[Anthony Ritenour]

I have read that privet nectar can make honey taste bad. Just yesterday I saw bees all over FL privet at a native nursery near Orlando, and the nursery was also selling honey. As a matter of fact, the FL privet was the only flowering plant there which was consistently covered with honey bees. The bees for the most part ignored the others. I asked where the hives were, and the worker said that one was kept on the grounds. I did not purchase any honey, but she said it was very good. Do any of you know if the FL privet has the same problem as other privets allegedly have? It would seem if the bees are that anxious on it and it is a native plant, it must be getting into somebody's honey.

 

[wildbranch2007]

http://www.beesource.com/forums/archive/index.php/t-219651.html

I read somewhere that there are two varieties of privat, I had hives in a large area of it In Mass. and the honey was fine, but the bees were very nasty as long as they were consuming the honey

 

[Fuzzy]

One of the major flows in my area is the privet. There is a large concentration of them all around this area. So the bees stock up. Each hive will add 1-2 supers from this flow.

I have never had a honey customer complain about the taste. For the record, I generally will spin and bottle each super seperately.

 

[Anthony Ritenour]

One of the major flows in my area is the privet. There is a large concentration of them all around this area. So the bees stock up. Each hive will add 1-2 supers from this flow.

I have never had a honey customer complain about the taste. For the record, I generally will spin and bottle each super seperately.

Thanks for the info. I just looked at the University of FL website and found an October 1999 article about the FL privet(forestiera segregata) and it also calls it Wild Olive and Ink-bush. It further states that it is native to parts of California and can flower for many months. It says that the bees go to it eagerly and does not state that the honey is bad; it actually says nothing about the honey produced. My guess is that you and are talking about the same plant and the northerners are talking about a different plant because the article also said that its hardiness was only 8B-11.