Sorghum Honey?

[Ben Framed]

My cousin really wants me to put some bees on sorghum next season, specially for the honey. Does anyone here know if sorghum is a good nectar producer, or have experience with sorghum for honey?

[AR Beekeeper]

The book "American Honey Plants" by Frank Pellett says the sorghums produce much pollen, but he doesn't say anything about nectar yields.  I have never had bees close to sorghum so I can't say from personal experience.

[paus]

Along this line, when I was a youngster My family had a syrup mill.  We made syrup from sorghum and ribbon cane.  First the stalks were crushed and this separated the juice which was cooked until it was syrup.  The bees, and yellow jackets were so thick on the crushed stalks that almost every kid that slid down the pile of stalks got stung.  Looking back I wish there were a mill near my hives because there was an unlimited source of juice the bees salvaged.  I wish I knew more about the honey that was made, just reminiscing.

[Ben Framed]

Thank you both for your replies. AR, yes sir, mostly produced pollen will pretty much rule our bees gathering nectar. I was hoping anyway thank you.  Paus as you described, I would like to try the honey made from the sorghum syrup. I am curious about the taste for sure!   

[van from Arkansas]

I have seen sorghum used to denote two completely different plants.

1.  Sugar cane that Paus texted about.
2.  A type of grain feed to cattle and particularly bird feed,  a red, very hard round seed about 1/8 inch which is from a pod or cluster of seeds that are combined (tractor) in the field.

Mr. BenFramed, I think you are referring to sugar cane, is this correct?

Van

[paus]

I should have clarified the difference in sugar cane and sorghum or correctly sweet sorghum. Another variety, grain sorghum is grown for the grain head and to a lesser degree the stalks are used for supplemental roughage for cattle.  Sweet sorghum is grown for syrup and sometimes used for silage or green chop fed directly from the field.  I live in NE Texas and about the north most point that, sugar cane for syrup, can be grown successfully.  Two different plants, used to make two different flavored syrups.

[Ben Framed]

Thanks Mr Van and Paus. Yes I am talking about the type sorghum that Paus described as sweet sorghum. I can't imagine how good honey made from Sorghum leftover striped stalks that paus described, might be.  Mum Mum Good has to be the answer!

[JojoBeeBoy]

My great uncle Frank was a gifted storyteller. He had thick wiry white hair that stood straight up even from his youth. He would hold a pipe and enthrall generations with vivid stories of bygone days.

One of those stories involved a wooden barrel falling over on the porch of a very old house in the mountains of TN. The wooden barrel bung shot out of the barrel exposing the sorghum (cane sugar) molasses.

This would have been in the 1920s-30s. Uncle Frank said the honey bees had cleaned up the sorghum molasses bounty unbeknownst to the community as the house was not occupied at the time. I believe they had cut a bee tree when it all came to light. Every hive and colony in the neighborhood had the same type of honey that year. His face would contort as he described just how bad it tasted. :)

"That was the worst stuff you ever put in your mouth", he said.

Oh course, the molasses may have had some age on it (or them as it would be said here), and they also could have been scorched or culled for some other reason. This would certainly be different from the bees making honey with raw sugar cane. I think that would be fine. Your post just reminded me of simpler times. Thanks