What is this ? Pollen maybe?

[Debee]

We extracted honey Saturday. This is our second year and I don`t remember seeing this last year. The frames have really dark,
hard sections in some of them. Not all of them had it just 2 or 3 in the super. Thanks for your help.

[Michael Bush]

If the cells are hard, but what's inside is honey, then it was used to raise brood and has cocoons in the wax. A little doesn't make much difference, but a lot of honey from mostly old brood comb can taste a bit bitter. If I have a lot, I tend to sort it out and extract it last and feed it back to the bees.

If the cells are just wax but have something harder inside, like a paste, then it's pollen. The pollen won't extract, it's too sticky. A lot of this makes the extractor a bit lopsided because the pollen filled frames don't get lighter because the pollen stays.

[Clayton]

Granulated honey may be possible too. Where the supers above an excluder?

[scott_dixon]

>"...but a lot of honey from mostly old brood comb can taste a bit bitter."

When is brood comb considered old?

[Michael Bush]

This is all a matter of degree. Honey where a lot or most of the comb has cocoons tastes a bit bitter. Honey where a little of it has coocoons tastes fine. Old is also a matter of degree. The darker it is the older it is and the more cocoons it has.

[Debee]

Thanks for the replies. It should not be brood as we have an excluder. It was above there. It really looks like pollen. We just didn`t have this much last year in our frames.