# Ivy honey



## power napper (Apr 2, 2005)

HOneyBeeGood--I have never tasted any but am willing to take a liter or a quart of it to taste it







. 
Please let us know what it tastes like.


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## tina keller (Nov 3, 2005)

Last year we had some honey that I thought was from the Ailanthis Altissima (tree of heaven) The tree was blooming at this time last year. Right now, the tree is not blooming, but we still have that "smell" in the hives. I happened upon a huge blooming ivy covered fence, covered with bees, and it smelled like our hives. So, if it was, in fact, ivy honey we had last year, this is our experience.

It smells like an herb that's waaaaay too strong. The honey has that smell. A lot of the honey crystallized in the frames and I had to throw the whole foundation out. The stuff we did spin out did crystallize, and the bad smell and taste eventually went away and it turned out pretty good. Some of the bad smell went away in a few months, the the rest of it took almost a whole year! The more of that "ivy" or "tree of heaven" stuff was in there, the longer it took to dissipate. It made a gooey foam on the top of the honey that looks like melted marshmellows. Scrape that off the top and throw it away. That has most of the bad smell. The honey plant book I checked has basically the same characteristics for ivy honey and for tree of heaven honey. 

Tina


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## HiveAlive (Jul 10, 2014)

If you are looking for more information on Ivy honey, I would recommend having a look at ivyhoney.com


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## dsegrest (May 15, 2014)

I have a lot of English Ivy in my yard. I have been mowing it and digging it up. I ruined one tiller with it. I have never seen it bloom. 

I'm really glad no one has said how wonderful the honey was, because then I would be working against the bees. English Ivy should go home and cover towers at Oxford or something.


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## Charlie King (Apr 27, 2014)

Definitely an under rated honey IMO. Strong flavour with medicinal overtones and crystallises very quick so you need to harvest it before it is capped over and then cream it with a seed honey. definately check out http://www.ivyhoney.com/ as mentioned before for other properties, it has been used medicinally for ages, I can definitely attest to it as an amazing anti-inflammatory first hand! Ivy takes a long time to flower (10+ years) the leaves actually change shape when its mature, so that's probably why you didn't see it bloom...


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