| FOOD Abundant Harvest of Honey

[Bamabww]

Last week I finished up my spring / early summer honey harvest and it was a real good one. I have 8 hives and 7 of them produced a little over 32 gallons or about 386 pounds of light amber honey. It's mostly a mixture of crimson clover and buckwheat. I say that because that was the predominant plants blooming in the area of my hives.

 

[planomateo]

Very cool.

 

[rick4bama]

If I love honey those that look good to eat!

 

[sk33tr]

Last week I finished up my spring / early summer honey harvest and it was a real good one. I have 8 hives and 7 of them produced a little over 32 gallons or about 386 pounds of light amber honey. It's mostly a mixture of crimson clover and buckwheat. I say that because that was the predominant plants blooming in the area of my hives.

Spoiler

View attachment 9326

does the type of plant the bees get pollen from make a difference in the color, taste, texture or overall quality of the honey?

 

[Bamabww]

Last week I finished up my spring / early summer honey harvest and it was a real good one. I have 8 hives and 7 of them produced a little over 32 gallons or about 386 pounds of light amber honey. It's mostly a mixture of crimson clover and buckwheat. I say that because that was the predominant plants blooming in the area of my hives.

Spoiler

View attachment 9326

does the type of plant the bees get pollen from make a difference in the color, taste, texture or overall quality of the honey?

@sk33tr , yes it does. I have one hive that is only a few feet away from a 10 acre “forest” and the honey from that hive is always darker and not as sweet as the others.
The spring honey will always be lighter and sweeter. The summer / early fall honey from that I gather late September to mid October is darker, not as sweet and turns to sugar quicker. There are a couple of huge cotton fields just under a mile from me that are blooming so I’m sure they are working it hard right now.

 

[TerryP]

@Bamabww,

Still dealing with the shortages here...just came across this article an hour ago.

 

[planomateo]

A few years ago we were up in Montana visiting family and made the trip to Glacier. The backroads between Great Falls and Billings has alot of farm land, and there were beehive boxes setup along the road every few miles. I don't think I've ever noticed anything like that before.

A friend runs a honey business that has access to ~2500 hives from North Dallas down to Austin/San Antonio.

 

[Bamabww]

Interesting article @TerryP , thanks. Did you, or was it a friend, ever build the bee boxes? I told my wife when we were looking at the bees in our squash blooms, that you had to pollinate your squash yourself because of the shortage of bees. She had never heard of that before.

 

[TerryP]

@Bamabww, I did not. He's still considering it but hasn't yet. A new neighbor whose dogs don't know boundaries (two young Danes) along with his dog...thought it might not be a great idea until some of the wooded area behind his house is cleared out a bit. Our *membership* at Trident hospitals waiting room pretty well killed plans to clear the area out. The material has been purchased and the plan is to get it all together as soon as summer breaks--in other words, December.

I've been doing the same (self-pollination) with the tomatoes for several years now as well. I've seen more of a bee population this year but no where near what it used to be.

 

[crimsontalon]

That is so cool.I never really thought about spring and summer honey being different in color and taste...That stuff is good on some hot biscuits

 

[alabama mike]

That looks amazing Wayne. My dad sure enjoyed the honey you dropped off to him a year ago Christmas.

 

[ChemE]

I need to come by and buy a couple of jars!

 

[Bamabww]

I need to come by and buy a couple of jars!

It would be good to see you again.

 

[Bamabww]

@sk33tr , here’s an example of color difference. The left side is honey I harvested in mid June. The right side is honey I harvested last week . It is much stronger and not nearly as sweet. Lot of cotton and golden rod in it.