I've been watching videos on youtube for the past year of people harvesting what they claim is "organic honey". I've commented on several of them, asking how they can consider the honey "organic" when they've been using treatments or adding contaminants on the hives and bees. Some of the responses included:
"All honey is organic because the bees make it"
"I don't use chemicals, I only use natural essential oils"
"I only treat in the fall, by spring the hive is cleaned"
I'm not saying it's right or wrong to do treatments on your bees, their your bees, do what you feel is best. I just felt these people were misleading as far as calling their honey "organic", and then teaching others who are interested into getting into the hobby that you can add things to a hive and still call it "organic".
That got me wondering. If someone used only natural things to treat a hive, could the honey indeed be considered "organic"? Using oils from plants or dusting with powder sugar.
My argument saying that it could possible be is: I only add compost to my garden so that I have healthy plants. I'm added something to the soil to enrich it and my vegetables are considered "organic"
I'm looking for other opinions on it.
This is assuming that the bees themselves aren't bringing in contaminants.