Something has been bothering me for a while

[Gymrat]

How do they train bees to only land on pesticide free flowers for organic honey?

[mashani]

They don't...

The bee keepers put the hives in places where they know the flowers are not sprayed. The bees only range a certain distance (something like a 5k radius). If they can assume the flowers within that distance are not sprayed, then it can be organic. There are certification bodies that will test ranges to be sure that they are pesticide free. Of course they can only do sampling, but they can get a pretty good idea. It's not as simple as only the farms/homes around, even on govt. owned land the might use pesticides or other things to control the plants, so to call it organic they have to use the certification people.

EDIT: I have a bee keeper that lives down the road from me, I can ask her for more specific details sometime, but that's what I can tell you off the top of my head.

[Gymrat]

Thankyou. I couldn't justify the price difference before.

[Foothiller]

I suspect the certification and testing has a certain cost, which would lead to a price difference. Whether it's worth the difference depends on how much the organic certification is worth to you. Personally I would place more value on knowing it's pure honey, like True Source certification or trusting how the beekeeper manages his production, and whether what's labeled as a varietal honey is mostly that variety, without a lot of "wildflower" in the mix.

[Rebel_B]

Related topic: We pay +/- $5000/year for FSC ( Forest Stewardship Council ) certification at my work:
FSC Chain-of-Custody certification traces the path of products from forests through the supply chain. We pay for an annual audit of facilities & paperwork.

[Gymrat]

I suspect the certification and testing has a certain cost, which would lead to a price difference. Whether it's worth the difference depends on how much the organic certification is worth to you. Personally I would place more value on knowing it's pure honey, like True Source certification or trusting how the beekeeper manages his production, and whether what's labeled as a varietal honey is mostly that variety, without a lot of "wildflower" in the mix.

The price difference is worth it to me. I just didn't understand how honey could possibly be organic when a person can't control where the bees land. Now I do. I only buy pure honey. During the farmer's market season I buy it locally. During the winter I have to buy it at the grocers.

[Foothiller]

When I want a good honey character, I buy the product of a beekeeper who operates in my own town here in the Sierra Nevada foothills. He calls it wildflower honey, but I traded emails with him, asking the source of the nectar -- which is wild local plants that I'm familiar with. He doesn't label it as organic, but I can trust that this foothills area would not have non-organic treatments. So, I trust him despite lacking the certification. But certainly, I could not say this about other types of locations.

[FedoraDave]

There are federal and state (and probably local) bodies governing pesticide usage. The smaller you get, the more power there is. In other words, the feds say "You can use this pesticide in the US." The state says, "Even if the EPA approves its usage, the state of New York doesn't." And the local says, "We set the rules in this county." When it comes to applicator certification, the states have tests for various categories and subcategories. I have a commercial applicator's cert, and a lawn and ornamental cert. Each state has their own rulebook, and governing body. In NY State, it's the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Your state's department will definitely be listed in the phone book or online. If you want to know the real nitty-gritty on this, I have no doubt they'd be happy to provide you with all the information you need.