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Author Topic: Bright green honey?  (Read 12680 times)

Offline OzBuzz

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Re: Bright green honey?
« Reply #20 on: January 04, 2011, 07:09:49 pm »
Have your bees be exposed to a large dose of gamma radiation lately?

Some elian has died in bushes by diabetes.




Hhahaha classic! I am no closer to figuring out the source! i'll just have to see how it tastes! They're also on to another flow now of the most glorious golden yellow nectar i have ever seen! Maybe they're supporting the aussie cricket team?

Offline philinacoma

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Re: Bright green honey?
« Reply #21 on: February 17, 2011, 09:31:23 am »
I heard 2 sources of green honeymentioned tonight by a commercial. One was a spinosa and the other was messmate. Apparently the later can appear green in the comb.

Offline Vetch

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Re: Bright green honey?
« Reply #22 on: February 17, 2011, 09:57:14 am »
Good tupelo honey can have a green tinge to it, but I have never seen it bright green. Purple and red can come from elderberries if there are no nectar sources and the bees take elderberry juice from berries.

I'm gonna speculate and say that the most common cause of green in honey is from nectar that contains chlorophyll for some reason (plant stress or disease or strange plant), but not sure if that is what you have.

Another thing that comes to mind is polyethylene glycol (PEG) if Bubba left a bucket of radiator coolant sitting around or some spilled somewhere. PEG has a sweet taste and a fluorescent green. It is toxic to humans and dogs (tears up the kidneys as it is metabolized), but this is not always a quick effect - it can take days or weeks. Not sure what effect it has on bees.

Found this on another forum, a report of bees foraging off spilled anti-freeze:

Quote
i put antifreeze in my car the other day and accidentally spilled a bit on the driveway i notice a couple of my honeybees lapping it up. i promptly stepped on them and took the water hose and washed it away. has anyone ever seen honeybees go after antifreeze??? i'm sure if they took it back to the hive it would contaminate the harvest. just thought i would post this to see your thoughts about.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=194230

Offline OzBuzz

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Re: Bright green honey?
« Reply #23 on: February 17, 2011, 06:57:13 pm »
I heard 2 sources of green honeymentioned tonight by a commercial. One was a spinosa and the other was messmate. Apparently the later can appear green in the comb.

It could well be messmate! there is such a wide range of eucalypts around the location of my hives it's definitely possible! i haven't seen anything that looks like spinosa. Was that at the beeclub meeting?

Offline philinacoma

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Re: Bright green honey?
« Reply #24 on: February 18, 2011, 08:41:09 am »
Was that at the beeclub meeting?

Yep.

Offline west end apiary

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Re: Bright green honey?
« Reply #25 on: June 10, 2011, 05:45:06 am »
spoke to my uncle on the weekend and he was telling me that a friend of his used to chase st john's wart plants as they produced bright green honey,
So maybe this is where it came from,
     NIck

 

anything