Types of honey

[westawake90]

Morning all,

After a tough summer managed to get a couple of supers from my hives. They thankfully look strong going into the winter.

Just one question the honey in some of the frames is a very dark colour and very hard to spin out. What sort of honey is this?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

do you have any heather nearby?
If this is your first harvest this year, it could be spring honey with a lot of hawthorn in which has started to crystalise

 

[Ian123]

Go give it a poke….heather will be like jelly and that’s what my moneys on!

 

[Curly green finger's]

It could be Hawthorne mine is also starting to crystallise in the frames .
Give it a taste your know if it’s heather or not.

 

[westawake90]

Doesn’t seem to be crystallised, flavour would be quite strong, would this mean heather?

 

[Erichalfbee]

Doesn’t seem to be crystallised, flavour would be quite strong, would this mean heather?

If you’re not sure buy a jar of heather honey and compare.

 

[Ian123]

Doesn’t seem to be crystallised, flavour would be quite strong, would this mean heather?

Possibly….. you’re likely to find the consistency a good indication perhaps more than flavour if you don’t know what you’re looking at. If you give an individual cell a squeeze you’ll end up with a blob rather like jelly but softer in texture. Heather is slow to crystallise and forms large individual crystals. In jars it’s thick enough to hold bubbles in suspension, obviously depending on how much heather is actually there if all mixed in with other honeys.
As asked previously do you have any within range of your bees.

 

[Gilberdyke John]

Doesn’t seem to be crystallised, flavour would be quite strong, would this mean heather?

Could it be buckwheat or honeydew?

 

[Ian123]

Could it be buckwheat or honeydew?

Doubtful they’ll extract as normal.

 

[westawake90]

On further looking the jars that I have managed to extract are holding air bubbles. There is some heather in the locality but didn’t think it was within range. Can it be spun out eventually?

 

[jenkinsbrynmair]

Can it be spun out eventually

not really, unless you use a heather honey loosener on it first, then extract tangentially