mad honey
myth busted
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Every so often, headlines or social media posts appear warning that rhododendrons in Scotland and the rest of the UK could make local honey dangerous.
These stories usually refer to “mad honey disease,” an illness linked to honey produced from rhododendron nectar in parts of Türkiye and Nepal. It sounds dramatic, but it has no relevance to anywhere in the UK.
That has not stopped people repeating the claim or treating it as fact. In August 2025, we contacted the Natural History Museum, about a July 2025 article that used “mad honey” as a storytelling device and contained serious inaccuracies. It claimed that European honey bees had died after feeding on rhododendron pollen, and implied that Rhododendron ponticum in the UK produces toxic honey… via the pollen.
In reality, honey is made from nectar not pollen, so that was a giveaway to the quality of research in the article. The article also conflated laboratory studies where UK bees (A. mellifera) are force-fed known toxic rhododendron nectar as a toxicology test, against field conditions where bees forage from many plants, preferring anything other than R. ponticum. It is also widely recognised that UK R. ponticum has much lower (minuscule to none) nectar toxin levels than related populations in Türkiye or Nepal, and there has never been a single case of “mad honey” poisoning in the UK since records began in the 1800s.
Unfortunately, before the correction, some people began citing it as “proof” that mad honey exists in Britain and is killing bees, despite our efforts to counter the false claims using established facts.
To their credit, the Museum quickly acknowledged the error and amended the article once we highlighted the problem.
The science bit
In the Himalayas, rhododendron populations evolved higher toxin levels as a defence against herbivores. There, the local bee there, Apis laboriosa, has developed resistance and produces “mad honey,” which is sometimes sought after for its hallucinogenic effects. This localisation also occurs in Türkiye with their bees.
By contrast, Rhododendron ponticum in Britain, including Carradale and Kintyre, came from Iberian stock with much lower toxin levels, it became locally adapted to attract more pollinators. Modern UK R. ponticum continues to adapt, to reducing these levels further, with some showing no toxins at all.
Unlike in the Himalayas, our honey bees (Apis mellifera) forage widely, tend to avoid R. ponticum, and mix nectar from many plants. This natural blending dilutes any tiny trace of rhododendron nectar many times over, leaving no risk to bees or consumers.
As a result, the European Food Safety Authority, Food Standards Scotland, and the UK FSA all consider the risk from UK honey negligible.
So while rhododendron is indeed a serious ecological problem by shading out native woodland and costing a lot of time and effort to control, it is not a food safety issue.
The real risks lie in biodiversity, not in your breakfast. What we do have in Kintyre is healthy bees, skilled beekeepers, and a proud tradition of producing honey that is as pure and delicious as the landscape itself.
In short, the only “mad” thing about honey from Kintyre is how good it tastes. If you’d like to learn more, or even start keeping bees yourself, come along to one of our monthly meetings at Campbeltown Picture House. Visitors are always welcome.
So, what does the Scottish beekeeping association say about our fact sheets?
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