Well, we pretty-much knew that 2020 was probably going to be bobbins in comparison to 2019. Then, we had beautiful summer honey, in abundance, with the bees bringing in pollen from 56 species, including lots and lots and lots of native wildflower.

The hot spring, during 'Lockdown #1', gave us much hope for Summer '20; indeed we extracted a huge amount of wonderful dandelion honey towards the end of May. However, the mood of the weather - along with the mood of the nation - took a dip in early Summer, and July (when the bees really get going in anger) turned into a bit of a washout. It was noticeable how little foraging was occurring, and that the glorious diversity of meadow flowers was not on a par with the previous year. The cooler conditions also led to the bees not drying their honey to the same extent.

Anyhow, the verdict's finally in, and our 2020 crop appears to have contained only 24 identifiable varieties of pollen. In fact, if you group the brambly species (e.g. Bramble, Dewberry and Rubus silvaticus), the extent to which these predominate is striking. Clovers of varying types, along with brassicas, make up the majority of the rest ...

... and not that we are complaining. It was still great honey, and it was, above all, still a true reflection of what was going on in nature at that time - it was just glaringly different; for a sample taken at an identical time of year. That is nature in flux, for sure.

What is also interesting are the "new entrants" to the chart! Not only is there evidence of garden sustenance (e.g. Hairy ceanothus), but also of the bees bringing in grass pollen (Yorkshire-fog); though they won't have been finding any nectar on the latter. Most fascinating, if that's your thing .

As we write, in late Spring '21, my own hope is that the converse is true. April and May have been amongst the bleakest in living memory, but the moisture in the ground, along with the fact that the cooler temperatures have set much of the flora back at least a couple of weeks, gives me great hope that, come June and July, we're going to enter nirvana. We need to smash 56 this year!!! The bees themselves are in surprisingly fit form, so let's see. In the meantime, the results from 2020 were:

Top 15 most abundant taxa in the sample

Complete list of taxa in the sample:

Well, I have been slack. 

As I publish this, we have just entered 2024 (!). Oops. Indeed, these are coming out alongside our 2022 results.

Truth be told, we don't recall too much about 2021 - probably as, in terms of weather, bees and honey crop, it all turned out to be bang average. As reported when the 2020 results were pubished, April and May were really nasty months weather-wise, and the bees could not capitalise. That said, although Spring '21 wasn't great, it was saved by a late and dramatic flush of Hawthorn, and the colonies - which were especially healthy and strong, went into the period of mid-summer flows in fine fettle, when the weather was pretty good.

Indeed, we were therefore somewhat disappointed with the (average) honey yield (though not, as ever, the above average quality !).

Having recorded 24 species in the prior year, we hit similar (25) in Summer '21, as shown below. Indeed the distribution of species was very similar to 2020. Nonetheless, there are certainly some interesting new entrants to the list. Our horse-loving friends will not be enamoured by the appearance of Ragwort in this list. Indeed, it's honey is bitter to us, and has a distinctly yellow hue. A couple of garden species and trees appear, but perhaps the most interesting entry is the last one - Trebouxia which is actually an alga. We have come to learn that such algae commonly occur as symbionts in lichens, and it could plausibly be the case that this has been brought back in the pollen loads of the bees foraging on tree pollen (sycamore and ash). Probably very good for a healthy gut, anyhow ! Enjoy.

Top 15 most abundant taxa in the sample

 

Complete list of taxa in the sample:

So, at time of writing, our 2023 honey samples are awaiting pollen analysis, which should hopefully be published in early Summer '24. These are eagerly awaited, as:

1. They are from a new sampling site in the heart of Wymeswold village, and are taken from a sustainable hive we are using as a 'bellweather' there, and
2. The moisture results from that are already in, and, at an H₂O content of just 14.7% it promises to be one of our highest quality honeys ever. The taste is certainly distinctive ! Honey to the power of ten !!

The sample was taken from a comb which will have contained a predominance of late spring honey, which will further influence the results, which are likely to be radically different to what has gone before. Indeed, it's a good job we took a sample then, as we actually extracted no honey in Summer '23 - so supplies of this distinctive 2023 honey will be at a premium. July was a washout, and - in spite of a laser focus on bee health in 2023 - many colonies did not thrive. We are still trying to work out what environmental factors played a role in this, but both the weather and some of the local agricultural practices certainly played a part. The wholehearted pursuit of heathly bees (above all else) will hopefully pay dividends in 2024. Certainly, our colonies do appear generally to be overwintering well.

Back, though to the belated results from 2022, which we received a few months ago.

In terms of honey crop, 2022 was one of the the best beekeeping seasons we and other beekeepers have had to date. The weather was generally kind, and Spring flows were good; like 2021, mainly as a result of a heatwave and a Hawthorn surge in mid-June. Strangely the wildflower seemed to come and go very quickly in this period, and come midsummer, the meadows were largely green. However, the late June warmth, and the continuation of those conditions into July seemed to coincide beautifully with the bramble flowering, and large and sustained honey flows continued throughout a hot July. Bees are opportunists, and they went nuts for it !

The flipside of this is that the foraging was not as diverse. Whilst pollen collected is not a true indicator of nectar foraging (not only are the cohorts of bees different, but some trees and plants from which pollen is collected do not yield any nectar at all - see Fraxinus (Ash) below, for example), it is strongly indicative of the main nectar sources at the time.

From 2019 to 2021, the pollen sampling identified 56, 24 and 25 different plant species in our honey.

In 2022, this has dropped drastically to 8 

This is certainly influenced by the weather, as described above. I hope it's a one-off, as we do like to see plenty of foraging diversity. Not only does the mix of pollens provide an array of amino acids vital to bee development, but, as importantly, it's an indicator of the local floral biodiversity ... oh, and mixed wildflower honey should be exactly that ! We suspect the result was also influenced by some less granular species analysis by the Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, who were working through a large sampling backlog.

Fundamentally, though, in 2022 our honey turned out to be monofloral. Indeed, we could have marketed it as "Bramble Honey".

The upside of it though is that it tasted AMAZING ! ... and whatever the analysis throws-up, it's always great to be able to share this with our customers. What you are getting from us is never anything other than an authentic relfection of what's going on in nature in our locality. No adulteration ! Anyhow, full results are below. Roll on '23's results:

Top 15 most abundant taxa in the sample

 

Complete list of taxa in the sample: