# Retail Honey Classifications



## digdan (May 8, 2009)

How does honey get classified as "Wildflower", or as "Clover", "Orange Blossom", "Blueberry".

Of course I know that they were probably be in the middle, or adjacent to a field of each one of those ingredients, but I don't see bees being exclusive on what they forage. 

My bees are near a river that grows Russian Olive Trees and a giant field of Alfalfa, and on the other side a field of wild sage. What could I classify my honey as? "Wildflower"?

Talking to mead makers, they try to steer far away from wildflower honey.

Any input would help a lot. Thanks


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## digdan (May 8, 2009)

Bump.

Anyone please give me insight


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## RayMarler (Jun 18, 2008)

Normally you can call your honey a particular flavor if the major bloom in the area at that time is a certain flower or if you have your hives located in the middle of a flowering nectar plant during it's bloom. Otherwise, it's pretty much called wild flower, as it's coming from a mix of the blooms in an area without a single major bloom at the time.


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## Mathispollenators (Jun 9, 2008)

Yea what Ray said where you have to be careful is the use of the word pure. What you're not supposed to see is wording like "Pure Clover Honey" because bees will visit other blooms during the major flows. What they can put on the label is something like "Pure Honey" then the main source like clover or such on another line. It's pretty much in the way the wording is on labels that makes it all legal. You can search it on the National Honey Board site for information. There is a link there as to how we need to have our labels printed so we can be legal.


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

If you want to be sure you can look at a sample under a microscope to see what the majority of pollen grains are. I have heard (unconfirmed) that the larger packers will draw samples and do just that. As long as 51% of the pollen grains in the sample are of one variety, you can call it a varietal honey.


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## digdan (May 8, 2009)

So how would one do that? Would I take pollen samples from each one of the plants in the surrounding area as reference to compare against the pollen found in the honey? How strong of a microscope would I need?


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## GaSteve (Apr 28, 2004)

The way I've seen it done is to take about a spoonful of honey and mix with several spoonfulls of very hot water and mix thoroughly. Then cetrifuge for 5 minutes to drive all the pollen to the bottom of the test tube. Get a sample of the solids at the bottom and put on a microscope slide. Pollen grains can be identified using a good pollen reference book. Maybe a local high school or college biology lab would be able to help out.


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## digdan (May 8, 2009)

I can not find any articles on the internet about pollen identification. I have taken a sample of the curing honey, and made a list of near by plants. Just need some info on pollen.


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