On June 17, 2025 we had twenty people in attendance at the Transylvania County Beekeeper’s Association meeting. Randy made a motion to accept the 5/20/25 minutes as emailed out on 5/27/25 with the change to correct infected to affected. Sheila seconded the motion. All were in favor. We have $508 to date in the association’s fund. It is $10 per person, $15 per family to join our Association, per calendar year.
The NC State Beekeepers Association is meeting close by this year at Blue Ridge Community College in Hendersonville, NC, July 10-12 https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/calendar/state-meetings/2025-summer-meeting. There will be a lot of information to take in and vendors to visit.
Our speaker for the evening was Carla Robertson. Carla is a member of the Henderson County’s Beekeepers Association https://hcbeekeepers.org/. They meet on the third Monday of the month at 100 Extension Drive located at Jackson Park.
Carla has grown up in the family business of raising bees. The family business is Hoopers Creek Bee Company in Arden, NC. https://hooperscreekbeeco.wordpress.com/ They keep their bees both in FL and NC in order to have a wide selection of bees and honey to offer.
Carla manages Save American Honey Association, which was established this year https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/programs/real-nc-honey. Carla is trying to raise consumer awareness and clear up misunderstandings about real honey and our agriculture bee industry. She wants to show all the hard work that is involved in real honey production.
Some honey being sold is being blended with other syrups such as corn syrup, rice syrup, sugar, or high-fructose corn syrup. Both domestic honey (produced and harvested in the US by American beekeepers) and imported honey may be blended and not real honey. Honey labels can be deceiving. The label may say 100% US Grade A, local and not actually be local honey. Only 60% of the honey has to be from a local bee farm in order to call it local honey. Please check out the u-tube video regarding fake honey: https://youtu.be/G4Z9XqBw3Bw
There are several different tests to analyze honey to tell if it is real honey. Some tests are not real accurate and can easily be falsified. The best test for real honey testing is a DNA test, but it is still not 100%. For instance, if several things are blooming at the same time as the sourwood, the DNA test may not come back to verify sourwood honey even though it may be taken during the sourwood honey flow.
There is currently no policing to keep the honey real. Only when someone contacts the real NC honey program concerned is there follow up into blended, ultra-filtered or adulterated honey. Beekeepers selling their honey can join the certified honey program https://www.ncbeekeepers.org/programs/certified-honey-producer/certified-honey-producer-application There is just a small $25 fee for two years to join. The National Honey Board just passed the USDA definition of what is pure honey. https://honey.com/
Carla ended the meeting with a variety of real honey for participants to sample.
Hope to see you all at our next meeting on July 15th.
