Turpentine Honey

General Bee Chat
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@JeffH have you had any experience with honey from the Turpentine tree (Syncarpia Glomulifera).
I have seen comments where the honey is said to be not very nice.

I planted about 200 of these 25 years ago to use as fence post as the have reasonable durability in the ground but mainly because they are extremely fire resistant. I saw the other day my trees are starting to flower and they are within 500 m of my hive so if the honey is unpleasant I’ll wait till they finish flowering before I put my super on.

Cheers
busso

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2

Hi Busso, no I haven’t had any experience with turpentine honey. I have only kept my bees stationary near houses & the surrounding bush in Maroochydore & in recent years at Palmwoods. 200 trees sounds a substantial amount of trees. I wonder if that would be a sufficient number of trees for the honey from those trees to dominate the flavor of the honey.

It might be a good idea to hold back the super. If the bees are ready for the super, it might be a good opportunity to split the hive. If you did that, you could taste the honey that surrounds the brood during or after the turps have finished flowering so you know for next season.

Good luck with that Busso, cheers

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3

You could try a medium super to harvest after the trees are finish d to see what its like.

Cheers
Rob.

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4

I’d have a go.
Any honey is sweet and yours would just be different or do you want the same as everyone else.

Like the Manueka honey. Years ago it was deemed not fit and fed to cows by pouring it onto the hay, and look at it now. Its just a fad and good marketing.

Anything “different” has a unique appeal.
You could say your honey has medicinal properties.

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Thanks for the input. I think I will see what the honey is like then decide. There are a great many different trees flowering at the moment and not sure if 200 Turpentine’s will make it unpalatable.

busso

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Hi Busso,
I have tasted turpentine honey and “Yes”, it is not very nice. There is a bitter after-taste and a chemical flavour to it. I would not recommend putting your super on till after it has finished flowering. I have a couple of hives in turpentine country in western Sydney and am being very careful not to harvest, have marked the frames and will leave them to the bees.

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Thanks @Rodderick . I have read a bit more on the Turpentine where bee keepers use the flower to boost the hive brood. Apparently there are parts of NSW where at times the Turpentines are the only trees flowering.
Nice tree though. They can be very multi trunked and becoming huge.

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