Black capped honey

[beecrazy101]

I was doing my last inspection and found lots of honey. I was kind of scared when I was in two hives, black capping. Thought it was something so I went in and graves two toothpicks and started uncapping. To my delight it was only honey. What makes the callings black though?

[JRG13]

Is the comb dark or old brood comb?

[Solomon Parker]

I regularly see dark capped honey late in the season. I don't know why. Perhaps it is capped using older wax, perhaps it is the color of the honey.

[beecrazy101]

Yes it is one of the original frames that I got from my two nucs April 20. Don't know how old the comb is but all the rest is foundationless and new. Going to leave both boxes on for the winter to assure they will get a good start in the spring and I am going to start splitting right away. Will that honey be OK or should I remove it? I have two breeder queens that are still laying frames from border to border with brood. One I got from the original nuc and one is a split I did from that same queen. Thanks

[wadehump]

golden rod and or aster

[minz]

I had honey from two hives 6’ apart. One had honey looked almost clear with the honey getting darker to the outside of the super the other hive had only a couple of the inside frames capped and it looked like coffee when extracted. I cleaned up between extraction. The dark is OK but a totally different flavor. I was thinking the only thing left blooming was Tansy and daisy. We do not see much rain from June until now so other than blackberry we do not have much for the summer. I know you are in a completely different environment and bloom but same thing up here.

[jaybees]

It sounds like Ti-ti aka ironwood.

[beecrazy101]

Well glad to hear its nothing. I wanted to make sure since I am leaving it on for the winter. The whole two months we get. If its anything like last winter it will be about a week.