What Ails Red Hook Bees Ain't Beer Brooklyn Buzzers See Cherry Red

by hearit

Drink too much red wine and it could turn your teeth red and make you buzzed. There’s some similarities with buzzers in Brooklyn -- it's impossible for bees in Red Hook to fib about where they’ve been, as cherry red bees, with bright red honey and red hives, are spotted.

A New York City beekeeper was baffled by bees that began buzzing around the neighborhood, red-faced but not angry. Beekeeper Cerise noticed the Brooklyn-based bees who started showing up in the season’s hottest new color: red.

Entrepreneurs, pay close attention: those unusual red, Brooklyn bees are producing very unusual red honey along with some never-before-seen red beehives. Yes, the little buzzers are actually as red as it gets -- in fact, says beekeeper Cerise, these bees are as red as cough syrup. Taste of the honey may be a different story in terms of potential sales: the bright red honey, which began appearing early summer, is described as having a “metallic” and “overly sweet” taste, not exactly the description that connoisseurs’ dreams are made of.

But if the description of taste sounds familiar, it should – few things with a natural shape have such an unusually unnatural flavor.

The buzz about town, first begun by a fellow beekeeper raising bees on Governor’s Island across the water, is that the miniature ‘New Yorkers’ have been imbibing a bit: it seems there’s available runoff at Dell's Maraschino Cherries Company -- a specialty cherry spot located in the aptly-named “Red Hook” section of Brooklyn, New York.

Bee testing has confirmed: the little Brooklyn buzzers are riddled with Red Dye No. 40 – coincidentally, or not coincidental at all -- the exact same food coloring dye used in producing maraschino cherry juice.

A proclaimed “bee expert” makes claims to the media that the buzzing bees had been creating a “big nuisance” at the maraschino cherry factory in the Red Hook district – oddly, it seems no one has considered institution of the same methods that keep humans in, or out, of unwanted territories: the simple fence.

Bees can be beautiful – apparently the newly-shaded red bees considered “stunners” by those lucky enough to catch a glimpse. A local New York beekeeper claims a cherry-infused radiance exhibited by the new twist on nature: "When the sun is a bit down, they [the cherry-drinking bees] glow red in the evenings... They [the red bees] were slightly fluorescent. And it was beautiful."

Now if those bees start turning up in hues of a golden, rich brown, we'll know where else they've been in Red Hook.

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