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: