Dandelion Honey

[gtrr4]

Just curious, does anyone harvest and sell your dandelion honey?  I have read/told it is not the best tasting honey.  This is my first year coming out fo winter with hives and only have a limitied amount of supers with drawn comb.  I would hate to waste it on honey I would have to store for winter.  ( not sure if that is the norm or not)  Curious on everyones methods.

Jason

[riverbee]

i harvest and sell dandelion honey.  i don't store any honey supers, it all gets extracted.

[blueblood]

It's truly hard to say that you have all, 100% Dandy honey.  My first harvest is a good mixture of it, locust and clover and whatever else.  It's pretty dang tasty!

[tbonekel]

The best time for us around here for dandelions is late winter. I'm guessing at that time, they really don't even have any nectar available. I don't see many in late spring and summer. I really think the heat takes care of them at that time.

[Perry]

I think here the bees are still building up and don't have the numbers for surplus to harvest.

[rwlaw]

I don't think my hives have anything cap at that time, they're going thru nectar like a barn fire. Like Perry says, they're putting everything they gather into population. Sure do like dandelion mead tho!

[Ray]

Dandelions are scarce around here (I don't know why either). When they are up though, so are a lot of other nectar sources.

[Bakersdozen]

I can't say that I have ever seen/tasted dandelion honey.  How does it hold up as far a crystallization?  Around here, the dandelion is an abundant pollen source and probably the bees are using the dandelion for spring buildup.
There are so many other things in bloom right now, along with the dandelion, it would be hard to determine the nectar source without a lab test.

[sc-bee]

So you guys actually have a time period where nothing else is blooming and you can isolate the supers and call them dandelion honey? In my state we can isolate nothing except in some summers in the mountains sourwood. Everything else in SC should be classified as wildflower. Not that some folks don't bend the buyers imagination. A few years back a lady down the road had a few hive set on probably a less than an acre, maybe a little more, of strawberries. She would comment everyone is waiting on my strawberry honey, it sells out so quick. Maybe I can sell some wooden nickles.

Is there an ethical rule that honey should be a certain % to be labeled a particulate source. I am sure a lab analysis can be made but not cost effective or reasonable. I often have wondered about all that honey labeled in the store as clover honey. Does nothing blooms in these area but clover when they gather it? Or at least clover is the main source? I am talking the major producers, don't they co-op from all over?

[Bakersdozen]

sc-bee I think we are thinking the same thoughts here.  Maybe someone on the forum can shed some light on these questions.

[Slowmodem]

So you guys actually have a time period where nothing else is blooming and you can isolate the supers and call them dandelion honey?

LOL  That's why I call my honey Front Yard Honey, because it's got lots of everything in it.  (Well, I extract before the goldenrod blooms, so it doesn't have that.)

[sc-bee]

The lady down the road was being just flat-out deceptive.... I did not say anything cause she was almost as big as I am... No where near as ugley though ... right iddee. And that was ugley not ugly. If you do not know what UGLEY is. I will let someone else explain 

[pistolpete]

I call it spring honey, rather that dandelion honey.   With a strong colony, they easily fill a super in a couple of warm weeks, but then you're surfing that swarming line.   All the fruit trees are in bloom at the same time as the dandelions, so I suspect there is more tree nectar than anything else.  My spring honey has a rather strong flavour and I don't like it nearly as much as the light sweet summer honey that is primarily Alfalfa and clover.

[barry42001]

I find the bees while storing alot of dandelion nectar, consume tons, as they are really ramping up brood production.

[riverbee]

"So you guys actually have a time period where nothing else is blooming and you can isolate the supers and call them dandelion honey? "

yes i can sc, in my area out in a very rural area, dandelions are it, and they are everywhere. in the ditches/roadsides, fields, etc.... there are some other small blooms, but not as prolific as the dandy's. i only harvest once a year, late august, early september, i leave the supers on.  a good thing not to harvest sometimes right away because of the dearth's we have experienced in the past few years. the bees have utilized the honey they packed away from the dandelion bloom.

[sc-bee]

We have one flow... April thru May and that is pretty much it. It all blooms together back to back. And of course as all honey in most areas it varies  in color and taste from year to year according to bloom and weather.... hot, dry etc.

[riverbee]

the flows here in wisconsin go from may to september, starting with the dandelions about may 15th give or take,  and ending with goldenrod in september.  for the past 4 or 5 years between the rains/flooding and not enough moisture i have not enjoyed the honey crops i have in the past and it's also been hard on the bees.  if we don't get some moisture here in the next month or so, it might be another hard season.  last spring was our best dandelion flow in about 4 years.  normally after the dandelion flow, it's all a mix of different plants, native and non native. my honey gets all mixed together, so 'wildflower', and it really is.  i have pulled frames of comb honey in the past from the bee balm flow, and last year was able to mark frames of buckwheat for liquid honey. good stuff.  we have done a great deal of plantings for the bees, native restoration, etc. and last year the buckwheat. we will do that again this year i think.

[gtrr4]

Here in Midwest Ohio, dandy is first followed by honeysuckle and then we would go into white cut h clover.  My worries was if there was a large gap between the dandy and HS.