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  • #1

    A bee question

    I was watching the bees in my garden today when a thought occurred to me. If the bees collect honey from heather or orchard blossom that affects both the quality and flavour of the honey. What effect does feeding mainly from vegetable flowers have?

    Just curious,

    TGR
    TGR
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  • #2
    Hi,
    I doubt the bees in a general forage area would stick to a single plant type. What the bees forage on depends on i) what's out there at the time, ii) what the sugar load of the available nectar is and iii) what the sugar type is.

    Watching the bees return to the hive on the lottie, I see the multi-colours of the pollen being brought, showing the wide range of plants they are harvesting nectar from. On the veg/fruit front, they go for the peas/beans and the fruits. And asparagus!

    All you'd get from such a narrow forage selection would be a particular tasting/smelling/coloured honey. Perhaps it would granulate quickly too. That's all really.


    P17B
    "You can lead a horticulture but you can't make her think" - Dorothy Parker

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    • #3
      Thank you plot17b. I was just curious. The bees I was watching were in the peas and beans but also the courgettes, marrows and pumpkins. I wondered if the taste of the vegetable would come through in the honey but you're right, they do forage from a much wider variety of plants.

      TGR
      TGR

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      • #4
        Hi tamr,
        re veg honey- Broad bean honey is my all time fave! and does not taste of broad beans!
        Many bee keepers will move their hives to fields of beans just for the honey.
        A large amount of English honey will be from oil seed rape, OSR is of the cabbage family.....cabbage tasting honey??? no, just sweet and yummy!
        When there is such a large amount of flowers the bees will mostly all work that crop! They wont shop around for the odd onion flower so to speak.
        I wondered this same thing before I got into bee keeping!

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        • #5
          Hi Headfry,

          Broad bean honey, wow!

          In some ways I'm glad it won't taste of cabbage

          I was just idly musing.

          I hope your girls are enjoying the sunshine.

          TGR
          TGR

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          • #6
            Broad beans have the best scent of any vegetable flower, so I would think that it should give beautiful honey.

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            • #7
              TGR, thanks the girls are going great guns! they love this weather. Might even get some honey this year.

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