# Pink Honey?



## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

I have some honey (and we are in the flow) that is coming in with a decidedly pink color. It's the color of pink grapefruit. Does anyone have any idea what this might be? When I look around at what's really kicking, alfalfa and yellow sweet clover are in heavy rotation it seems.


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## GregB (Dec 26, 2017)

Lee Bussy said:


> alfalfa and yellow sweet clover


These will not give you honey of "decidedly pink color".
Expect very light honey, but not pink.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

It could be strawberry soda pop spill at the garbage dumpster around the corner???
Just a wild guess here.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

RayMarler said:


> It could be strawberry soda pop spill at the garbage dumpster around the corner???


I mean ... last year at the teaching apiary we did have Coca-Cola honey. But, there are no dumpsters for more than 3 miles around. It's pretty rural here. I tasted it and it tastes like honey, I just have no clue what this could be.

Probably some strange Ag chemical and I'll grow an arm out of my forehead for tasting it.


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## G3farms (Jun 13, 2009)

I had a bee removal call several years ago at a distribution center for snapple, they did not make it but delivered it all over the place. Of course they had broken bottles all the time and there is a "hot spot" for bees just on the other side of the train tracks.

Could just be as Ray said!


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## Rader Sidetrack (Nov 30, 2011)

Could someone in the vicinity have a hummingbird feeder with red syrup? Red syrup diluted with other nectar could produce pink honey. See this product:






Perky-Pet Hummingbird Sucrose Nectar 64 oz - Ace Hardware


Perky-Pet ready-to-use hummingbird nectar is just what you need to keep all your hungry hummers happy and well fed. This concentrate bottle makes feeding hummingbirds simple, just add water to the concentrate to create your desired amount of nectar. In addition, this nectar features a bold red...




www.acehardware.com


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## liam.ford (7 mo ago)

This reminds me of the strange case of the Brooklyn bees: Maraschino Man: The Odd and Unfortunate Story of Arthur Mondella


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

Rader Sidetrack said:


> Could someone in the vicinity have a hummingbird feeder with red syrup? Red syrup diluted with other nectar could produce pink honey.


Aha! Now that could be. There are two other houses within a couple of miles. Hummingbirds are not a real common thing around here but I am sure someone has a feeder.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

Addendum: I thought I read that coloring it red/having a red feeder makes them not show up on the bees' radar. I guess we disproved that.


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

16 years ago I had a hive store some bright red nectar. I always figured it came from the neighbors hummingbird feeder.


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## Tumbleweed (Mar 17, 2021)

Vampire bees…there goes the neighborhood!


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

Lee Bussy said:


> I have some honey (and we are in the flow) that is coming in with a decidedly pink color. It's the color of pink grapefruit. Does anyone have any idea what this might be? When I look around at what's really kicking, alfalfa and yellow sweet clover are in heavy rotation it seems.


That happens around here, fortunately very infrequently. Because, here it is my bees harvesting fruit juice from Opuntia (Prickly Pear) cactus ripening seed pods. They access it after local wasps cut the fruits open. It really only happens when there is a dearth at the same time the Opuntia fruit ripens.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

Now that’s interesting. We do have a garden full of prickly pear that is in fruit now. I would not have thought we’d have much in Kansas but my mother-in-law grows quite a bit.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

It doesn't take, much. It wouldn't have been what I first thought of, but I remember seeing bees harvesting from the wasp damaged fruits, along my driveway, so it clicked right away once I saw the oddly pink honey.

Here in Tucson we probably have 100's of different kinds. I remember, there were even a few in Santa Fe, NM. And the winters there can get down to almost -20F. So, there are probably some that can grow almost anywhere. Not all of them, even here, have juicy fruits.


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## Joseph Clemens (Feb 12, 2005)

I just remembered; the bees that were working the cactus fruits, had abdomens that showed the pink color, even while they were still collecting the cactus fruit juice, so when I saw them on the cactus I knew what they were up to. We also, sometimes get a small amount of honey that is kind of a fluorescent greenish-yellow, like the dye they use to find leaks in automobile engines. I don't remember which plant it was, now.


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## funwithbees (Mar 27, 2010)

Staghorn sumac in NY state has a pink cast to the honey.
Nick


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## Honey Hive Farms (Nov 1, 2012)

Did you have a picture? Is this the first time you seen this in this area? and just wondering did you have bees there last year, in the same place?


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## funwithbees (Mar 27, 2010)

Honey Hive Farms said:


> Did you have a picture? Is this the first time you seen this in this area? and just wondering did you have bees there last year, in the same place?


NO pic available. It has been a number of years since our bees have made any comb honey from sumac. Its usually mixed in with everything else.


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## Lee Bussy (May 28, 2021)

If you are asking me about pics - no. Heaven forbid I be THAT coordinated. The only place I saw it was between the frames in some bridge comb. Not seen it since that day.


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## jfh00jfh (Jun 20, 2018)

M&M’s blamed for turning honey of French bees blue and green


Bees at a cluster of apiaries in northeastern France have been producing honey in mysterious shades of blue and green, alarming their keepers who now believe residue from containers of M&M's candy processed at a nearby biogas plant is the cause.




www.nydailynews.com


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