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BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER => GENERAL BEEKEEPING - MAIN POSTING FORUM. => Topic started by: millipede on June 06, 2013, 09:34:48 pm

Title: Dark Honey plants
Post by: millipede on June 06, 2013, 09:34:48 pm
Anyone know of any crops or plants that make a nice dark flavorful honey, kind if like buckwheat, that grows well in Northern Louisiana in the spring and summer?
Thanks
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: splitrock on June 06, 2013, 10:51:44 pm
I got my hands on some honey as dark as buckwheat that they called wild mountain pecan. It was superb.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: don2 on June 06, 2013, 10:56:36 pm
Tulip popular is dark but not mild. I am still trying to figure out my nutty flavored honey came from. I am thinking persimmons. :) d2
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: millipede on June 06, 2013, 11:12:15 pm
I am fairly certain my bees are on persimmon and that honey is coming out pretty light. The trees have flowers that look like persimmon flowers but they are much larger than what I see persimmon growing on. We live in a pecan grove and the bees never visit them. The Chinese tallow is coming in bloom now, it's a bit darker honey but I am looking for the real dark stuff.
I wish I could grow buckwheat here.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 06, 2013, 11:40:01 pm
Feed em M&M shells and see what happens, ha ha.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/pictures/121011-blue-honey-honeybees-animals-science/ (http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2012/10/pictures/121011-blue-honey-honeybees-animals-science/)
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Finski on June 07, 2013, 04:02:36 am
.
Do you get there honey dew from tree leaves?

.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: 10framer on June 07, 2013, 09:51:51 am
Tulip popular is dark but not mild. I am still trying to figure out my nutty flavored honey came from. I am thinking persimmons. :) d2
the nutty flavored honey is sumac.  in my opinion it's the best honey produced in the area.  it should be in northern mississippi.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: mat on June 08, 2013, 03:22:16 pm
Japanese knotweed, though white flowered gives almost black honey, with strong taste. Here in New England blooms end August, September.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 08, 2013, 03:30:35 pm
I believe soy and avocado do also.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: millipede on June 08, 2013, 06:20:11 pm
Thanks for the info.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: 10framer on June 09, 2013, 01:38:48 am
I am fairly certain my bees are on persimmon and that honey is coming out pretty light. The trees have flowers that look like persimmon flowers but they are much larger than what I see persimmon growing on. We live in a pecan grove and the bees never visit them. The Chinese tallow is coming in bloom now, it's a bit darker honey but I am looking for the real dark stuff.
I wish I could grow buckwheat here.

from what i've read persimmon is almost clear.  why can't you grow buckwheat?
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: blanc on June 09, 2013, 08:46:52 am
All I can tell you now is most coming in now is light stuff and clover is still in bloom down south and privet too. I believe goldenrod is a dark producer but not all like the taste including me but they harvest some stuff that taste like molasses and I have folks love the stuff but am curious as to what the forage on to produce it myself.
Blanc
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: 10framer on June 09, 2013, 11:37:30 am
All I can tell you now is most coming in now is light stuff and clover is still in bloom down south and privet too. I believe goldenrod is a dark producer but not all like the taste including me but they harvest some stuff that taste like molasses and I have folks love the stuff but am curious as to what the forage on to produce it myself.
Blanc

there may still be some white clover blooming around here somewhere but crimson has been out.  privet came and went in less than three weeks and that kind of surprised me because i remember years where it bloomed well into june.  sumac is wide open about 20 miles east of my bees but doesn't show any sign of getting ready around my place.  my bees are just bearding and bringing in a little pollen at the moment. 
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: JWChesnut on June 09, 2013, 12:58:08 pm
Avocado produces a dark honey with greenish tint.  Avocado nectar contains a substantial fraction of a unique 7-carbon sugar, persitol.  I don't believe honeybees can metabolize the sugar or have an enzyme to rearrange it.  Avocado also have abundant phenolic compounds in the nectar (usually associated with dark honeys).   

Avocado honey was rejected on a commercial scale, due to the USDA grading that favored water-white clover honey.  It recently has been marketed as a special crop.  It is less sweet than other honeys due to the persitol (which is not "tasted" as sweet on the tongue).  The milder sweetness allows the other flavors to be recognized. 

Bees are used to pollinate California Avocado -- (in the late spring bloom).  Pollination requires well distributed hives, since bees will move off the trees if nearby wildflowers are present. In the past, the honey was held off the hive and used to stimulate (fed back) to splits for the melon pollination / citrus honey production following the Avocado bloom.  Some is now being collected for the "boutique" market, helped by the intense marketing campaigning  that Avocado's benefit from.

It should be recognized that Avocado evolved in the absence of honeybees, and the nectar composition was likely selected to attract a co-evolved Central American small stingless bees  that could selectively use the unique sugar component

I believe some of the other unique honey's may be parallel to Avocado in dominance of unique sugars and co-evolution with a specialized pollinator.  An extreme case might be Protea that are pollinated by rodents and have nectar consisting of 39% xylose -- completely undigestible to bees (and hence toxic), but easily broken down by the Namaqua rock mouse which is the pollinator.

Cite:  http://www.bb.iastate.edu/~thorn/www/Publications/pdfFiles/12_Nectar_Chemistry(Proof).pdf (http://www.bb.iastate.edu/~thorn/www/Publications/pdfFiles/12_Nectar_Chemistry(Proof).pdf)
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: millipede on June 09, 2013, 07:39:25 pm
I have tried to get buckwheat going here but it just gets too hot I think and kills it.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Jackam on June 10, 2013, 10:22:09 am
I planted some buckwheat and also purple top turnips. I was late planting so the buckwheat will have the temps that you normally see when it finally comes up. Does the heat kill your buckwheat before the bloom appears?
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: millipede on June 11, 2013, 12:16:07 pm
Yes, it kills it off pretty quick. I have never tried planting it very early though. But then I am kind of gambling on whether or not it will be warm enough for the bees to be out foraging. The weather here is pretty crazy sometimes.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 14, 2013, 04:09:05 am
I planted some buckwheat and also purple top turnips. I was late planting so the buckwheat will have the temps that you normally see when it finally comes up. Does the heat kill your buckwheat before the bloom appears?

isn't it a few weeks early to plant buckwheat here, or no? most people I know plant it to allow the frost to kill it off for weed control after like 6-8 weeks.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Jackam on June 14, 2013, 10:29:20 am

isn't it a few weeks early to plant buckwheat here, or no? most people I know plant it to allow the frost to kill it off for weed control after like 6-8 weeks.

Ideally, you want 12 weeks between planting and the anticipated date of a Fall frost, so you are correct. I had the seed and the time - don't have either right now!  :)
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: 10framer on June 14, 2013, 12:40:27 pm
I planted some buckwheat and also purple top turnips. I was late planting so the buckwheat will have the temps that you normally see when it finally comes up. Does the heat kill your buckwheat before the bloom appears?

i planted 50 pounds three weeks go today and it's blooming as of wednesday.  highs are in the mid 90's right now but we've had a ton of rain and my ground holds moisture really well just below the surface so that may be why it's standing the heat.
Title: Re: Dark Honey plants
Post by: Better.to.Bee.than.not on June 19, 2013, 05:13:37 am
buckwheat or turnips?