water clear honey

[tileguy]

Hey all, Laptop crashed in iowa and its been till today sinve I have been able to get back to the forum, Just went to check on my hives and to my surprise the honey store was water clear, with all the variety of blooms up here I expected some color to it.
Anyone else been getting clear honey?
Wow, I sure have alot of reading to get caught up on.....
Good to see everyone again, missed ya'll
T.G.

[jasontatro]

Sounds to me like you might have a little 1:1 honey there. :-)

[tileguy]

Yeah thats what it looks like in all the hives, LOL Looks like Ive been feeding this whole time..... What do I do? I have to say i was a bit disapointed, but they all are doing well as far as working, brood, and stores....
T.G.

[jasontatro]

Not much you can do, but feed it back to them.

[Ross]

It's possible you have vetch honey which is quite good. It looks water clear in the comb and makes very white wax.

[tileguy]

Hmmm...interesting, you know when I did the inspection, I thought the wax looked real white, but just shrugged it off as the cap was very white and the honey so clear... even the foundationless comb was very white.
This will be interesting to see how it playes out...
Thanks, T.G.

[JordanM]

Here is a bottle of my honey that is pretty clear, and i havent fed.

http://www.beesource.com/forums/showthread.php?t=220986

[tileguy]

Yeah Jordon, I saw that pic, its is very light but nowhere near as clear as mine, I did taste it and its good but if I extrcted it and put it in a mason jar it would look like moonshine......
T.G.

[mike haney]

Yeah Jordon, I saw that pic, its is very light but nowhere near as clear as mine, I did taste it and its good but if I extrcted it and put it in a mason jar it would look like moonshine......
T.G.

this loyal southern boy would like to know just what you think is wrong with moonshine???????

[IndianaHoney]

It might look like moonshine, but if it turns out to really be honey, you can get a premium price for it. You might end up selling it to another beek, we all seem to snatch up that specialty honey.

[tileguy]

hahaha.....nuttin Mike, Nuttin at all, but when I try to tell my girl its really honey she will give me the "Yeah Right" look..... matter of fact I could go for a snort of shine........
T.G.

[jasontatro]

It might look like moonshine, but if it turns out to really be honey, you can get a premium price for it. You might end up selling it to another beek, we all seem to snatch up that specialty honey.

As someone who knows nothing about honey, how can you tell adulterated honey from unadulterated? Is there a test or is it just a matter of taste?

JT

[mike haney]

hahaha.....nuttin Mike, Nuttin at all, but when I try to tell my girl its really honey she will give me the "Yeah Right" look..... matter of fact I could go for a snort of shine........
T.G.

i'm surprised how many here know real 'shine is water clear, not the dirty looking stuff in the movies. the rummors must get around.... you know homeland security is reading this...

[BULLSEYE BILL]

I have vetch honey this year that is water clear too.

[IndianaHoney]

As someone who knows nothing about honey, how can you tell adulterated honey from unadulterated? Is there a test or is it just a matter of taste?

JT

Its a matter of taste. If your area has nectar that will produce a clear honey, it taste like honey, and you have not given any syrup to those hives, then there is no other possiblity. The only other risk that it could be have syrup in it, is if they robbed someone else's hive that was feeding. However, if there is a nectar flow on that is very unlikely. But yes, it does come down to taste and elimination of any other possiblity.

I'm not aware of any tests, besides maybe trying to make a small amount of creamed honey. I would think that if you are successful at making it rapidly crystalize, it would have to be honey.

[Troy]

Indiana

maybe trying to make a small amount of creamed honey. I would think that if you are successful at making it rapidly crystalize, it would have to be honey.

I don't think that is true. If you make a concentrated cane sugar solution that is 20% water or less and then feed in some seed crystals, I'm pretty sure it will crystallize just like creamed honey does.

[dhood]

As I posted in another thread, I took some honey from a hive that I fed both sugar and HFCS, It's not as light as you are describing but I know it has to be mixed. Maybe some of you could tell by tasting it but I sure couldn't. But looking at that light yellow color made me first wonder (all the local honey I've seen has been pretty dark).With that being said, I'll bet this is the case with the extreme light honey more often than thought. Even the beekeepers bees (that never get fed sugar) down the road, kept me busy filling up gallons of syrup until I found out I was being robbed. I would never feed them if I was planning on harvesting a crop of honey, but they find it elsewhere. I have saw half of the workforce going out to the cloverfield and the other half to the open feeder when we had a flow on.

[MCC]

I just harvested a deep super of clear wonderful tasting honey. I haven't fed my bees anything since 5/30, and I have added deeps and medium supers since then and thats what I took from. The wax is very snow white, the honey is not runny. I kindof wanted some color to it though, like it should look like honey. I run along the prairie path and the vetch was very thick this year.

[johnnybigfish]

Whats it taste like?
your friend,
john