Dandelion honey??

[foghornleghorn]

Have a few hives here looking like they'll have a good bit of honey brought in from dandelions. Am I right in thinking it has to be extracted early?

 

[Plenty of honey]

Have a few hives here looking like they'll have a good bit of honey brought in from dandelions. Am I right in thinking it has to be extracted early?

From what i have heard, yes extract like OSR. You would need lots of dandelion plants, and more than likely i would say you might have much more around than dandelion plants that end up in your hive!! let us know how it turns out!!

 

[nantmoel]

Managed to 'snap' this whilst the sun was shining, one of our 'Buckfast' bees out on a Dandelion.

 

[BMH]

great pic!

 

[Millet]

great pic!

x2

 

[foghornleghorn]

From what i have heard, yes extract like OSR. You would need lots of dandelion plants, and more than likely i would say you might have much more around than dandelion plants that end up in your hive!! let us know how it turns out!!

Thanks fields around here yellow with them due to the cold spring

 

[charlievictorbravo]

One of the senior members of our CBKA group won a honey taste test last year with dandelion honey. He said it's a bit of an acquired taste when it's young but if kept for a season before bottling it loses the "rough" edges and evolves into a pleasant tasting honey - I voted for it, anyway.

CVB

 

[misterbee82]

My family and I were told that you can't refer to honey as a singular type of honey unless the bees are near a large source of the plant they collected the pollen and nectar from, also if it is taken and bottled right after they're done carrying the said plant for the season.

 

[kazmcc]

Only today I was talking with Dusty and mentioned to him that I haven't seen a single bee this spring on dandelion, HB or any other type of bee. Its quite strange.

 

[Dusty Rhodes]

Only today I was talking with Dusty and mentioned to him that I haven't seen a single bee this spring on dandelion, HB or any other type of bee. Its quite strange.

What's quite strange?
You mean me?

Thanks!

Dusty

 

[Robbo8916]

Only today I was talking with Dusty and mentioned to him that I haven't seen a single bee this spring on dandelion, HB or any other type of bee. Its quite strange.

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe its a regional thing?

 

[Into the lions den]

Horrid stuff when fresh.....quite yellow and smells like a cross between cheese and old socks. It does mellow a bit but have some here that is 5 years old and still I don't like it. Did a honey tasting in London a few years ago and had a couple of jars (from about 250Kg I foolishly bought from a guy who kept bees at Tentsmuir) of this stuff. I found an eager buyer. I thought he liked it....but no...he took it for his 'shelf of horrors'.

However.......in the Baltic states, Lithuania in particular, its a really important early crop, and the fields there are yellow with them almost as much as our OSR fields.

Proves the old story that the best honey in the world is your local honey......true as its the taste you are used to............they found ling heather to be foul but loved dandelion.

(Was maybe 12 years ago.....for various reasons was considering a satellite operation over there, so did a lot of research.)

More locally....bees were practically raping the dandelions in Aberdeenshire yesterday, you could see three or four or sometimes more trying each flower. The gorse bushes were noisy there were so many bees on them.

Averaging about 6 bars of bees (deep langstroth, so pretty strong) but perilously light.

Mondays job decided for a team.

 

[kazmcc]

What's quite strange?
You mean me?

Thanks!

Dusty

I was thinking the same thing. Maybe its a regional thing?

I don't know! Its really odd, I've had numerous bumbles in my garden looking for forage, and a handful of A fulva nesting in the border, and they just toy round them like they are not there. Its the same in the park when I've been out recording.

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

I don't know! Its really odd, I've had numerous bumbles in my garden looking for forage, and a handful of A fulva nesting in the border, and they just toy round them like they are not there. Its the same in the park when I've been out recording.

Bees on the dandelion around here - have been for the last three or four weeks - not in great quantities though, but then again they're spoilt for choice with willow.

And yes, he is strange - he's a member of some cult you know

 

[kazmcc]

And yes, he is strange - he's a member of some cult you know

That explains the funny handshake

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

That explains the funny handshake

and wearing his shirts back to front

 

[Finman]

.
To me dandelion is valuable stuff. IT gives good aroma to rape honey and raspberry honey.
IT is so valuable , that I do not put bees draw foundations at the beginning of summer. They draw combs with rape honey in July.

But mostly weathers are so cold that bees are not able to forage it much, perhaps 10-15 kg. And one box wintered hives eate everything what they bring home.

When weathers are cold, bees have only couple of working hours, perhaps from 12 to 15. Then dandelion closes it flowers.

I am not afraid of crystallization. If it happens in side combs, I put them in the middle of brood frames and bees clean them and move honey to supers.

I have hundres of hectares dandelion around me.

 

[kazmcc]

.
To me dandelion is valuable stuff. IT gives good aroma to rape honey and raspberry honey.
IT is so valuable , that I do not put bees draw foundations at the beginning of summer. They draw combs with rape honey.

But mostly weathers are so cold that bees are not able to forage it much, perhaps 10-15 kg. And one box wintered hives eate everything what they bring home.

When weathers are cold, bees have only couple of working hours, perhaps from 12 to 15. Then dandelion closes it flowers.

I am not afraid of crystallization. If it happens in side combs, I put them in the middle of brood frames and bees clean them and move honey to supers.

I have hundres of hectares dandelion around me.

Do you know what temps dandelions need for nectar production Finman? I would have thought they wouldn't need a high temp, being one of the first plants for forage.

 

[Finman]

Do you know what temps dandelions need for nectar production Finman? I would have thought they wouldn't need a high temp, being one of the first plants for forage.

It is not at all first forage plant here. It blooms here in the middle of early flowering rush. It blooms at same time as apple trees. When dandelion is finish, then we have 2-3 weeks gap in flowering.

Temp limits the flight if bees. When it is windy, no bees are in flowers.
But sometimes, when it is very warm, 20-25C, bees do not get nectar. I have thought that dandelion grows so fast, that is uses its sugar to growing.

 

[Finman]

.
One year my neighbour beekeeper told that he did not get any dandelion honey. I told that yes, me too. Bees had only one foraging day. Other two weeks were rain every day.