# Two honey colors in the same frames



## Tillie (Apr 26, 2006)

I harvested a super that had two distinct honey colors in all the frames. Around the outer edge of the frames was dark honey while the center was much lighter. It particularly showed up in the pan in which I crushed it. 

I don't remember this in the past - usually the honey from a super will be mostly the same color....or at least that's been my experience.

What would cause this?

http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k288/tillielin/IMG_0197a.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k288/tillielin/IMG_0201.jpg
http://i91.photobucket.com/albums/k288/tillielin/IMG_0202.jpg

Linda T in Atlanta


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## Apuuli (May 17, 2006)

I had a similar thing this last harvest but the dark honey was a bit more randomly spaced. The dark honey was the same color as the honey I harvested in December and the light honey was the same as our normal spring honey. I would think that:

1) there was a shift in floral sources while the comb was being filled. This seems like it would result in organized zones of different colors with the first areas of comb normally filled all of one color and the last all of the other. Or...

2) there was honey left over in the comb from a previous season that the bees either had not utilized or had moved to the empty comb from other areas of the hive. The pattern of honeys in this case, I would think would be more haphazard.

3) It's also possible that, like with pollen, bees tend to keep similar smelling honeys/nectars in the same cells so you could potentally get segregated honeys being collected at the same time (but I'm just making this up with no basis).


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## Ross (Apr 30, 2003)

I just had some of that, vetch early and soybean later, light followed by dark on the same frame. I think they uncapped and ate some of the vetch then back filled with soybean.


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## Tillie (Apr 26, 2006)

I've been thinking maybe I confused them. I have moved the boxes around a little on this hive - maybe they had started storing spring honey (the light honey) and then I moved the box and they started working on another box before filling the rest of this box with the darker honey.

Linda T in Atlanta


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## beemandan (Dec 5, 2005)

Its also possible that your bees began filling the super before the tulip poplars began to bloom. Then before the frame was completely filled the tulip poplars began blooming. In this area our honey is very light until the tp start to produce. Bees are strongly drawn to tp and it produces so much nectar that it dwarfs everything else for during that period.


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## Cyndi (Apr 26, 2005)

Last week's super I pulled had this going on. This is an interesting year for wildflower/spring honey...here in NC, it's very very dark. Almost like molasses. I know that most people prefer the light honey, however, in my husband's culture, the dark honey is more medicinal and prefered for health reasons. Now, if we can get these boxes off in time, it'll lighten up and bee a perfect Sourwood year,


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