Honey lab test results: Pittsboro, NC honey is a rare one
For the first time ever, I sent honey samples for lab testing to learn what the bees foraged on.
Reminder that you’ll find me in Monroe, North Carolina on Monday, October 20 at 6:30 p.m. ET. I’ll present Permaculture Design in Apiaries and Pollinator Gardens at the Monroe County Beekeepers Club. Free and open to the public.
I’m pleased to share the results of the first lab analysis report of my spring honey harvest from Pittsboro, North Carolina. In our region, beekeepers often say that tulip poplar is the #1 nectar source for honey bees. However, I have never seen a honey analysis that supports this. What are the bees foraging on? Out of my own curiosity, I decided to get my honey tested.
Quick reminder: Honey labels for varietal honeys require a lab test and the major nectar source must be the floral source on the varietal label. Although I believe part of my mountain honey harvest is sourwood—and all local beekeepers I chat with agree—without a lab test that supports the contents, you’re technically not permitted to label your honey as a varietal.
Finding a honey lab
Having my honey tested would allow me to see if there’s an opportunity to label my honey as a varietal. Where does one get their honey tested? My first resource was the National Honey Board lab directory. Then a general internet search. I listed the labs, fees, and timelines and compared to find one to try.
The next approach I tried was the best one. I searched for lab-verified varietal honeys and found beekeepers’ websites with lab reports posted. This not only gave me an example of what the actual reports look like, but I discovered other labs this way. That’s how I discovered the Honey and Pollen Diagnostic Lab at Penn State, which is the lab I used this year.
Other lab testing services
In my last post summarizing my experience at the Real Organic Conference, I shared the big theme of lab testing. Farmers are testing for nutrient contents and contaminants (pesticides, antibiotics, chemical residues, adulteration). I’ve bookmarked lab tests that I’d like to try out next year that test for contaminants.
Marketing honey
The cost of lab tests isn’t cheap. I’ve spent approximately $400 this year on honey lab tests simply to satisfy my own curiosity. Only 1 report is back so far, but it’s showed me that I could hold my honey harvest next year and wait to offer it for sale until a lab report comes back. There’s an opportunity to:
Roll up the lab cost into the honey price
Market the honey as lab-verified
Label the honey as a rare varietal
The results: Rose honey
I was shocked to learn that there’s not a drop of tulip poplar nectar in my entire honey harvest. The primary nectar source (53% of the honey content) is rose honey.
There’s not much information about rose honey because it’s so rare.
This particular varietal has never been mentioned in our region. I don’t live near a high cultivation of roses, so I’m assuming the rose nectar may be from the invasive multiflora rose.
When I harvested—you might remember everything that went wrong with the honey harvest—I pulled frames from multiple hives and extracted them all together. There’s an opportunity for me to isolate frames from each colony and harvest them separately to learn foraging variations between colonies. However, that would come with a $130+ fee for each colony’s harvest lab test. The lab results reflect a combined harvest between 4 colonies, which is what I bottled and sold in the spring as Piedmont Blooms. (You can label honey based on location and harvest time, or as “wildflower” if you don’t know the nectar source.)
I don’t know much about rose honey. Apparently, there’s not much information about rose honey because it’s so rare. With a general internet search I came across a lot of rose-infused honey, which is not the same as rose honey. Anyone can take honey and add rose petals. Within a few weeks, you can strain or leave the petals in and you’ll have have a rose-infused honey. I couldn’t find real rose honey for sale. I was looking to see not only how it’s priced, but where else this exists.
Also, I asked ChatGPT to tell me about rose honey. It told me that rose honey doesn’t really exist because roses aren’t heavy nectar producers, so bees wouldn’t have enough nectar to collect and create a rose honey.
Then I uploaded my honey lab report to ChatGPT and asked it to explain the report to me. Here’s what I learned:
My honey harvest may be “one of the rarest natural rose-forward honeys on record”
Rose honey is extraordinarily rare and my harvest “might even be a once-in-a-lifetime floral composition”
Rose as the dominant nectar source is “highly unusual”
Top 3 nectar sources
Rosa / Rose 53%
Toxicodendron / Poison oak/ivy 20% (also uncommon and rare to produce enough nectar for honey production)
Syringa / Lilac 7%
In July, I published my first short story collection ROSE WINDOW. I’ve shared in the behind-the-scenes accounts of the book and stories how roses have surfaced over and over again throughout my family history. This honey is yet another way roses have surfaced again.
Regarding the poison oak/ivy nectar source: Bees forage on wild plants like poison oak/ivy. The resulting honey is safe and free of urushiol, which is the compound responsible for the plant’s notorious skin irritation.
Next lab tests
I’m waiting for the results of the 2 samples I sent in from my mountain honey before I send all of the details to subscribers of my honey news list. That’s the list you want to be on for seasonal updates about harvests. (Perk: Paid subscribers of TLT get the honey order form 2 days before it opens to the public.)
Full report chart and what the sample submission process was like
See the pie chart that breaks down every plant the bees foraged on for the spring honey harvest.
