Bees-broccoli honey?

littlejo 1/1/2012, 2:26 pm

I am cleaning and transplanting some savable plants into a cold frame for the expected freeze this week. My broccoli has all begun to flower, and the honey bees have arrived to munch on the broc.

Bee keepers- Does honey really take on the flavor of the flowers pollen? I would say it's going to be some bad tasting honey! The whole garden area has taken on a smell of broccoli gone bad. Plants will get pulled soon to go to compost pile.

Jo

**camprn** 1/1/2012, 2:46 pm

Yes, the honey will take on flavors of the foraged nectar the bees bring in. Are your broccoli plants blooming? Are the bees flying?There will be much nicer flowers coming on in the spring that will make the honey flavor sweet.

littlejo 1/1/2012, 4:40 pm

I didn't do it on purpose. The broccoli just bolted.

I just started seeing the regular honey bees since the weather turned cold. I had some sort of bumble bee to pollinate my garden. Maybe someone has taken up bee keeping in the area lately. Maybe they will stay around for the spring/summer, but they will probably go for the lg. fields with clover in them, making some good honey!

Jo

plantoid 1/1/2012, 8:25 pm

littlejo wrote:I am cleaning and transplanting some savable plants into a cold frame for the expected freeze this week. My broccoli has all begun to flower, and the honey bees have arrived to munch on the broc.

Bee keepers- Does honey really take on the flavor of the flowers pollen? I would say it's going to be some bad tasting honey! The whole garden area has taken on a smell of broccoli gone bad. Plants will get pulled soon to go to compost pile.

Jo

Not only a sligh flower oil scent and taste but also that of the nectar, you'd have to have a tremendous amount of flowering crop for it to be noticeable to your nose or palate.

Bees are thought to visit around 1,000,000 flowers in nectar flow to make one pound of honey .. If there is lots of climbing ivys ... beware that the honey from them gives you the skitters and is best mixed with other honeys to dilute the effect

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Bees-broccoli honey?

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