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Author Topic: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??  (Read 6958 times)

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Offline brooksbeefarm

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Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« on: July 21, 2014, 10:02:30 am »
Took off 8 supers of honey in St Claire, Co. Mo. and extracted it, the color is almost black and it has a Sorghum taste? There are no crops close by for them to forage from only wild and woolly woods and fields, I would blame it on Sumac, but it only started blooming a week or two ago and this honey was cured and and fully capped, so it wasn't Sumac? I think Woody said he had honey like this, anyone else in other States seeing this? It taste good, but i don;t have a clue what they made it from ??? Jack
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Offline iddee

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #1 on: July 21, 2014, 10:33:25 am »
Does sugar cane produce nectar, or can the bees get to the sap?
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Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #2 on: July 21, 2014, 11:48:43 am »
I don't know? there use to be alot of sorghum cane grown in the area that these hives are, but there are no sorghum mills there anymore. Most of the mills were run by my relatives and there all dead (nobody wants to work that hard nowaday :sad:.) The cane is like corn it had tassels and i don't know if it secreted a sap or not? I was just a youngster back then and our job was to strip the leaves off the canes, cop the tassels off and keep the Mule going. :D Sorry i just had a recall moment,
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Offline Beeboy

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #3 on: July 21, 2014, 11:59:49 am »
I had some like that last year. I have no idea where it came from. My bees told me it was  secret & even after bribing them they wouldn't tell me... ;)
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Offline iddee

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #4 on: July 21, 2014, 01:02:50 pm »
Around here they mix some sorghum seed in with different hay seeds to Make a mixture for the dairy cattle.
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Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #5 on: July 21, 2014, 04:44:29 pm »
We have Johnson grass (you probably do to) that grows wild in the river bottoms that's cane like and gets higher than your head, wonder if they work it? Jack
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Offline Woody Roberts

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #6 on: July 21, 2014, 05:16:52 pm »
I have lots of Johnson grass here, I never seen the bees work it but when it's starting to go to seed they bring in loads of pollen.

Dark with a sorghum taste sounds like buckwheat. Rekin somebody has a food plot near you. Mine has a fruity taste. Best guess I got on bee source was honeydew. This came on and stopped abruptly. I would think honeydew could be gathered longer, perhaps all summer. I'm still stumped

Green graze is a sorghum Sudan grass cross. Makes a head like sorghum. I don't know if bees work it or not.

I've fed a lot of cane into a mill while ducking every time the mule came around.
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Offline Riverrat

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #7 on: July 21, 2014, 05:31:00 pm »
we had a harvest like that a few years back in Kansas.  The people at K-state determined it was from a wet cold late spring that turned to sudden hot and dry. Why they determined this is what caused the honey to be as dark as used motor oil but very good is a mystery to me.
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Offline brooksbeefarm

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #8 on: July 21, 2014, 07:27:36 pm »
They may be on to something Riverrat? we had a cold wet spring and turned to sudden hot weather. Like you i would like to know they determined it? You may be right Woody, this is mostly a deer and turkey hunting area and they do put out food plots in the area. I have around an acre of buckwheat here at home, but the honey here doesn't have that sorghum taste. Funny thing, i said something about my dark motor oil looking honey at the feed store, i wasn't home 30 min. and a man and his wife came to the door saying they heard i had some more of that motor oil honey, i let them taste it and they bought 3 quarts and said they wanted more when we got it bottled. So the word is out. :D Jack
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #9 on: July 21, 2014, 10:28:59 pm »
LOL!! Go get em Jack!!
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Offline Woody Roberts

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #10 on: July 21, 2014, 11:49:53 pm »
Mine is on the shelf. It's for Woodrow's personal use! 8)
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Offline apisbees

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #11 on: July 22, 2014, 12:28:06 am »
Any feedlots of dairy cattle around that are being fed molasses? Bees have been known to bring that into the hives. I wish it wasn't such a pain to get things shipped across the line so I could get a sample shipped to me so I could look at it under the microscope, check the optical density, moisture, do a pile test, and taste it. then I would offer an opinion of what it could be.
Do you have a video camera and post to YouTube Jack?
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Offline LazyBkpr

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Re: Dark Honey with Sorghum Taste??
« Reply #12 on: July 22, 2014, 12:42:09 am »
Quote from: Woody Roberts on July 21, 2014, 11:49:53 pm
Mine is on the shelf. It's for Woodrow's personal use! 8)


       :o  Oh now Woody.. what happened to that giving and sharing spirit??  I can pay for my own shipping!   ;D
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