# Virginia floral source



## Kurt Bower (Aug 28, 2002)

I have some hives in the Hillsville/Max Meadows area of Virginia.
Recently removed some honey and extracted to find honey unlike anything I have tasted before.
It is very light to almost yellow looking with a very floral taste.
This is not clover, but I am unsure what it is. I have also been told that the black locust did not bloom in this area so I do not believe it is Black Locust.
Can anyone help?

Thanks,
Kurt


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## Branman (Aug 20, 2003)

I get honey that is sunlight yellow and tastes very floral and mine is mostly blackberry. A coworker commented that it tasted like flowers.

edit: okay, I'll say this, I think your hive & my hives are probably working the same stuff. I think it's blackberry. I say this because my hives are surrounded by acres of blackberry brambles, but I suppose I can't say for certain.

here is a dark picture of my honey(it's lighter than the picture shows)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/branman1986/honey.jpg 

here it is on a white desk next to standard amber clover honey from suebee

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v471/branman1986/honey2.jpg


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Hi Kurt,

Don't know if this will help as I'm quite a distance from Hillsville, but we had a very strong black locust bloom this spring. We also get a very strong American holly tree flow, which has a fragrant smell. I would characterize my honey as having a very floral taste, which I've always attributed to the holly trees, although I'm not 100% about this. Hope this helps.

BTW, your old extractor is working great!! Thanks again.


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## Branman (Aug 20, 2003)

I locust honey really dark or really light?

half the people I ask say it's like molasses and half the people I ask say it's really light


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## AstroBee (Jan 3, 2003)

Branman,
There's too much blooming at the same time for me to tell for sure the color of pure locust honey. However, my good friend just came back from Poland and brought me a jar of local honey that claims to be pure locust honey and it is very light colored honey. This agrees with the following description:
http://everest.ento.vt.edu/~fell/apiculture/HoneyPlants/late_spring_and_summer.htm


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## Kurt Bower (Aug 28, 2002)

Thanks everyone!
I can live with something in the realm of a blackbery, black locust, holly honey. I believe I will call it Virginia bouquet'.


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## iddee (Jun 21, 2005)

Branman,
There's a good chance your's is Gallberry. Nearly all of mine was like that or even lighter when I was in Mississippi. I was in the middle of pine forests with solid Gallberry undergrowth. When it bloomed, there were hundreds of acres of solid growth blooming all at once. A hive could fill a deep super,"hive body" back up, "after being extracted" in 10 to 12 days. Also the mildest taste of any honey I have ever eaten.


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## dburgess (Jun 26, 2002)

Kurt, I live a little south of where your hives
are but the floral should be pretty much the same. We had a very good maple and black locust
bloom this spring. The black locust were loaded with blooms this year. I would say it is a mixture of both. 

Duane.


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