BEEKEEPING LEARNING CENTER > HONEYBEE REMOVAL

Black Nectar Like Motor Oil

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Skeggley:
Possibly not in your parts but down here we have a plant/tree called a bottle brush (Callistemon) whose honey is a dark sump oily colour. Not great to look at but not a bad tasting honey.

FloridaGardener:
The comb it's in is light and thin - it's not old brood comb.

So I'd evaluate that the nectar source is the reason for the honey color.

Big P:
Thanks all for replies! Bees were not dead head in like they would from starvation. There were significant remains of all stages of development in the cells. Wish I had a photo of the brood nest, but by then my gloves were covered in honey and I was 15? up on a ladder. There are actually a good amount of bottle brush trees in that area. There are bottle brush trees everywhere around here as a matter of fact. I have not seen the nectar isolated like that (to my knowledge), but maybe that explains it. If it had been a healthy hive I wouldn?t have questioned it, but with all the evidence of the old occupants meeting an untimely death I couldn?t help but question how dark it was compared to what else I?ve seen in the area.

JurassicApiary:
Big P, do you have a lot of avocado's in your area of SoCal?  It tend to yield a very dark honey and can bloom in January.  Those cells looks like they were actively being worked...

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