Nectar Flow
Lexikon
Nectar flow is the collective term for what the bees find in their surroundings in the way of nectar, pollen and honeydew.
Nectar flow is the collective term for what the bees find in their surroundings in the way of nectar, pollen and honeydew. One speaks of a major flow with particularly abundant sources, such as large fields of rapeseed or sunflowers, larger stands of black locust or lime, dandelion meadows and areas of blackberry. The nectar of a major flow usually shapes the aroma of the honey, while minor flows contribute the finer nuances.
Over the course of the year, spring is provided mainly by fruit blossom, dandelion and rapeseed, which often bloom at the same time. In summer, stands such as black locust and lime as well as flower-rich areas are added. Important for expectations: even someone who migrates specifically to a flow does not control what is actually visited. The bees decide which of the flows on offer they use and in what proportion, which is why a pure single-source honey can never be planned.
Forest honey is a special case, because it is not based on flowers. Its basis is honeydew, excreted by plant-sucking insects, in this country mainly aphids and scale insects. They take in sugar-rich but amino-acid-poor plant sap and must take in so much of it that they excrete the excess sugar as fine droplets on needles and leaves. The bees collect these droplets and process them like nectar. Because forest honey thus depends on the development of these insects rather than on a flowering calendar, it is considerably less predictable than a blossom flow.
Two things follow for practice. In times of nectar dearth and after harvests, the risk of robbing rises, so restraint when handling colonies at the apiary is advisable. And when feeding for winter in autumn: one's own blossom honey, sugar syrup, fondant or sugar water are suitable, dark honeys as well as forest and melezitose honeys are not, because their high mineral content burdens the bees. Foreign honeys are especially dangerous because of the risk of introducing American foulbrood.