Green honey?
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Robert L Mathews
Aug 2, 2026, 3:36:11 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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I'm harvesting honey, and this frame has honey that is alarmingly green, on both sides. It tastes like fennel to me (and doesn't taste like it's gone bad in any way), but I can't find anything online suggesting fennel has green nectar.
Any ideas what this might be? This is my first extraction of the year so the bees could've collected it any time since last fall, really.
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Robert L Mathews
Claire Lussier
Aug 2, 2026, 3:51:57 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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Do you live next to a marsh?
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Gerald Przybylski
Aug 2, 2026, 3:59:32 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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The times I've heard about odd-colored honeys, the bees were found to be foraging from a food or candy-maker.
Barrels with some sweet, dyed, product component were set outside on the loading dock and the bees discovered them.
Think the colored candy coating of M&Ms, or skittles.
They may also be foraging fennel, and the taste of it predominates.
Expensive testing could probably identify the dye, and from that you might be able to make a list of probable manufacturers.
from
https://www.reddit.com/r/Beekeeping/comments/1rytuw4/green_honey_is_a_real_thing/?solution=f904a87ada45e98cf904a87ada45e98c&js_challenge=1&token=7afd7253fec22262ff1c52b1703fe9ec8ed767d13e7c9fd369a00dd2448bf845&jsc_orig_r=
If lethal or psychoactive green honey was a thing in the bay area, we'd have heard of it by now.
Green honey from honey bees in France linked to M&M factory.
Bulgarian green honey harvested from a specific species of ground nesting bee that is exceptionally lethal. This one also had a claim that algae was involved, which might be the case since the bees live in the ground. This could be where the Florida people got the idea of algae for their product.
Some people in this post mentioned cornflower, but all the pics I saw of it on Google did not show it being green. A link that someone posted said that it was "fluorescent green", implying perhaps that it glows green under a blacklight (or even maybe in strong sunlight) rather than actually looking green normally.
Liz Griffiths
Aug 2, 2026, 4:00:17 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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Here in San Leandro we have SO many Kanuka trees (cousin to the New Zealand Manuka trees) and it makes a very strong tasting honey that has a definite green tinge that’s very noticeable in the frames.
I personally don’t like the taste but some people love it.
Liz
On Aug 2, 2026, at 12:51 PM, Claire Lussier <lussier...@gmail.com> wrote:
Do you live next to a marsh?
On Sun, Aug 2, 2026 at 12:36 PM Robert L Mathews <r...@tigertech.com> wrote:
I'm harvesting honey, and this frame has honey that is alarmingly green, on both sides. It tastes like fennel to me (and doesn't taste like it's gone bad in any way), but I can't find anything online suggesting fennel has green nectar.
Any ideas what this might be? This is my first extraction of the year so the bees could've collected it any time since last fall, really.
<IMG_0974.jpeg>
----Robert L Mathews
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Hao Ly
Aug 2, 2026, 4:41:21 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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Wild fennel ( no bulbs) is toxic, I grow it to keep the mosquitoes away,
sandy fong
Aug 2, 2026, 4:54:15 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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Hi Rob,
I am very interested to try this green honey 🍯 Can you please share a bit?
Thank you
Paula Breen
Aug 2, 2026, 5:01:51 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
to Alameda County Beekeepers Assn., Claire Lussier
Hi Rob,
Years ago I harvested a box of honey from a hive up in the hills near the Oakland zoo. That honey was very green and in fact I got worried that there was antifreeze in it LOL. It had a strange long bitter finish as well. I never did figure out what the bees had gotten into. I gave some to Joel and he said that the flavor mellowed over time. It definitely did not taste like anise and I have never experienced it again. @Claire Lussier what grows in a marsh that might cause green honey?
Best,
Paula
Paula
Bees & Beeks
Aug 2, 2026, 5:25:21 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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Wild fennel and all fennel varieties are 100% eatable. They are often confused with hemlock which is highly toxic: https://www.rootsimple.com/2013/10/bad-forager-mistaking-hemlock-for-fennel/
Sung Lee
Aug 2, 2026, 5:28:56 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
to ACBA (Official)
I usually extract honey at night time after dinner. Last week one of the box tasted like little bitter.
Today I need to catch up extracting honey so started 10 am. So Rob's green honey was posted. After I read the post I started next box of frames I harvested yesterday. Holy behold as I am uncapping, it started show green tint which i never seen or never noticed before.
Surely working by the big window the day light revealed true color of the honey. The taste is bitterness that it override it's sweetness. One of boxes i extracted last week had similar taste but not as bitter as this one. Out of 12 frames harvested from this colony only half of the frames show greenness and bottom half the frames meaning it is stored close to end of July. These are both from same yard in Castro Valley. So far over 2300 lbs of honey this year I may see more of this in this month? Will see...
Sung Lee The Bee Charmer
On Sun, Aug 2, 2026, 1:41 PM Hao Ly <hao...@gmail.com> wrote:
Leslie Louie
Aug 2, 2026, 5:32:18 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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That intensity of green is alarming!! Do you try to separate it from the rest of your honey harvest? I imagine that’s tedious to do.
