Candy cane-eating bees make red-tinted honey

This final note today, in which Christmas comes early, in a manner of speaking.

The Utah Department of Agriculture and Food says red honey is showing up in some beehives around the state. The suspect is a local factory that makes candy canes.

Officials figure the bees have been eating the leftovers, and thus the red honey. It’s insult to injury, when you think about it, because:

1. state regulations say only a product that originates from a floral source is actually honey; and

2. Utah is, officially, the Beehive State.