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| Bee numbers have seen a rapid decline globally in recent years |
Beekeepers
in northeastern France have been alarmed to find their bees producing honey in
unnatural shades of green and blue.
The
beekeepers believe the source of the problem is a biogas plant close to
Ribeauville in Alsace.
It is
thought the bees have been eating the sugary waste from M&Ms, small
chocolates in brightly-coloured shells.
The plant
operator said it regretted the situation and had put in place a procedure to
stop it happening again.
"We
discovered the problem at the same time [the beekeepers] did. We quickly put in
place a procedure to stop it," Philippe Meinrad, a spokesman from
Agrivalor, the company operating the biogas plant, was quoted by Reuters as
saying.
The
company, which deals with waste from a Mars chocolate factory, said it would
clean out the containers, store all incoming waste in airtight containers and
process it promptly, according to a company statement published in Le Monde
newspaper.
A
spokeswoman for the British Beekeepers' Association, Gill Maclean, said it was
possible that the coloured sugar could have contaminated the honey.
Bee numbers
have seen a rapid decline globally in recent years.
In the UK,
a harsh winter and unseasonally heavy rain this summer has meant that bees have
not been able to forage as much, and beekeepers have had to step in, offering
sugar syrup, Ms Maclean said.
"Bees
are clever enough to know where the best sources of sugar are, if there are no
others available," she said.
As for the
blue honey, the beekeepers say it is unsellable.
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