Confused about honey...

[RoseCottage]

I thought after 3 years I had some understanding of honey...

We took a super off one of our hives a week ago and produced 30lbs of cloudy runny honey...cloudy amber colour. Quite a strong aftertaste but pretty nice.
All our hives are in the same apiary.
Yesterday I removed 7 frames from one hive and 2 from another and spun them out. I used my brule gun to decap. This resulted in a virtually wax free extraction. The honey has little aroma, is incredibly clear, and light yellow. It has a very gentle honey taste with just a hint of aftertaste.

I have been really careful not to feed sugar syrup this year with the exception of a pint here and there to enable the bees get through a poor June. As soon as I saw any 1:1 being stored the feed stopped. Hardly any feeding in June and most of it went to build comb or be eaten by the girls. Probably in total 3 pints of 1:1.
Is there a reliable simple test to confirm sugar syrup?

So what type of honey is in my small jar (see attached photos)? What flowers produce light honey?

I don't want to sell honey laced with sugar syrup but want to be comfortable it isn't.

all the best,
Sam

 

[SteveJ]

With the slight greenish tinge I would say it was possibly lime or even borage.

 

[kyledam]

looks like borage, very clear and runny.

 

[drstitson]

borage (or rape if it sets)

or acacia if lucky enough

 

[oliver90owner]

produced 30lbs of cloudy runny honey

Is this starting to granulate? (warm a jar to see if it clears)

total 3 pints of 1:1

Doubt if you could find any of it!

Is there a reliable simple test to confirm sugar syrup?

Not really. Trading Standards would have a good idea given the type(s) of pollen, sucrose content and so on. Sugar syrup will have a considerably higher (nearer neutral) pH than real honey. That would easily sort out a couple of supers if they were inadvertently left together and there was one box of each.

Regards, RAB

 

[Gardenbees]

Looks like borage honey - which is pale, faintly-flavoured and has a very smooth, syrupy consistency that is usually slow to granulate. Only thing is, it takes quite a big borage patch to produce a truly monofloral borage honey. There's a very big patch in my garden which the bees can't get enough of... but their honey still has a bit more colour and flavour to it than a strictly borage honey (although the texture is very smooth).

If in doubt, keep it for yourself and/or use it to mix with stronger honey.

 

[Alabamaeee]

Or find a local beek with a refractometer

 

[oliver90owner]

Or find a local beek with a refractometer

Have I missed something? How would a refractometer help?

RAB

 

[milkermel]

had similar discussion with OH earlier this week, he couldnt understand why my honey didnt look like proper honey ie the traditional dark golden supermarket colour! the few jars i had last year were pale but this year they have a slightly more greenish tinge to them as well.

I tastes good so I dont care where the girls get their stuff from!

 

[Incatatus]

looks very similar to my honey, there is loads of balsam by me and i think thats what you`ve got