In a message dated 6/5/2008 2:22:20 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time,  
[log in to unmask] writes:
>Please say more about how the honey is different.
1)  I have observed my hives that come from feral sources tend to  store more 
pollen in the honey supers, sometimes filling several frames with  pollenized 
honey that extracts almost completely.  I also note more pollen  cells in the 
5th and higher supers if the flow or the colony is a good  enough producer to 
warrant them.
2)  I have observed my feral colonies will tend to produce the  occasional 
super of honey (not every year) in a time frame outside the main  flows that my 
commercial stock never did.  Most of the 80-90 members  in our club run 
commercial queen stock and I don't hear of them getting any of  these type 
flows....but could be a management issue  perhaps.  Therefore, I tend to agree with the 
comments about  the pollen hoarding bees bringing back nectar that the nectar 
hoarding lines  don't seem to work.
3) The honey tends more toward a more amber color than I  have produced in 
the past, mainly I believe because they will work some of the  tulip poplar tree 
flow, more variety of blooms, and they put more pollen in the  honey frames.
4) However, I just extracted some of this years crop and had about 6 supers  
of extremely light honey that was not identifiable to local beekeepers.   
Would be even lighter if they had not put a few pollen cells in the comb.  One 
beekeeper is a certified Welsh honey judge and another has shown  honey and kept 
bees for approximately 50+ years.  I plan to send a sample  out for pollen 
identification next week.
 



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