Skip to Content.
Sympa Menu

ocba - Re: [ocba] Update from the Mountains

ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org

Subject: Orange County, NC Beekeepers

List archive

Chronological Thread  
  • From: Celeste Mayer <cmmayer AT mindspring.com>
  • To: Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: Scott Bowers <professionalslug AT gmail.com>, Peter Smith <psmith AT leaptec.com>, Orange Co Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [ocba] Update from the Mountains
  • Date: Sun, 28 Aug 2016 07:10:07 -0400

This is a fun sharing of information.  I should have read this email discussion before I took the NCSBA Certified Level practice quiz that included a question about “honey dew” honey.  I won’t get that one wrong again!  Celeste
On Aug 27, 2016, at 1:12 PM, Randall Austin <ra41717 AT gmail.com> wrote:

Thanks Scott & Peter for a bit of an education! 

My first thought when hearing about "evergreen honey" was "evergreens aren't flowering plants, so aren't a source of honey." But I looked in Frank Pellett's American Honey Plants and he says:
Writing in the American Bee Journal J. A. Herbele (Nov. 1916, p. 381) states that in Switzerland about 40 per cent of the honey crop is from honeydew, mostly from Pinus abies, a fir tree. From this fir tree the beekeepers of the Vosges Mountains, the Black Forest and in parts of Switzerland, harvest large crops of honeydew, called "waldhonig." Notwithstanding its greenish-black color it is much esteemed by the population. Herbele expresses the opinion that this waldhonig is of plant origin. Since the Douglas fir secretes sugar freely in the Pacific Northwest, this seems very probable. He mentions a record of the production of 385 pounds of honey by one colony in 1900 and an average production of 90 pounds per colony in the apiary of a German beekeeper in 1915.
John Lovell, in Honey Plants of North America (1926), says, among other things: 
... from tips of leaves of the Douglas fir in British Columbia, and Washington State west of the Cascades, there is exuded a sweet liquid in large quantities. By the evaporation of the water it crystallizes quickly into white masses 1/4 inch to 2 inches in diameter. This solid again may be dissolved by rain and recrystallized in patches at the base of the tree. "Fir sugar" was known to the Indians of British Columbia long before the discovery of America, and in recent years its presence has repeatedly been reported by beekeepers.... A large number of bees gather the liquid, and is some years two or three supers of sections are filled with it. The honey is fair in quality, pale amber in color, with rather dark cappings.

CONE TREES (Coniferae), -- Vast forests of coniferous trees, covering millions of acres, are found throughout the north temperate zone of both the Old and the New World. Well-known species are spruce, fir, juniper, hemlock, cypress, and many species of pine. There are about 350 kinds of conifers in the world, all of which are wind-pollinated....
Great quantities of honey-dew are at times gathered from the foliage of the conifers, especially from the spruce and pine. In 1908, Gates observed thousands of living bark-lice (Physokermes piceae) on spruce trees at Amherst, Mass. Honeybees by the hundreds were humming through the trees and gathering a liberal store of honey-dew. Sweet liquids exuded by the tips of the leaves of cone-trees, which crystallize by evaporation into white sugars, are also gathered.
So, while we don't get nectar-based honey from conifers, apparently honey from honey-dew and directly-secreted sugars are a major source in regions where those trees dominate. Cool! I had wondered why bees Down East don't starve. (FYI, a description of honey-dew honey is <here>.)

"All Beekeeping is Local", and hearing about other locales is very interesting. Thanks for the first-hand information! 

Randall Austin



On 8/27/2016 12:00 PM, Scott Bowers wrote:
C0BAB4E2-771C-471D-AE4D-C8887283450F AT gmail.com" type="cite" style="font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 12px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; orphans: auto; text-align: start; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: auto; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" class="">
Excellent. I wasn't familiar with basswood being prevalent in the hi-country. 

Sent from my iPhone

On Aug 27, 2016, at 11:51 AM, Peter Smith <psmith AT leaptec.com> wrote:

Thank you Scott – very informative.
 
A local beekeeper just told me that at my elevation (4000ft) it is likely to be linden honey. Having done a quick web search, I came up with the following which gives a great description of what I seem to have.
 
 
From: Scott Bowers [mailto:professionalslug AT gmail.com] 
Sent: Saturday, August 27, 2016 9:48 AM
To: Peter Smith <psmith AT leaptec.com>
Cc: Orange Co Beekeepers <ocba AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: Re: [ocba] Update from the Mountains
 
It might be a combination of gum and evergreen. There is a lot of black gum in that area and this is primary trimming time at the Christmas tree farms, which spurs flow from them. Both of those honeys are very light. 
 
I kept bees in Asheville for seven years and the mountain bees don't harvest rhododendron there, which is good because of its toxicity. In the mid elevations like Asheville you will get locust, poplar, sourwood and wildflower. In the hi-country it's poplar, evergreen, gum and wildflower. 
 
If there is a severe dearth on everything else, you might rarely get rhododendron. But you'll know it by the belly ache you get from eating it. 

Sent from my iPhone


On Aug 27, 2016, at 9:14 AM, Peter Smith <psmith AT leaptec.com> wrote:

For my first harvest up on Grandfather Mountain, only one of my hives from my initial 3 nucs produced a surplus. My use of a queen excluder resulted in 4 supers of mostly perfect frames, partly because all frames were drawn from scratch and consequently had never been harvested before. Total yield was over 100 pounds.
 
The interesting thing to me was that the nectar collected between early July and mid August produced an extremely light colored honey, much lighter than I had experienced in years of beekeeping in Hillsborough. It almost didn't look like honey at all! It had a unique delicate floral fragrance while extracting and overall lighter taste than normal. We extracted it separately from the honey produced earlier in the season (lower 2 supers)  and so ended up 2 different colors of honey. Could it be the rhododendron bloom which occurs around that time – I’m trying to find out from my local beekeeping group.
 
<image003.jpg>
<image004.jpg>
 
 
 
Peter Smith
 
<Frame.png>
<Honey2 2016.png>
_________________________________________
ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
Manage Your Subscription: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/


_________________________________________
ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
Manage Your Subscription: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/


_________________________________________
ocba mailing list | North Carolina Beekeeping| http://www.theocba.org/
Manage Your Subscription: http://lists.ibiblio.org/mailman/listinfo/ocba/




Archive powered by MHonArc 2.6.24.

Top of Page