We are planning to have bees at our country house. This should be a new adventure.

Lots of urban beekeepers in Portland. I used to date one, she would take me to apiary meetings when they would let everyone sample what they had. The variety of flavors was mind boggling. Smokey, sour, sweet and everything in between...

(Unfortunately, covid has caused the local beekeeping supply to close. Probably
permanently.)

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GF buys some fantastic honeycomb honey from some German hippies living in a very out of the way sorta place. Very organic.

A friend of mine who lives in the city got into bees. He had 6 hives at our farm for a couple years and then his bees got sick. He didn’t tend to them enough.

I’d like to get a few more hives here now that we have that extra 140 acres. The best honey is ‘rent honey’. Typically if you have bees, you get a pail per hive.

I suggest you find a local bee keeper and have him set up some hives for a couple years to see how it works out.

Canola honey crystallizes pretty bad. I would put the hives near my new alfalfa field.

When I was a child, we lived in Pennsylvania for a while - in Amish country. We would buy the honey with the comb from the Amish farmers. Really loved it - but haven't had it since that time (I was about 8). Oh, and they would make the most fantastic apple butter I've ever had in my life... Everything I've tried since then has been a poor imitation...

angela

Based on my google-fu, light colored honey tends to crystalize more than dark colored honey. And the crystalization is based on the glucose:fructose ratio which is, I think based on where (what flowers) the bees get their nectar. Temp is also a factor, cooler temps accelerate honey crystalization.

Just saw this and it makes perfect sense - and that's without knowing how it works.

There is a large Amish bakery within 10 miles of where I live.
I've had there bread and pies and they are great. I'll have to check sometime to see if they have chunk honey.