Dark honey?

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skydragon

House Bee
Joined
Jul 21, 2009
Messages
108
Reaction score
0
Location
Pocklington, Yorks, UK
Hive Type
14x12
Number of Hives
4
I love dark brown honey, generally preffering it to clear or lightly coloured honeys. I'm generalising, but darker honeys tend to have a stonger flavour which I prefer. (eg. I had some German beechwood honey last year which was almost black in colour and very strongly flavoured).

I've recently harvested my first honey crop and am anticipating a 2nd crop in the next month, all being well. Due to their location, my bees foriage mainly on wild flowers/trees, rather than arable crops such as Oilseed rape, beans, etc. The resulting honey is lovely, with a delicate taste and a clear/yellow colour. But for next year I'd like to see if I can also get some darker honeys from the girls.

Any ideas what foriaging (plant types) in UK results in dark brown honey?
 
Much prefer tree honeys....chestnut, beech etc. Does chestnut produce nectar where it's grown in the UK (not here :()?
 
Sweet chestnut has been in full flow for about 8 days now. It is my main crop, hundreds of hectares of deciduous woodland which is a 50/50 mix of chestnut and oak. Produces a light gold honey of wonderful flavour- Yum.
 
No. You don't get dark honeys in the UK. Not enough dark honey forage. No chestnut woods like you get in France or Italy.
 
We get a dark honey from the Horse chesnut in my area.
I dont like the taste as its to strong but it sells well.

Southampton Beekeepers get a flow from one of their Apiaries about 5 miles away.

It looks like the dark colour could be down to honeydew.
 
I have some chestnut honey from a cut out I did a while ago.
 

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