The Mystery of Red Bees…and Black and White Photos

Tuesday, 30 November 2010 | by Pat's Picks

Call it maraschino honey. Usually when something unexpectedly begins oozing red liquid it’s a cause for alarm. And alarm is exactly what beekeeper Cerise Mayo felt when she noticed her bees and their hives turning a garish shade of red. A perfect story, you might think, for the New York Times to illustrate with color photos, right? Wrong. For the life of me, I can’t figure out why the paper decided it would only run black and white photos in today’s paper. If you want to see the color of the bees, you’re in the right place. They’ve got a nice color shot on the website:

Anyways, if you can get over the photo weirdness, the rest of the story is really interesting. Apparently, there’s a maraschino cherry factory down the street from where the bees live. Put two and two together and you’ve got red honey.