bacteria though... but they can filter out a lot of microscopic parasites.