The Honey Factory

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BigBlueHen53 said:
Hi, bee keepers! I did not start at Page 1, I am just jumping in right here. I hope one of you can help me. My question is about honey, not bees. I bought a quart of lovely dark local honey from a beekeeper recently for about $30. I was tickled to get it and eagerly anticipated using it. But when I tasted it, YUCK!!! It was obvious the bees had been dabbling in local manure piles. Cow manure. Like, drinking rain water from cow pies. I kid you not, this is one of the flavors in this honey. I can also taste clover and other wild flowers in it, but the taste of manure is overpowering to me. Can the honey be filtered to get this flavor out, and if so, how? Or is this just a total wash? Thanks.
Click to expand...

there are some plants/flowers that can give honey a methane taste and smell...

I had some fall honey one year that had a strong funk to it... I just mixed it with some cleaner honey and it wasn’t bad for use in baking, etc... but I actually prefer a more robust dark honey with a little funk vs bland clear honey... but I know many people prefer light floral honey and don’t like any of the funky tastes

but it might not be the flowers... the bees might have been using composting cow patties or a compost pile or a cattle watering hole to get water, and the high methane content flavored the honey...

I think sometimes they’ll be after the salt and minerals on those things too, but often the composting action makes those things a source of warm water on cool mornings so the bees will sometimes draw the water from those sources if the conditions make it favorable

do you know anyone that would be interested in making mead from the honey? That has become a popular DIY thing lately, and I think the fermentation process would likely reduce the taste, particularly if mixed with a milder honey.. maybe?
 
Ok, I've been watching videos of horizontal hives and I am intrigued... I like the fact that you don't have to stir the whole nest up if you just want to rob some honey or check a frame or 2. Seems much less disruptive than unstacking their house, tipping them everywhich way, stacking them on the ground in the wrong order, shaking some out on the ground in the process... My only question is if it would be possible to put a queen excluder in one to keep her to one end of the hive so you know you have pure honey on the other end. Then you could possibly make a hybrid hive with flow frames on the honey end and normal ones on the brood end for even easier honey harvest. Could even possibly make it so the flow frames drain down under the hive and make another box under the hive to put the jars in so you could crack the frame and walk away without worrying about a ton of bugs getting in the jars.
 

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