How Much “Forest” is in Forest Honey?

How much “forest” does a forest honey have to contain so that it can be called that? How does the bee know that it has to fly to the forest for this?

With honey, a distinction is made between blossom honey and honeydew honey.

Blossom honey comes mainly from blossom nectar.

With honeydew honey, also often referred to as forest honey, the bees collect honeydew that is excreted by plant lice such as scale insects or aphids. These plant-sucking animals extract nutrients from the plant sap and excrete the rest they don’t need as sticky, sugary honeydew. Since honeydew is mainly found on forest trees (spruce, fir, oak), it was called forest honey.

According to the Honey Ordinance, honeydew honey must be obtained entirely or predominantly from honeydew. Furthermore, in this ordinance, blossom honey and honeydew honey are differentiated according to their fructose and glucose content and their electrical conductivity. Honeydew honey has lower fructose and glucose content and higher electrical conductivity. In addition, forest honey usually has a dark color and a strong, slightly tart aroma.

Bees collect the flower nectar and honeydew that is within their flight radius. So if a beekeeper wants forest honey, he sets up his bee colonies near the forest so that they can collect as much honeydew as possible.

As long as the offer for the bees is large enough, they remain true to the respective plant species (= continuity of blossoms or species), i.e. they do not switch back and forth between the different forage offers. This is how single-variety honeys come about.