Dex wrote on 02/12/10 at 15:44:18:Yes.
My question is.
1. Why are there light colored honey and dark colored honey?
2. Is there any difference with the quality of its content and texture?
3. Assuming we got a dark colored honey on our first harvest, will it be the same color on the next harvest?
We hope anyone from the forum can share their ideas. Thanks
The answer is both simple but can be complicated :
The floralsource, where the bees collect the nectar from, determines the colour of the honey finally being stored in the comb and afterwards in the final product after harvesting and processing. ( Nectar = sweet secretion of flowers to stimulate reproduction by pollinating insects ; Honey = collected nectar by pollinating insects and stored in cells after having passed in their stomach during the flight back home and secreted " beevomit " after which the cell is being sealed of with wax.
If the floral source is from one type of plant, because it is in the vicinity of the colony, most bees will collect from that flower ( For instance, a coconut plantation, a mango plantation , a avocado plantation or sunflower plantation ) . However, if the colony is in an area where different plants are growing, the bees have a choice. And their decision where they will collect the nectar from is determined by the plant itself. Scout bees are flying out and visit flowers from different plants. Most of the time, the sugar content, in combination with the volume available and the distance to the colony , determines where they will fly at. Back in the colony, the scout bees communicate the availability of the nectar source to the collector field bees: the nectar collectors. Mono floral honey ( say 90 % of the same flower ) always has the same colour. Multifloral honey, so more then 2 flower source, may differ in colour because the colour of nectar from each type of flower is different by nature.
There is one other factor involved that influances the colour of the harvested honey and that is the age of the comb. A dark comb is dark because it is reused and also caused by the fact that different generations of pupae have grown up inside the cell. Every time a bee is emerging from the cell, remnants of her pupal stage will remain inside the cell, resulting in a darker cel as time passes. This darkness will be transmitted inside the honey by the time the comb is being used for honey storage.
So eventhough the source may the same, it may change colour later on as the comb is being reused.
The presence of stored pollen inside the same honeyframe at the time of harvest is also of influance for the final colour during harvest and processing the honey. Usually, a filtersystem during that process can avoid or improve fluctuations in colour.
Hope I have given some inside in the world of honey for the moment.
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