09/04/2025
🐝 A note from the honey stand🐝
Nectar:
-A sweet liquid that is secreted by the nectaries of a plant to encourage pollination by insects and other animals, and is the chief raw material of honey.
-(in Greek and Roman mythology) the drink of the gods.
As spring turned to summer and summer is waining into fall, the bees work the blooms tirelessly collecting, among other things, nectar to make honey for their winter stores. And when we’re lucky a little extra for us! River Bee keeps no hives on monoculture. All our bees forage from a mixture of Central Indiana wild flowers and trees producing honey from a mixture of different plants nectar. As the season progresses different plants have their nectar flow at different times. An average plant’s nectar flow may be around 2-4 weeks. As some plant species flow ends others start. Central Indiana’s nectar flow has slowed considerably by this time of year (summer dearth), and then starts to pick up a bit again with some late bloomers, big ones being Golden Rod and Aster in this region.
So as all the different nectar is brought into the hive, made into honey, and stored in the the comb, the bees are telling a story. The timeline of the season by texture, color, smell, and taste! When we see distinct differences in honey frames we generally try to extract and bottle that honey seperately to provide different options and experiences.
I have attached some photos from last weeks extraction. Two honey frames that were sitting side by side in a hive that show three distinct shades of honey. And some bottles on the stand side by side after bottling.
Enjoy your end of summer, and if you’re in the neighborhood enjoy some honey from the stand!! 🌼 🐝 🌳 🐝 🌺
