L to R: 8/13/2011, 8/16/2012, 7/4/2012
While putting away our various honeys, we noticed that the honey from our recent harvest of August 16th (from Hive 2) looked quite different from the honey we collected July 4th (from Hive 3). Just for fun, we pulled out a jar from August 13, 2011 (Hive 2). It’s quite amazing to appreciate the differences considering the hives are side by side, and the bees probably forage the same plants.
What have you noticed about the difference in color, taste or texture in your honeys? Let me know about it. I love hearing this kind of stuff!
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I’m extracting the last of my honey tomorrow. At this time of year, we get goldenrod honey. It granulates fast but I like it! I bought a jar of blueberry-flower honey the other day that I have yet to try, from a local beekeeper. It looks fairly dark. Your honeys all look beautiful!
Natalie,
I’ve always been curious about blueberry blossom honey. Does it taste blueberry-ish? We have 3 blues here, but I’ve not seen the bees on them.
That goldenrod honey sounds deliciously medicinal.
I have noticed differences in honey color and taste a lot when comparing different bee yards. I only had good white clover bloom at one yard this year. The honey there was lighter and had a distinct flavor.
I shy away from mono floral honey due to the extra time constraints and the theory that I get better allergy treatment for my daughter when the honey for the year is all mixed together. Pollen from the whole year is represented. Don’t know if that holds true, but it is the product I am striving for.
I haven’t had mono floral goldenrod, but it sure smells like dirty feet around my hives when the bees are working it.
Hey Jason,
We don’t have anything like tupelo around here, so it’s not possible.
I couldn’t get mono honey here if I tried!!
Speaking of allergies, I once asked a beekeeper, this was before I kept bees, if his honey had any poison oak nectar as I had heard it would help against sensitivities. Not sure if his honey helped or not, but I don’t have high sensitivity to it. Those chanterelles love to plant themselves under poison oak!
Glad you daughter takes bee products and it works for her. I’ve had some people say it doesn’t work for them.
Dirty feet honey, huh? That would be quite a label!!!
About the only mono-floral honey we can possibly get is Black Locust. It could be the placebo effect for Jada, but it is working so I will take it.
I stay away from poison ivy here. I just have to be near it and I will get it. I have heard that there are chanterelles in places around me here, but have never found any. Puff-ball season is fast approaching. I hope to get some of those bad boys this year. They are oh so good sautéed in a little oil.
Mil, Looks like different floral sources, or that the honey from last year has crystallized (the color changes when that happens). We typically get blackberry, fireweed, and then knotweed in the Puget Sound. Often you can see all three on a singe frame, with the fireweed being the lightest colored, and the knotweed being almost black. I try to pull our honey supers before the knotweed starts blooming as it has a strong flavor. I like it on pancakes, and such, but on toast, or as a sweetener it’s a bit strong.
Managing the colonies for single source honey can be fun, and a challenge, and it seems that for a few exceptions, folks aren’t willing to pay more for ‘variety’ honey.
Hi Adam,
Sorry for the late reply, I’ve been out of the country.
Is the knotweed Japanese knotweed? I’ve heard that “weed” has very strong medicinal properties against Lyme disease. If so, perhaps that honey would be interesting to a niche market, but I don’t know much about marketing and I am just speculating.
I would love to see a picture of any frames you have that has all three varieties on it.
When I took my beekeeping course a few years back they laid out all the different honey’s and had everyone taste to see if they could find the difference either by taste or by color. I had no idea there were so many different types
Clover is still my favorite.
I love looking and tasting different honeys. It makes me feel like I am traveling with the bees. I really like this honey from Hawaii called lehua. It’s very floral.
Hi Mil, I was just watching a news item about The Ukraine (I THINK it was there), where they get honey in different colours – read, white and even blue! They’ve been investigating it. They finally found the source. A factory which produces jelly beans (I’m not sure if they have a different name in the US, small candy with a solid shell in bright colours, liquorice or other soft goo inside) placed their waste products outside, and that was what the bees were foraging. Thus the coloured honey (no doubt full of artificial colourants etc). Fascinating!
Hi Clare,
How are you?
I had heard about that. I didn’t know it was jelly beans (same name here too); I just knew it was some kind of candy.
Sort of gross. I wonder how the natural forage was doing for those bees at that time, if it was nectar dearth or something.
I hope you are well!