Leslie
(she/her)
Danny Williamson
Aug 2, 2026, 5:35:41 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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My suggestion Rob is to have it tested. It is more than likely what Jerry was mentioning. But until you really know get ahold of a honey testing lab to see what's in it. Here is one for example. The Penn State Honey and Pollen Diagnostic Lab - The Center for Pollinator Research https://share.google/I9mpgV7I2plPRdY7U
Bees & Beeks
Aug 2, 2026, 5:41:37 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
to the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com, Claire Lussier, Beekeepers Assn. Alameda County
Green algae also has flavor similar to fennel causes green honey. I get occasionally portion of frame that is green but luckily the lake behind my house also has plenty of other forage so entire frame is not green but just slightly green tint. The black plastic also makes green seems more pronounced. From my knowledge algae honey is completely harmless and adds to my other honey a peppermint/fennel/eucalyptus aftertaste that I like. Mimi
Bees & Beeks
Aug 2, 2026, 6:18:41 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
to the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com, ACBA
Bitter taste is usually a toxic warning. For example green hemlock honey is bitter but green fennel honey has a sweet licorice flavor.
That is also how you can tell fennel from hemlock - hemlock has no smell and a bitter taste. Fennel has sweet licorice smell and flavor. Mimi
I usually extract honey at night time after dinner. Last week one of the box tasted like little bitter.Today I need to catch up extracting honey so started 10 am. So Rob's green honey was posted. After I read the post I started next box of frames I harvested yesterday. Holy behold as I am uncapping, it started show green tint which i never seen or never noticed before.Surely working by the big window the day light revealed true color of the honey. The taste is bitterness that it override it's sweetness. One of boxes i extracted last week had similar taste but not as bitter as this one. Out of 12 frames harvested from this colony only half of the frames show greenness and bottom half the frames meaning it is stored close to end of July. These are both from same yard in Castro Valley. So far over 2300 lbs of honey this year I may see more of this in this month? Will see...
Sung Lee The Bee Charmer
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Kristin Undhjem
Aug 2, 2026, 7:13:12 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
to the-alameda-county-b...@googlegroups.com, Claire Lussier
Google Purple Loosestrife honey. That can be a strange green color with a bitter finish. Grows in marshy wetland type environment. Just a thought
Danny Williamson
Aug 2, 2026, 7:58:14 PM (2 days ago) Aug 2
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Until the honey is sent off to be tested for the floral source it could be anything at this point causing it to be green.
Gabriel Harber
Aug 3, 2026, 11:53:44 AM (yesterday) Aug 3
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In my experience, at least in Oakland, the bees pull in a good amount of fennel honey in the summer. This honey tends to have a greenish tinge to it. I tell people it looks like new motor oil, and I can usually tell by the color and smell when they are starting to pull in the fennel. Also, once you see fennel blooming on the sides of the freeway, chances are your bees are collecting the fennel nectar. At first I didn’t really like the fennel honey. It almost smelled like cat urine to me. But now, it is one of my favorite flavor profiles. Tends to be more savory. I have honey clients who explicitly ask for the fennel honey. I would guess that once extracted, the honey is not so green.
Best,
Gabriel
Robert L Mathews
Aug 3, 2026, 12:53:30 PM (yesterday) Aug 3
to Bee Talk
Thanks everyone for your thoughts! To answer a couple of questions, no, I don't live near a marsh or similar, and no, this isn't from a frame that went to the county fair and might have Slurpee mix in it.
I was afraid of antifreeze, but some reading suggested that a) antifreeze has a bitter chemical added nowadays, and b) it's toxic enough that it would kill the colony before it could be stored, and likely kill the bees bringing it back before they even made it to the hive. So it's not that.
I was leaning towards some sort of dye -- from a food product, someone dyeing their hummingbird nectar green, or another local beekeeper dyeing their sugar syrup so they can track it. But then Sung's frame looks exactly like mine, and he's 20 miles away from me. That suggests some sort of plant, and some do have very green pollen.
So I don't know. I just mixed it in with the other honey from the harvest (so I don't have a pure sample of it left). If it weren't green, I would've thought the flavor was nothing out of the ordinary -- I like anise so I'm fine with it. If I drop dead, someone please tell the coroner what happened.
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Robert L Mathews
Paula Breen
Aug 3, 2026, 12:54:54 PM (yesterday) Aug 3
to Alameda County Beekeepers Assn.
Rob!!!! 😂😂😂😂
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Jennifer Radtke
Aug 3, 2026, 2:43:43 PM (yesterday) Aug 3
to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
When I've been up at Randy Oliver's, he's shown me frames of green honey. It was from Star Thistle. You could show it to him and have him taste it. Star Thistle honey has a unique taste. There could also be another plant that produces green honey though. Take care, Jennifer
Maryly Snow
Aug 3, 2026, 3:26:09 PM (yesterday) Aug 3
to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
People often comment favorably on the fennel flavor of my honey, but it never
has had even a green tinge, probably because there are other flavors and plants the bees
like.
Maryly
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Danny Williamson
Aug 3, 2026, 4:49:31 PM (yesterday) Aug 3
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Jennifer, if your talking about the common yellow Star Thistle it's not nearly the green like those sample bee frames of honey that Rob and Sung shared. I use to harvest pure Star Thistle honey and it has a very faint green tinge to it if any. In fact it's more yellow than anything.
Jennifer Radtke
12:10 PM (6 hours ago) 12:10 PM
to The Alameda County Beekeepers Association
I found my photo of the star thistle honey at Randy's in 2023. He uses the black foundation like Rob has. It may not look as green as Rob's photo, but I remember it being very green, for what it's worth.
Bring some for Randy to taste when he's down on the 22nd, as star thistle has a distinctive taste. Star Thistle is blooming up in Grass Valley right now, because he was trying to figure out if it is producing the yellow wax he's seeing in his hives. Take care, Jennifer
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