The pictures below don't have any honey bees in them, since right now my home apiary is bee-less, but you can see the flower and how intense it is. I wish there were bees on these blooms gathering nectar.....
Friday, March 25, 2011
Holly: A Bee Treat
When Dr. Paul Arnold analyzed my honey a couple of years ago, he said that it was predominately flavored by holly. I had never paid attention to the holly when it bloomed, although I always appreciated the resulting red berries. I have two types of holly in my yard and I can smell the sweetness that informs the honey in the bloom.
The pictures below don't have any honey bees in them, since right now my home apiary is bee-less, but you can see the flower and how intense it is. I wish there were bees on these blooms gathering nectar.....
The pictures below don't have any honey bees in them, since right now my home apiary is bee-less, but you can see the flower and how intense it is. I wish there were bees on these blooms gathering nectar.....
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I have the same problem. Here at home my neighbors and I have lots of these holly bushes in bloom but no bees to take it in. The smell will overwhelm you when you step outside.
ReplyDeleteIf you grasp a bundle of these little flowers in your fingers and crush them, it will leave a sticky nectar stain that you can sample.
Is honey sampling widely available? I'm a backyard beekeeper in Oakland California, and would love to know what the girls are bringing home to the hive.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it is readily available. Paul is one of only a few people in the United States who do this. He is hampered at Young Harris by an inadequate microscope. At some of the bigger universities they have more powerful microscopes. We are just lucky in Georgia that he is here and I was lucky at the bee meeting where he spoke to be one of the beekeepers whose honey he took back to Young Harris to analyze.
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