Worldwide Beekeeping
Beekeeping => General Beekeeping => Topic started by: Perry on October 19, 2014, 06:09:51 pm
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I know all about the Goldenrod smells like gym socks honey, but while I was extracting today I came across one super that was gross. As soon as I started uncapping it I got a distinct "barnyard" smell. It was so bad I only ran those 10 frames in my extractor to keep it separate, and kept it in a bucket all of it's own. It is black as tar and just reeks. I have 1 hive at a friends that planted a bunch of Borage, and another yard of 8 where the english couple planted an acre of Buckwheat.
If I run across anymore supers I will atribute it to the Buckwheat. If it's just the one super in the whole lot it must be the Borage. This stuff is nasty, no other way to put it. I've now got 3 gallons of the stuff and I am not sure I should even sell it I find it so offensive. I would shut down a yard over this stuff.
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Wow Perry! What a bummer... I think. Now, I know Manuka honey is very dark and thick as tar, but I've never smelled it. However, it's supposed to have double the medicinal qualities. That's just what I've read. And, people order that honey and pay the price.
If I were you I would look up what properties borage has that can add to the honey. It may be bad news it may be good.
I'm very curious to smell this honey myself.
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I've had both Borage and Buckwheat honey, the borage honey is light in color if i remember right (it's been a while) the buckwheat is dark honey and has a stronger taste, some people love it and some hate it. I put buckwheat out every year (about an acre) and have people ask for it, but i've never noticed any bad smell from it? Of course with only an acre of it and 20 hives working it i can't clam it as solely buckwheat honey, only that it probably has buckwheat in it along with many other things, which i'm thinking is your problem perry. Last year i took off some late honey that was dark and had a gifferent smell to it? (not stinky ) so i taste it an it was bitter :o, like you i put it by it's self in two 5 gal. buckets and didn't sell it. I forgot about it till i found this summer and was going to give it to the bees till i tasted it again, the bitter taste was gone and it was about as good a honey that i've had? Guess it settled out and cured?? Jack
PS. Don't knock that barnyard smell nowaday, the stronger it smells on the farm the more $$ you'll make. :laugh: :laugh: Jack
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I have a funny feeling it's the buckwheat. It is OK to the taste, by wow is the sniff test bad. I read somewhere as well that letting it sit for a spell takes care of it so you may be on to something Jack.
(Is it just me or do we actually seem to be agreeing on stuff lately? :o)
If not, maybe I'll sell it as bakers honey or something. The only way I'd sell it otherwise would be after I let the customer sample it first.
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Have you tasted Manuka honey yet Perry? I haven't, was just curious
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There is a honey flow on right now in this area. My hives smell like a gym bag. You know, that rank smell of sweaty socks. Its so bad, everyone here just leaves the honey on over winter for the bees. Might be a good thing for the bees though. Two or three hives still smelled good, but most of them don't. All the hives will find it eventually. :)
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Could be Perry ??? So you do agree that there's an resemblance between the old Hooty Owl and your Avatar. :laugh: :laugh: Your buddy, Jack
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Did you use deodorant last Saturday for your bimonthly bath.
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Use it for mead. The smell will work itself out...
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i have tasted and smelled manuka honey....... :D
perry,
amazing the work our bees make us do after all their hard work collecting funky smelling nectar to make honey........ :D :D :D
we don't have borage, so i am not familiar with that. i have enjoyed buckwheat honey in the past, (purchased, not from my harvests) but we planted buckwheat this year, a great deal of it, and i can honestly say, i could smell the difference in the aroma from the frames and the taste, and as jack said the 'smell' is not bad. in all honesty, i like it. it has a different whiff to it, but nothing i would describe as i would goldenrod or smells badly?. the color of buckwheat is darker and the taste is stronger with a hint of a molasses taste to it.
i harvest anything with a funkier smell to it separately sometimes, figure it out later. in general i just wind up mixing it all together.
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i harvest anything with a funkier smell to it separately sometimes, figure it out later. in general i just wind up mixing it all together.
In general riverbee, how long does the 'bad' taste take to subside? I assume your honey buckets are sealed?
thanks :)
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Hey Perry, another thing i forgot to mention is, when i found it both buckets was crystallized, so i put them in my heat box set at 110F for two days with the lids cracked. That may of had a baring on it?? Jack
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"In general riverbee, how long does the 'bad' taste take to subside? I assume your honey buckets are sealed?"
yes lee, i seal them. as far as the bad taste subsiding? i think jack mentioned this:
" I forgot about it till i found this summer and was going to give it to the bees till i tasted it again, the bitter taste was gone and it was about as good a honey that i've had? Guess it settled out and cured?? Jack"
often times, the honey has more of an aroma to it that makes you wonder, when the taste does not equal the 'smell'. when i remove the supers, i make sure any frames for example, frames containing goldenrod gets mixed. a method to my madness; i used to mark the supers and which hive they came from. i know the top supers are usually the boxes that contain goldenrod, and you can smell it. the ones on the bottom are basswood or dandelion (that can be bitter and smelly) and basswood, although a great minty honey, it crystallizes. i know that two supers fills a 5 gallon pail. so i will switch frames around in supers and distribute these honeys, or i will mix all the frames up in the supers from one hive. sometimes i will separate and keep a bucket of basswood, or wild bee balm, and this year i did separate the buckwheat. i have customers asking for it. if i have frames of capped honey with some uncapped that passes the 'shake test', those also are distributed. or one can combine pails of something that might not meet your taste test.
for me, i can't say i have ever held back anything and sat on it. honey is honey and i love it all!
