Honey! Your Great, OK and yucky ! (yes it Does happen )

[hobbitlady]

Hi All
Thought I'd start a honey thread because it sure can vary and some folks might not know that. If you are surrounded with clover you sure are blessed! I'm in a dry woodsy area and anything goes around here for what my bees bring in. My own fruit trees and clover and flowers are minimal to what my bees gather. We have a great manzanita and blackberry flow but the wildflowers and highway flowers among the sage, just a mile away, are anything goes,as well as what cover crops might be in use within my bees range,etc. I never quite know what my honey will taste like.

Yesterday(started to crush-process today) I transferred a nuc with an over-large warped honey comb I had to cut off to get in their new hive. Pretty dark reddish brown color,but YUCK! Bitter! That honey is not salvageable for my use in any way. Well, the damage I had to do to their stores goes Back to them for food .    I've never had Bitter honey and I guess the culprit is ragweed although I'm not sure. There is a lot of some yellow flowering bush along the highway this year that doesn't always bloom so much but I haven't done an ID just looked up how bad(for humans) honey might happen. It might be something else I don't know about at all.

Well out of 3 years and about 6 gallons(top bar hives don't get a lot like lang hives) I've only had truely Weird honey one other time,(3 quarts worth) but I could still eat it,and make great marinade from it with ginger and hot pepper and garlic added. It was very dark and tasted Quite strong like buckwheat.....I think. Still edible though,just not in my morning tea!  ha. Not This time.

Well all my other quarts or pints or half gallons have been either wonderful or good,with Spring honey the best. Summer This year (at least July) is sure a bust though (I got some good/OK honey in June) so I'll watch out for that now in dry years when this plant seems to be thriving. It sure pays to make notes on Everything that happens.

Do you have surprise stories,good or bad?  One story I heard was the mystery of beautiful red honey...That turned out to be gathered humminbird feeder sugar-water! hahaha   Ya never know...........

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I had one hive find some purple honey that turned out to be from the neighbors kids mostly empty grape soda cans. That one was fun to track down.

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Chartruese yellow sounds Mountain dew like. Lol. After my bees found the neighbors aluminum cans I automatically assume odd colors come from there. They have gotten much better about emptying them out all the way before stacking them waiting recycling since I asked nicely though.

I haven't ever seen bees on ragweed at all.

[hobbitlady]

Jul 29, 2015 1:43:07 GMT @redfish said:

My first year up here, I got an almost chartreuse yellow honey that was so sweet it was gross. It was like eating straight sugar that had been sweetened. I used that stuff for medicine instead of eating. I have no idea what it came from. There were all sorts of wildflowers, sweet clover and alfalfa available. Probably several things I don't know about as well. That's the worst yet.

I miss manzanita honey! That and starthistle. That's the only thing that plant is good for, makes great honey!

Would the bush maybe be scotch broom? I've never had honey that was identified as being from one of those, but they have a bitter smell to them and tend to irritate the skin. I think they are poison to humans as well. I could see honey from that plant maybe being bitter. I didn't know ragweed could make bitter honey, good to know!

Redfish-I'll bet you are right.  I bet that Is scotch broom along the highway and here and there on neaby roads,not ragweed. I never ID'd either of them so I guess I should. I did find it when I searched too.  I read that ragweed is bitter on One site,BUT one person on another Likes honey from it and had a picture....so....maybe ragweed's an "odd" one, like my "buckwheat" but not Nasty bitter. Yeah,this stuff I have  is "blech" and I can't see Anyone liking it for any reason,but I can imagine it being poison.  Too bad the bees don't avoid it!

[speckledpup]

Also research bitter weed. It doesn't grow very tall and has a yellow flower.
The bees typically do not harvest nectar from it unless there is nothing else, such as in drought conditions.