Soybean Honey

I'm not entirely sure what honey is what from my bees, but there are fields of alfalfa and fields of soybeans around me and they honey is always good.

There always seems to be some debate about whether soybeans make much honey. I imagine it is just the same as any other potential honey plant.....soil conditions, weather, yearly cycles etc. Around here soybeans seem to produce decent honey when they are on heavy, wet soil or irrigated. Some years I dont think they do much. I am sorta thinking we might get some honey from them this year since it has been so wet. They just started to blossom this week or so but I havent seen any bees on them. However, they might not have enough nectar yet or maybe they wont even produce anything this year. As far as quality goes, I have always seen it as rather light (high end XLA to white) but the taste is absolutely horrible.

Our bees have been in the soybeans since mid July. The yards are close enough to the fields that we can see them going into the beans. The honey is light colored and very good. If the beans bloom late, smartweed gets mixed in with it and it can get pretty stout. It needs to rain when bloom starts or directly prior to that to get much yield. The flowers seem to dry out easily.

I think in more typical years our bees would be in the beans by now but they were awful late planting them due to the rain. Then it rained and rained and rained and they havent grown much until just recently.

one of my hives sets by a soybean feild
and the bees will really work the beanblooms
but the honey made from soybean blooms will crystalize quicker than honey made from
legumes such as clover and alfalfa .
and like Iowabeeman said the honey made from soybean is light yellow and usually has a taste of all its own .
Zeke