Interesting. For the first time ever I managed a spring crop with no OSR. I just checked and the buckets are just starting to crystallize, so a slow setter in my books. The hives I took to the rape...all set within 7 days of harvesting.
Looks like another frustrating session with the microscope trying to identify pollen's to see what they were collecting from...
I wonder why your spring honey was a fast setter?
I have two apiaries, one with easy access to OSR the other with none in range (to my knowledge). The early June extracted honey from the former is starting to granulate, but more slowly than previous years I think. As Thymallus suggests, I suspect the bees had access to other nectar this Spring and the usual high-glucose OSR nectar is 'diluted' with something else that has slowed granulation.
Why is runny honey much easier to sell that soft-set?
My problem !
I harvested some lightning fast setting honey .
Buttery coloured when set !
No body wants it
My wife set up a ( taste ) set , people were surprised !:
Some thought it was going off!
They soon realised what they were missing
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Mine got a load of dandelion (I think) this year. Managed to isolate a couple of frames of it and it set within a week or two. It is almost clear and it stinks! There is more mixed in with sycamore and chestnut I think which is darker and still isn't granulating, this is a delicious honey, if a bit strong.
In other news I think I'll be putting on clearer boards tonight and extracting anything that is left over the weekend.
I think most customers associate runny honey as "honey". Honey out of the comb is always shown in advertisements etc in a liquid form and many of the younger generation have never heard of soft set and need a bit of educating. The light white colour appears strange to them, many ask me what it is.
However, once they have tried a few samples and taken a jar or two ...many are hooked for life.
But, despite my giving it the big sell...runny still nearly always outsells my soft set....
Apart from in August, when many of the Yorkshire country shows are on. All the visitors have to drive across the now resplendent bluey/pink moors and all they want is heather honey. It couldn't be better advertised.
Clearer boards are on the first supers of this years heather honey harvest and it's Danby show on Wednesday...going to be a close run thing....
I’ve often heard people say that newspapers are getting smaller. This was confirmed to me last night while I was uniting two colonies. One sheet of the local rag wasn’t even big enough to cover the brood box!
Surprising amount of pale yellow pollen getting piled in at 8:30 this morning, the only things I can see flowering in any quantity are RBWH (nearly over and wrong pollen colour) and redshank... Never heard the latter being discussed as a good bee plant but could it be? A few acres of turnips about which are completely overrun with it!
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