Nectar source, thick honey

[simonwig]

Just wondering if anyone has any ideas of the possible nectar source for a really thick honey.

It wouldn’t flow out of the frames using a tangential extractor, unless I really dug into the cells with an uncapping fork and almost prised it out before spinning. A couple of frames which the jar is from, were crushed and strained as they started to blow when spun at low speed.

Frames were preheated. Water content is about 18%

It looks a bit like heather but I doubt it, never had any in ten years, the nearest patches are about 2.5 miles away, and I’m pretty certain it was from frames capped in July.

I might find out next year as luckily my Honey Monitoring Scheme samples came from these frames.

It was only a small part of the extraction, the rest “normal” mulitfloral.

Some of the thick honey is in the bucket with the multifloral, so I’m thinking a good mix before jarring.

Any suggestions welcome.



Thanks

Simon

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

looks like heather to me, mine regularly fly over 2 miles to bring it in.

 

[Ely]

Possibly heather? You would smell the heather in that case

 

[Swarm]

Certainly looks like heather and don't rule it out as I was finding rings and small patches of it in the supers.
Distinctive taste and smell, I've never had heather either and I still have no idea where they found it.
What does it taste like?

 

[simonwig]

Certainly looks like heather and don't rule it out as I was finding rings and small patches of it in the supers.
Distinctive taste and smell, I've never had heather either and I still have no idea where they found it.
What does it taste like?

Thanks

I've never actually tasted or smelt heather honey, so don't really know what I'm looking for. Looking at descriptions could well be.
Hope there isn't much more as it was a real pain, six more supers to extract.
Simon

 

[Swarm]

Mine would have amounted to an 8 oz jar in total. I kept getting a pungent, floral scent at the apiary and it was too early for Ivy. Same smell when extracting the later supers in August and a taste of the pearls of lucozade jelly confirmed it was Ling. Have a taste, it's not particularly sweet
That jar does look gorgeous, mind

 

[simonwig]

I've only got 3 x 12 oz jars. The rest, maybe same again, is in the bucket. I'm assuming it will mix in fine.
Simon

 

[simonwig]

Update
A friend with lots of experience of heather confirmed that's what it is. He only lives 500m from me and has never had it in his home apiary, like me, he's mystified where they found it.
Simon

 

[peterbees]

Looks like ling heather to me. It will make a good blend, one part heather to two parts of any other honey. You'll love it.

 

[polomadh]

Over the past couple of years my bees have been finding heather from somewhere. Never had it before, so I am guessing you have the same, as everyone is saying!