I have seen a number of posts on Heather honey, This year some of our members bemoan the fact that it is a bad year for cut comb and heather honey. While walking the local mountains last weekend I noticed a number of different heathers growing all in the same area, but predominantly Calluna vulgaris (Ling) but there was also Cross-leaved Heath (Erica tetralix) Bell heather (Erica cinerea). Not to mention billberrry, Bog Aspodil and myrtle.
It is said that heather honey was thixotropic true and false my reserach indicates that only Calluna vulgaris honey is thixotropic, This honey will usually retain more moisture than what you would normally expect to find in honey and maintain levels at about 25%With honey from other sources the moisture content is usually about 18%. The books say that moisture content above 18% usually indicates the honey was not completely cured before harvest and there is a risk of spoil by fermentation. The thixotropic nature of heather honey allows it to retain more moisture without the risk of spoil. Heather is usually wind pollinated or else there is a small thripe called Taeniothrips ericae which will also do the job now because rain does not pollinate the plant and your bees are not active these little chaps have all the nectar for themselves and once pollinated that is the end of the nectar. This year has been wet the bees were probably not flying so the tripes had a feast.
So when people say heather honey is Thixotropic they are only talking about Honey predominately collected from Ling (Calluna vulgaris) so how do beekeepers manage when bees are forageing on different plants on the mountainside, what honey do they collect and how do they package that.
Another note that you may find interesting, I was on a raised bog and my dog was scamping through the heather with clouds of pollen flying behind her, (No nectar to be got there then) when she took a fit of coughing, I told a friend about this and he said yes he noticed the same with his dog and discovered that the dog had an allergy to pollen from heather and caused her to itch and scratch a lot.
http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/1....tb05199.x/pdf