Pollen analysis

[BBG]

Anyone any idea where to send honey for a pollen analysis to ascertain source.

 

[blackcavebees]

I was reading last week of a lab in mainland Europe with fixed price anaylsis for various tests Inc pollen content, but will have to dig out where it was I saw it

 

[Drew]

Does't a forum member do that sort of thing?
BCrazy or CrazyBull........

 

[BBG]

Thanks Blackcavebees

Drew - hopefully someone will remember who.

 

[Drew]

Thanks Blackcavebees

Drew - hopefully someone will remember who.

BCrazy has the Title "Forum Microscopist"...... probably worth a PM

 

[BBG]

BCrazy has the Title "Forum Microscopist"...... probably worth a PM

OK will do later. Much appreciated.

 

[Nic Rhodes]

It is not difficult to do, what do you think it is?

 

[Ruary]

Bee Keepers Quarterly couple of issue ago had an advertisement

 

[Into the lions den]

They do all sorts of analyses at Minerva Labs.............and the name might just give a clue to the location.

Apart from going to Applica in Germany, or the institutes in Hamburg or better Bremen, you COULD try to pull a fast one by suggesting to your local trading standards that some honey you bought was perhaps not quite as it sghould be and maybe they would like to test it?

Going to any of the private labs, without a contract price and a steady stream of work for them, will be EXPENSIVE.

Rex Sawyer had an assistant who trained with him, a woman. Was it Diana Sweet? If so that might be a door to knock on.

 

[BBG]

It is not difficult to do, what do you think it is?

We can't hazard a guess, we have compared it with pollen samples collected from flowers in the area (not all) and it doesn't match any.

These two hives are very close to an old Abbey a mile or so from the coast in a sheltered valley and producing dark honey with a very strong flavour whereas others are producing light, almost transparent with a delicate flavour.

They gave a lot just around the time horse chestnut bloomed but the gardens have a lot of exotic stuff too. We have no chestnut pollen - of course.

 

[BBG]

They do all sorts of analyses at Minerva Labs.............and the name might just give a clue to the location.

you COULD try to pull a fast one by suggesting to your local trading standards that some honey you bought was perhaps not quite as it should be and maybe they would like to test it?

Going to any of the private labs, without a contract price and a steady stream of work for them, will be EXPENSIVE.

Rex Sawyer had an assistant who trained with him, a woman. Was it Diana Sweet? If so that might be a door to knock on.

Thanks for that ITLD - will see where I get ref Minerva and Diana - she may be related.

On the Trading standards one; I was so incensed by a butcher giving underweight meat, I bought some, he charged me £8 over the odds for the weight and I took it round to Trading Standards here.

They took 2 and 1/2 hours while I waited to find the scales and laptop they use for this type of event. I suggested they took it to Tesco and had it weighed as I had done!

Such is the pace of life!

 

[dclewis]

Our association honey competition here submit all entries for analysis.
I attach a copy of a report for my honey last year so you can see what they can test for and what is tested for, for our little competition. You will also get the coordinates of the lab if you are interested.

 

[newportbuzz]

Our association honey competition here submit all entries for analysis.
I attach a copy of a report for my honey last year so you can see what they can test for and what is tested for, for our little competition. You will also get the coordinates of the lab if you are interested.

impressive for a competion... was it expensive to sample?

 

[BBG]

DC Lewis

Thanks for the reply.

As Newport says, v impressive.

 

[dclewis]

Entry last year cost only €10.00. A subsidised cost by the association to ensure high participation. The price this year is the full cost of the analysis €20/sample.

3 pots of each honey sample had to be supplied, 1 for the judges to judge in the departmental competition, one for the analysis, and one to go on to the Regional competition if your honey came in the top 3 in the departmental competition.

You might be surprised to note that 2011 was the first year there had been a competition in the Eure(department) and the first time there had been an attempt at getting a Regional competition together in Normandy. The rangling between the different departments of Normandy was intense about the rules as you might imagine. One of the 5 departments refused to take part on the basis of the rules that were agreed, and another only wanted to have the prize-winners analysed after the event! The rangling and horsetrading still goes on for this year's rules!

But I for one think that its a great idea to at least have an independant analysis that can be used to disqualify entrants that legally cannot be described as honey (water content) or that have been overheated or are evidently not this years crop by their HMF level and where extraneous pollens to the department are an indicator that the honey was not produced in the department.

In addition to the report shown, 3 random samples were also subjected to testing for presence of antibiotics in the honey(Antibiotic use, including Fumagilin b, is not allowed in France.)

 

[user 6228]

We can't hazard a guess, we have compared it with pollen samples collected from flowers in the area (not all) and it doesn't match any.

These two hives are very close to an old Abbey a mile or so from the coast in a sheltered valley and producing dark honey with a very strong flavour whereas others are producing light, almost transparent with a delicate flavour.

They gave a lot just around the time horse chestnut bloomed but the gardens have a lot of exotic stuff too. We have no chestnut pollen - of course.

so you are really looking for someone with a large and wide ranging pollen library..
how many flowers in your library so I can get a feel for how big is big. SWMBO is amassing a library and then photographing and placing them in a database but its still early days.