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  • honey colour and textures - what are they?

  • General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
General Q&A, Bee chat and only Bee chat please
 #8533  by Chrisbarlow
 19 Aug 2020, 14:03
One thing I find frustrating is which nectars produce which honey colours and textures.

Can any other forum users from their knowledge please supply there honey descriptives

I'll start

OSR / Oil seed rape -
The whiter the honey and the harder set the honey, more OSR nectar is in it. Tastes very sweet

Buckwheat honey
Very Black colour and runny. When set can look brown. Tastes musky? Not a sweet honey

Knotweed honey
I believe it has a red tinge to it

Water balsam
Light coloured honey, sweet

Lime honey
Has been described as having a light mint flavour
 #8537  by NigelP
 20 Aug 2020, 18:35
Borage honey, if very pure looks like water in a jar. Usually a slight tinge, but very pale and translucent.
Lime honey is greenish and MUST have a mint taste. The number of keepers with so called "lime" honey that is green but no mint taste amazes me.
Bell heather honey (the elusive gold) is red and spins out of frames.
Ling heather (the money maker) is amber and thick and needs pressing out.
 #8546  by Chrisbarlow
 21 Aug 2020, 19:02
A couple more...

Rosebay willow herb I believe should be very pale

Horse chestnut should also be dark with reddish tints
 #8549  by Steve 1972
 21 Aug 2020, 22:07
My hives are situated in a place of many nectar sources..all of which will be mixed by the bees during the spring and summer flow..how anyone can narrow down a single nectar/honey flow is beyond me and i bet many scientists also do not have a clue what the bees are filling the supers with..
Looking forward for my mixed thistle and Phacilia flow to happen.. :D
 #8550  by Chrisbarlow
 22 Aug 2020, 00:15
Steve 1972 wrote:
21 Aug 2020, 22:07
My hives are situated in a place of many nectar sources..all of which will be mixed by the bees during the spring and summer flow..how anyone can narrow down a single nectar/honey flow is beyond me and i bet many scientists also do not have a clue what the bees are filling the supers with..
Looking forward for my mixed thistle and Phacilia flow to happen.. :D
If your extract before a flow from a specific flower and extract afterwards if they fill the supers then you'll be surprised that you can get a honey from a specific flower especially if that flower type is in abundance and the only plant flowering. This year I certainly got honey from bramble at a time when the bees are not usually bringing anything in.
 #8554  by NigelP
 22 Aug 2020, 17:51
It's surprising how bees cotton on to one source of good nectar. I'v e tried identifying the pollen's in my honey and with the exception of heather and OSR failed miserably. Not least because grains in honey look different to grains mounted in water and all those round ones of about the same size.....does your head in.
Thank goodness for the National Honey Monitoring scheme. They are using PCR (DNA amplification) to identify pollen grains present at the molecular level in any samples they are sent. It's eye opening....my summer blossom honey has nearly 50 species present but predominantly (60% + of the pollen DNA) is accounted for by Bramble, clover, alder and downy birch.
From another apiary site bramble was over 60% of the pollen present, almost enough to call it bramble honey.
Currently awaiting analysis of this years spring honey, early summer and (yet to be sent in) late summer blossom. One hive in the garden is still piling it in.
At least knowing what's there should give me a bit more of a clue when I look at the pollen grains.
 #8555  by AdamD
 23 Aug 2020, 07:31
I sent in a sample of honey to the National Honey Monitoring scheme this spring and ther result was "it had set and couldn't be analysed" which is not surprising as it was done at the time of OSR. I have recently sent another one in, so I await the results.
I too struggle with pollen identification even when I know what the pollen is.

In 2018 the thick summer honey I had was probably sweet chestnut which only yields when it's warm, I believe.

Apart from OSR in some years, Bramble and Ivy, like Steve1972, I have mixed floral sources most of the time.

I remember having clover honey as a child. Unfortunately something like 95% of the clover fields have disappeared since th 2nd world war, I believe, so it's unlikely that I will be seeeing that on any honey from the UK.
 #8559  by Steve 1972
 23 Aug 2020, 10:38
AdamD wrote:
23 Aug 2020, 07:31
I remember having clover honey as a child. Unfortunately something like 95% of the clover fields have disappeared since th 2nd world war, I believe, so it's unlikely that I will be seeeing that on any honey from the UK.
Like you Adam as a child we had loads of clover on the green belt on our estate as the council cut the grass every couple of moths..the smell is still in my head of the clover when we used to go around the fields with jam jars catching different kinds of bumble bees..sadly those days are long gone as the council skim the grass to the soil every fortnight so the clover never has chance to flower..

On a good note however where my bees are kept on a conservation are in Alnwick they have access to a couple of acres of clover among other forage every year and when the clover gets going them child hood memories come back with that distinctive smell..
 #8565  by AdamD
 24 Aug 2020, 08:50
On a related note, many 'pollinator-friendly' seed mixes have clover in them, but it's unfortunately red clover which honeybees don't have long enough tongues for. I don't get councils desire to 'maintain' grass to a very low height when they could probably save money be having less frequent cutting.