What appears to be red honey is showing up in some Utah beehives - with state officials saying it may be coming from bugs feasting on candy cane by-product.

Utah Department of Agriculture and Food officials have received several complaints about the odd-coloured goo in hives in Davis, Salt Lake and Utah counties. They said the bees were apparently fed the byproduct that came from a sweets factory.

Officials added they do not have any reason to call the red substance unsafe, but advise beekeepers not to mix it with normal-coloured honey and to report it to the state.

Sign up to our free newsletters

Get the best updates straight to your inbox:
Please select at least one mailing list.

You can unsubscribe at any time by clicking the link in the footer of our emails. We use Mailchimp as our marketing platform. By subscribing, you acknowledge that your information will be transferred to Mailchimp for processing.