What kind of honey do your hives produce?

[David Stokely]

I'm very new to this forum and getting back into beekeeping this year after maybe a 20-25 year absence from it, but I am interested in what kind of honeys people produce here on the forum.  Can you describe it?  Primary honey plant origin? Color?  Flavor?

When I last had bees the the primary honey plants in my residential neighborhood were numbers of very large basswood trees.  It was a very light yellow honey, rather like pale lemonade in color and I did not at all like the flavor.  I really very much like honey.  I usually have toast (from my bread made with honey) with butter and honey on it at least once a day, but I just don't care for basswood honey.  It has a very strong floral taste that other people enjoyed much, but I did not.

Just wondering.

Maybe this isn't the correct place in the forum for this topic.
Moderators if you need to move it, just let me know where it ends up. . .

:)

Dave

[MustbeeNuts]

Welcome to the forum!!!!,

Hi, I make a go of this, last year was my first year, I managed 72lbs, it was a very light color to me, extra light amber I am told, I live very rural, and my bees gather from wild sources, there are no real farm areas for at least 3 miles, so what ever is in the distant neighbors yards.
I figured that most of there collection was from natural sources, mustard, clover, what ever grows wild here, I think that there must be a type of anise around as well. Reason--

Taste= well to me it was sweet and rather a light floral taste, but most striking to me it seemed to have a licorice flavor. Since I LOVE licorice it was fine by me, I asked others but most said they didn't think it did, however my daughter also thought it was licorice flavored, with out my telling her my taste test. So I don't know, however I gave lots away, and have had folks come back begging for more. Unfortunately I gave most of it away, except for wht I needed to get by till this years harvest.

[Brian D. Bray]

Timing is paramount when going for honey types.  If you have your hives near a citris orchard you want to harvest the honey was soon as 805 of the bloom is gone, that's when bees will start looking for other forage.  Same goes with any other "specialty" honey flavor, such as clover, alfalfa, buckwheat, etc.  If a beekeeper harvests his honey once a year in the fall, the only name that really applies is "Wild Flower," as it is made of of all the nector sources the bees have worked all season long.
Specialty honeys are a little more work but also pay a higher premium on the local market.

[JP]

I have no idea exactly what my bees are bringing in but at my main beeyard there's lots of clover and chinese tallow along with blackberry and perhaps some citrus thrown in.

Hives at my house get copius amounts of southern ligustrum which makes a light honey and whatever is in the neighborhood, along with some tallow and clover.

My label says "multi-floral".


...JP

[David Stokely]

I'm interested to see what my two hives produce.  One hive will be here at my house, like years ago in a residential area, which judging from how my hummingbirds feed, seems to have quite a bit of black locust in the area.  My hummingbird feeders go unused during the black locust bloom, but I don't know if bees get quantities of nectar from that tree.

My other hive will be at a friends house out in the country, in the midst of a dairy farm area with lots of hay fields and pasture.  I suppose that means a lot of clover.  It will be interesting. . .