Honey analysis

[Erichalfbee]

How easy is it to tell these brassica pollens apart?

 

[Beefriendly]

At the DNA level with specific p[robes (as used by the Honey Survey) very easy. Although they do say some of the finer subspecies are not catered for.

 

[Beefriendly]

I'm the same re brassicas, my sample gave 55% turnip, 22% cabbage, 11% travellers joy and 5% rape. I have no idea where the turnip and cabbage came from as the adjacent fields either had wheat or rape!

Adjacent 2KM is more relevant than adjacent fields. It covers a lot of ground.

 

[Erichalfbee]

At the DNA level with specific p[robes (as used by the Honey Survey) very easy. Although they do say some of the finer subspecies are not catered for.

Thanks.

 

[citrus]

summer sutton honey results - 37 taxa

Taxa doesn't have to be taxing !

so 37 taxa in the sample from July and delighted to have a nice range from our suburban garden that offeres access to Banstead common.

Next year I might wait and send a later sample in to get a different perspective.


The only issue was my ecologist mate getting upset with my bees for pollinating the sycamore tree which he is dead against (monoculture)


Myosotis sylvatica Wood Forget-me-not
Rubus Bramble
Ligustrum ova/ifo/ium Garden Privet
Heracleum sphondylium Hogweed
Tilia Lime
Pentag/ottis sempervirens Green Alkanet
Trifolium repens White Clover
Tilia cordata Small-leaved Lime
Rubus si/vaticus
Papaver somniferum Opium Poppy
Ailanthus a/tissima Tree-of -heaven
Lavandula angustifo/ia Garden Lavender
Brassicaceae Crucifer
Rhamnus cathartica Buckthorn
Brassica oleracea Cabbage
Sambucus nigra Elder
Brassica rapa Turnip
Acer pseudoplatanus Sycamore
Prunus avium Wild Cherry
Berberis
Clematis vita/ba Traveller 's-joy
Viburnum plicatum Japanese snowb all
Leptospermum Janigerum Woolly Tea-tree
Reseda Jutea Wild Mignonette
Campanula poscharskyana Trailing Bellflower
Urtica dioica Common Nettle
Leptosphaeriaceae
Anthriscus sy/vestris Cow Parsley
Hypericum perforatum Perforate St. John's-Wort
Hydrangea
Hypericum calycinum Rose-of-Sharon
Sonchus arvensis Perennial Sow-thistle
Ilex perado
Callitropsis nootkatensis Nootka cypress
Cotinus coggygria Smoke-t ree
Fagaceae
Ligustrum Privet

 

[Dodge]

I have an urban Appiary but in the edge of Birmimgham so 1/4 mile are christmas trees and the greenbelt. Just over 50% was Bramble, 3 species of Lime to 20% and 7% Buddleja. Must be a hell of a lot of buddleia globosa,else some davidii has very short flower heads the bees can down to the nectaries.

 

[enrico]

Blimey, that's a big list. I only had 12!
E

 

[Repwoc]

Papaver somniferum Opium Poppy

Is this in your garden?

 

[citrus]

Is this in your garden?

we have some award winning gardener two doors down who has a monster plot with one of everything .. even sycamore

 

[Newbeeneil]

Adjacent 2KM is more relevant than adjacent fields. It covers a lot of ground.

I appreciate that but I would say the fields were generally wheat within about 1km with rape outside that..... I didn't see any other crops at that time. There were the hedges and several areas of woodland but I sure the turnips weren't in there

 

[For want of a better word]

Is this in your garden?

Possibly from a window box in Bellmarsh!

 

[Erichalfbee]

Possibly from a window box in Bellmarsh!

I have loads in the garden every year.
They self sow like mad and are easy enough to start off with a handful of cooking poppy seeds.

 

[ericbeaumont]

The only issue was my ecologist mate getting upset with my bees for pollinating the sycamore tree which he is dead against (monoculture)

Hmm. There are some who would disagree with that verdict, and not only beekeepers who value it for bridging the nectar gap in late spring. Naturally a beekeeper will consider it a bee-tree, but it's good for other pollinators, some listed here.

While it can be invasive it also has a wide variety of uses described here by futuretrees.org. If that doesn't convince, this balanced report on sycamore on the Mike Palmer website (no, not that Mike Palmer) suggests ways to curtail its invasiveness, and also reports that the tree has suffered for 450 years from people's personal biases for or against the species rather than on factual evidence.

 

[Erichalfbee]

Not popular with folk who keep horses, either

 

[Popparand]

Excellent thread. I did not know this service was in available. Thanks

 

[masterBK]

Forget-me-not pollen is well known to be over represented in honey and poppies don't produce nectar as far as I am aware.

 

[citrus]

Possibly from a window box in Bellmarsh!

Actually HMP Sutton (home of a wonderful Prison restaurant 'Clink') is within the 3 miles !!

 

[enrico]

Just got this from the honey monitoring service. May apply to some of you

Thank you for your email, apologies for a slight delay in response as we’ve received a high volume of emails since releasing results.

In response to your query, that you are missing the sample taxa sequencing results, this may be because you have sent your sample in late-season (end of August onwards) and hence these results are not yet available. These should be released to you in March.

Apologies for the confusion, we came across an issue in that all beekeepers were notified of ‘sequencing results ready’ however only early-season results available, the late-season samples were not yet ready – this happened because we had uploaded habitat/crop maps for ALL samples (both early & late), which led to this automated email being sent to all. We’ve now rectified this issue going forward.

Thank you for your continued support of the scheme – do let us know if you have further questions.

 

[Angry_Mob]

Mine was sent late August so that explains it.

 

[citrus]

my sample was 19th July so just as well I sent it in then !

would imagine my area is overdone with samples