Colur of honey.

[ldwgs]

I recently participated in another thread that unfortunately I cannot find.

In that thread the topic arose as to whether it is worth the extra effort to keep the honey from each super separate.

I got my first ever harvest of 2 supers in the spring. Both supers yielded a light honey, but one had a pungent flowery after taste. Being a typical noob I was chuffed to bits with 2 flavors. I had kept them sepret just because they were harvested a different times.

So moving forward as an experiment I decided to keep the honey from each super separate.

I removed 3 supers from 1 hive, kept the honey from each separate and you can see what I got I the picture.

I am blown away by the variety and so happy I did not mix it all in 1 big batch.

I was not pedantic about separation, so there is some contamination between batches. I just spun each super in turn into its own bucket. So did not clean the extractor or settling tank between supers.

Obviously if you are a big boy it would just be unpractical to work in such small batches. But for us little guys with a handful of hives, if you can afford the extra effort then I think its worth a try, see what you get in your area. Everyone who sees and tastes them wants a jar of each. And its a great way of increasing your variety of honey from a handful of hives.

It almost seems as if the bees intentionally sorted the honey into different colors. I like to imagine the guard bees barking orders to returning foragers - "dark nectar to the top box".

Anyway, rant aside....

Now everyone who sees my honey has a million questions about the colors. Can anyone tell me what could have gone into each color? The lightest honey had been on the hive the longest, and the most recently filled super was the dark one (I think).

I am not near any fields. There is a lot of blackberry, dandelion and chestnut around here. My bees also visit a lot of garden flowers.

I am wondering could the dark be blackberry?

As usual, thanks in advance for any input.

We use About we get a breakdown of pollen content of the honey, which is fascinating

 

[bobba]

We use About we get a breakdown of pollen content of the honey, which is fascinating

Very interesting. I think their attempts to date when the honey was collected by the bees is a bit tenuous. Especially when they later go on to say most people sample at harvest. I have seen my bees fill a super from the outside, then fill the middle as the brood move out.

Hopefully I will be prepared with some sample tubes for next year.

 

[Niv]

All the honey I had from the same apiary is the same and I split it super by super. I was a bit disappointed to be honest. It is a nice, light honey though and I received a lot of compliments last year, will see if it sells as well this year - which is the real test !

The honey I got from my out apiary is completely different (town / country), it is a much darker honey and almost smelt hoppy when I extracted it.