Pine honey from France

[tjc1]

My wife just came back from a trip to the north of France and brought me some local honey - called 'Mielle de Sapin' which translates as 'pine' or 'fir' honey. It is odd stuff - very dark and thick, less sweet than most honeys with a kind of malty, caramelly taste. Of course, I was rather suspicious - I had never heard of bees gathering nectar from conifers - so I googled it. Turns out the bees actually collect 'honeydew' from aphids feeding on the pines! The bees will never cease to amaze me - there is always something new to learn about them!

[saperica]

in Croatia is called "Medun" it is light green, almost like oil for engine.
it is animal honey, well aphides is on spruce or pine and excrement that they produce honey bee collect and deposit in honey comb. problem is that that honey is hard to extract and he will in honey comb easly get "cemented".
in Croatia we have that honey also from Oak Kitnjak, and Lužnjak but not every year. lot of conditions must be for honey flow, also for spruce honey.

[BeeMaster2]

Doesn`t sound' like something that I would sell for food.  :'(

Saperica,
Do you know a Dr. Marina Pavicic? She lived with us for several years as an exchange student.
Jim

[saperica]

sawdstmakr no i dont know her.
well from nick yopu are a carpentner or else.
and you are in big  misapprehension if you think that honey from aphidae is not for food. well all medical companies buy it and make a drugs from that. also mineral and vitamin content is higher than honey for instance of clover.
especialy is cood for recovalescents and anaemic people.
check new directions in apitherapy.
well in Croatia you can buy a band aid and honey in tube for healing a scars.

[GSF]

Saperica, You mentioned the mineral content being higher than clover, on the surface I would probably agree with that. Drawing on my experience raising goats I know the deeper the root of the plant (grass compared to small trees/bushes) the better the mineral up take.

[BeeMaster2]

Saperica,
There is a good chance she now goes by a different last name now. She is probably married. We have not heard from her for several years now.
I used to do a lot of wood work in my work shop. I made a lot of retirement shadow boxes for my fellow sailors in the Navy.
I also make all of my bee equipment.
The reason that I said that it didn't sound like something you would eat, is because you said "almost like oil for engine" and it is cemented in comb.
Jim

[edward]

There are different kinds of honey from aphid

Some are dark like motor oil others are clear and some crystallize into cement honey that the bees cannot access under the Winter months.

Also the dark stuff fills there bowels and can give them diarrhea in the hive in Cold Winter, looks like noseama but isnt.

[saperica]

from this honeys only one that is problem is honey from Hedera Helix