Honeydew
Lexikon
Honeydew is not a plant product but an animal excretion that comes from aphids, scale insects, and similar insects, which suck the sugary sap from the phloem of trees and excrete the excess sugar again as sticky droplets.
Honeydew is not a plant product but an animal excretion that comes from aphids, scale insects, and similar insects, which suck the sugary sap from the phloem of trees and excrete the excess sugar again as sticky droplets. Honey bees collect these sweet excretions just as they do nectar and process them in the hive into honey, so-called honeydew honey, which in everyday language is usually called forest honey.
Honeydew honey differs clearly in its chemistry from pure blossom honey, because honeydew contains almost all the minerals of the phloem sap. As a result, honeydew honeys have a considerably higher electrical conductivity and a higher mineral content than blossom honeys, as well as a somewhat higher pH value, even though they also contain more organic acids. Under the microscope, honeydew honey can also be recognized by typical components such as fungal elements, algae remains, and small wax tubes, which are absent in pure blossom honey.
For beekeepers, honeydew depends heavily on the weather, because the honeydew-producing lice only multiply strongly under certain weather conditions, so that in some years the forest flow practically fails to materialize and in other years it is very productive. A common misconception is to equate honeydew with a kind of plant sap; in fact it is an excretion of insects that only becomes real honey through further processing by the bees.