Ivy honey

[jonnybeegood]

How long does ivy honey take before it tends to set in the comb? I ask because when i treat my hives with oxalic last week, one of the hives had so much stores i thought i would swipe a frame out of the super. The hive was too heavy to lift so i thought i could risk one frame as i never took any off this year off any hives. I know it is ivy honey but it hasnt set at all, does it take months or weeks, or does it sometimes not set. I love the strong taste & you can smell ivy as you breathe after a spoonfull, an acquired taste maybe, but i love it.

 

[MikeT]

Mine set almost immediately I started to extract, had to heat the room to get it out of the extractor. My bees are feeding on it at the moment, plenty of cappings on the inspection board, I do not think it is set in the capped cells but I am sure it will solidify as soon as it is exposed.

Mike

 

[Mikeb123]

My last extraction caught the start of the ivy so after extraction it went solid in the bucket within 2/3 weeks. If it was all ivy I'd imagine half that time

 

[Ely]

Are you sure it is Ivy? It would be very strange if Ivy honey hadn't set by now.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Are you sure it is Ivy? It would be very strange if Ivy honey hadn't set by now.

Up until the ivy started flowering there was only one frame of honey in this super, we have a lot of ivy here, i mean a lot. The bees were bringing in pollen & nectar from it for weeks. It does have a strong ivy aroma & flavour when i eat it. Ive just squeezed it & filtered it into jars, i will put a photo on tomorrow of the colour to see what you think.

 

[pargyle]

It may be a silly question but did you feed the colony in the autumn with syrup ?

 

[jonnybeegood]

It may be a silly question but did you feed the colony in the autumn with syrup ?

Not this one as it had plenty stores BUT, i did have a nuc that was robbed after being fed twice, could this be mixed with the ivy? Would that stop it solidifying?

 

[pargyle]

Not this one as it had plenty stores BUT, i did have a nuc that was robbed after being fed twice, could this be mixed with the ivy? Would that stop it solidifying?

Possibly ... but more likely you picked a frame that was more or less all sugar syrup which would stay liquid ... there would probably still be some ivy flavour there from the other pollen coming in but if your bees did find a rich seam of syrup in your Nuc to mine then the odds are that they would concentrate on the easy pickings at the expense of the available ivy.

 

[jonnybeegood]

Maybe, i know one of my other nucs was robbing this first nuc as i seen the bees flying straight out & over to it, which made me move it. I didnt see bees from this hive to the nuc, i thought they were concentrating on the ivy judging by the amount of bees coming in with yellow pollen. What colour would ivy honey be on its own?

 

[pargyle]

Maybe, i know one of my other nucs was robbing this first nuc as i seen the bees flying straight out & over to it, which made me move it. I didnt see bees from this hive to the nuc, i thought they were concentrating on the ivy judging by the amount of bees coming in with yellow pollen. What colour would ivy honey be on its own?

It's usually quite dark but I've seen some that has been warmed and bottled as soft (actually quite hard) set honey that was much lighter in colour.

The taste is, however, very distinct ... very ripe with a sharp aftertaste that hits you at the back of the nose - bit like a really strong cheese does. It mellows after a few months but at this time of the year it should be very noticeably 'ivy' honey - particularly straight from the comb. I don't really like the taste much but I know one beekeeper who always bottles a few jars of it ... but then leaves it at least 6 months before spreading it on his toast. Reckons it really helps his arthritis as well ...

Now there's a thought ... Move over Manuka ...

 

[jonnybeegood]

It's usually quite dark but I've seen some that has been warmed and bottled as soft (actually quite hard) set honey that was much lighter in colour.

The taste is, however, very distinct ... very ripe with a sharp aftertaste that hits you at the back of the nose - bit like a really strong cheese does. It mellows after a few months but at this time of the year it should be very noticeably 'ivy' honey - particularly straight from the comb. I don't really like the taste much but I know one beekeeper who always bottles a few jars of it ... but then leaves it at least 6 months before spreading it on his toast. Reckons it really helps his arthritis as well ...

Now there's a thought ... Move over Manuka ...

Yes this is noticable as a strong ivy taste & after taste but i guess i have nothing to compare it to as ive never tried ivy honey before. The colour is like an apricot jam colour. I'll enjoy it anyway, its definatly not like just sugar syrup as ive just tried some to see, but how much that would change in flavour once the bees work it, i dont know.

 

[MikeT]

This is what my products from my Ivy honey look like.

right solid honey,
middle mead
left honey after warming. It will solidify again in about a week.

It tastes foul, hopefully the mead will be better. This year the bees can have the lot, I am glad I only have 10lbs of it left.

 

[beeno]

Hi Jonny,
I ended up with one frame of Ivy honey that I extracted. It was not solid then and it is not now. The Ivy taste is coming through stronger now than when first harvested it. There definitely is no sugar in it, as I had not fed any of my colonies at the time, but some other source of nectar. Ivy was very early this season in my neck of the woods. However, I also have frames in hives with solid Ivy honey. Mine looks in colour just like Mike's. Used a bit of it in cooking, but I will not spread it on toast!

 

[Hebeegeebee]

Ivy usually sets promptly and the strong taste usually reduces over time.

 

[jonnybeegood]

This is mine, not hard but not runny, just nice & spreadable. Incidently, i bought these jars in the sale someone put on here a few weeks ago, dam air bubbles get stuck in the top corners.

 

[MikeT]

Jonny, Your honey does not look like Ivy Honey, if it was it would be solid by now and when liquid it would be much darker. I am wondering, as you mentioned you are near woods, have the woods got sycamore? As from memory the colour looks like it may be sycamore and it does not solidify very quickly. This would have been brought in much earlier, were there capped combs earlier in the year? I am sure you will get other comments as to what your honey is.

Mike

 

[Hivemaker.]

I am wondering, as you mentioned you are near woods, have the woods got sycamore?

Sycamore trees flower in spring, not in the autumn like ivy.

 

[MikeT]

"Sycamore trees flower in spring, not in the autumn like ivy."
Yes I realise that as I was thinking it was a flow from much earlier in the year.

Hivemaker What do you think the honey is from?

 

[Hivemaker.]

"Sycamore trees flower in spring, not in the autumn like ivy."
Yes I realise that as I was thinking it was a flow from much earlier in the year.

....

Up until the ivy started flowering there was only one frame of honey in this super

 

[jonnybeegood]

Jonny, Your honey does not look like Ivy Honey, if it was it would be solid by now and when liquid it would be much darker. I am wondering, as you mentioned you are near woods, have the woods got sycamore? As from memory the colour looks like it may be sycamore and it does not solidify very quickly. This would have been brought in much earlier, were there capped combs earlier in the year? I am sure you will get other comments as to what your honey is.

Mike

I only got my bees in late May, we have lots of sycamore but they were finished flowering by then.
I did have one or two frames of honey from blackberry & balsam they brought in which were in the middle of the super, when the ivy started flowering that's all there was, by the time the ivy finished there were almost 10 frames full. this was from an outside frame which tastes & smells of ivy so i'm at a loss.