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There is a honey flow on right now in this area. My hives smell like a gym bag. You know, that rank smell of sweaty socks. Its so bad, everyone here just leaves the honey on over winter for the bees. Might be a good thing for the bees though. Two or three hives still smelled good, but most of them don't. All the hives will find it eventually. :)
I smelled it as well for the first time ever. I'm glad I got to finally experience it! Odd. Anyway, I haven't checked the hives in over a week. They have plenty of room, so it will be interesting to see how much they have gathered in that amount of time. I was wanting to do one more collection this fall and leave them with only two deeps.
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If I know the last honey that is brought in is not as pristine in color and flavor as some of the earlier honeys I will pull the frames of nice honey from the sides of the brood chamber and put the poorer honey in flavour in the brood boxes. This is the reason I like to use deep supers for some of the honey supers also.
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..... This is the reason I like to use deep supers for some of the honey supers also.
Same here, I keep those frames for spring nucs.
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Oh lordy... I have picked up WAY more deeps filled with honey than i ever care to see again in my lifetime! Even just ten years ago lifting them wasnt too difficult, but in the last ten years, the actual gravity of the earth has increased due to the distance of the moon increasing in relation to the earth.. What once weighed 100 lbs now weighs twice as much!!! :P
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I use deeps as supers as well. If it gets too much to lift, I use the NUC box I fitted with a flip open top and a handle so you can carry it easily with the top closed to keep bees off the frames. Five deeps are not too heavy yet. :)
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Scott- "the actual gravity of the earth has increased due to the distance of the moon increasing in relation to the earth.. What once weighed 100 lbs now weighs twice as much!!!
Must have something to do with climate change :D
But I hear ya bro!
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Scott- "the actual gravity of the earth has increased due to the distance of the moon increasing in relation to the earth.. What once weighed 100 lbs now weighs twice as much!!!
Must have something to do with climate change :D
But I hear ya bro!
Either that, or he was into the rum when he typed that! :)
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scott?......in the rum?.......naw......... :D :D :D
gravity for me, i am going to have to do something different in the near future.....lifting deep boxes is getting harder, even heavier medium supers.....but i also seem to have some 'extra gravity' around the mid section and it has nothing to do with climate change or moon distance.......... :D
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I use deeps as supers as well. If it gets too much to lift, I use the NUC box I fitted with a flip open top and a handle so you can carry it easily with the top closed to keep bees off the frames. Five deeps are not too heavy yet. :)
Good idea, Lee.
So, I am not fat. It's the universe that is working against me? Well I am doomed. ???
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Riv- "but i also seem to have some 'extra gravity' around the mid section and it has nothing to do with climate change or moon distance..........
I find that when I look at myself head on... not to bad of a figure for just over 50 years. Then I turn sideways.... Ugh!
I too am finding that a full medium of honey is a trick to get on and off of the hives. If I have a deep and medium brood set up, I can only go two medium honey supers over that. Just can't lift higher than that. And, I make sure hubby is home for those days, not to help me lift them, but to be sure and keep an I on me and all the lifting goes well. I sure envy the upper body strength of men~ I could go to the gym C:-) Nah!
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I've always said I'll take up jogging the first time I see a jogger that's smiling! :D
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very true perry! i walk or bike everyday, minimum 3 mile walk, bike no less than an hour. i am very active spring, summer and fall months, its when the S
starts flying and the FA...temps begins. uhmm use your imagination. ANYWAYS, then i revert to going to the gym. walk, bike and do some light weights. i dislike being indoors, but like to keep moving and keep the senior body with less gravity in the mid sections and some upper body strength going.
when i was in fire school (for fire investigation only), i was required to take the training course all firefighters take in physical agility. i can tell you, this course weeds out many candidates as firefighters men and women both. two women were left, myself and another, and many men took the cut as well. at the time, there were all sorts of indoor/outdoor exercises to carry equipment and dummies on a level surface. the challenge was carrying fire hoses or other equipment up and down a flight of stars in full gear, or carrying a 150 lb. dummy down a flight of stairs in a mock concrete 2 story training facility. my instructor really was a great guy, a long time firefighter, a chief and a state fire marshal/state fire investigator for a number of years, and a hard nose. he was exceptionally hard on me. i later learned he really liked me and did so to teach me to be a better fire investigator. it worked. during my test of carrying the dummy down the stairs, he made some critical comments to me in front of the rest of the class, and i thought not equal to how he had critiqued some of the guys. out of breath, and i guess a 'show you' attitude, i hauled that dang dummy back up the stairs to the 2nd story concrete room, lifted it up to the concrete cut out window and shoved it out that window where it fell two stories down.......stuck my head out the window and hollered out down at him something to the effect "does this work for you".......... :D :D :D
i passed......... :D
not sure if it was adrenalin or determination, or both or just plain mad, i wanted to pass. i would never be able to do this now and i have a hard time lifting full supers and deeps, so an adjustment of some sort for me in the future, some cleats added to the boxes? time will tell.
i digress from perry's original post of the thread..... :-[ but some of the posts just reminded me of what i could do in younger years.
stinky honey? for me it was a little goldenrod and something else i couldn't identify? it was all mixed in with the general population of the rest of my honey....... 8)
it's all good....it's honey, the real thing!
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Hey squirt,did you get to tie the rope at the top of a 100ft. aerial ladder truck and slide it to the ground. :o Knowing your going to have to do that makes you pay close attention in the knot tieing class. :D Most trainee's got weeded out before they got that far just climbing to the top of the100ft. ladder. Sorry to get off topic your post brought back some memories :). Jack
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jack,
no i didn't, i started a thread on our fond memories so as not to get this thread anymore off topic, push my button i could tell lots of stories about fire training and other, bet you could too........... :D:
Firefighters Climbing 100 Ft Aerial Ladder~For Jack (http://www.worldwidebeekeeping.com/forum/index.php/topic,2800.0.html)