Last night we finally had the opportunity to help collect the marigold honey. The beekeeper was super excited! He said that he had gone to take a look the previous week and all 6 hives were filled with honey. Unfortunately, that had changed within in a week.
We were quite disappointed to see that only 1 hive had some honey left. All the others were a bust. We collected the honey from 5 frames, not even enough to fill the machine that spins out the honey.
The conclusion? Although marigold flowers have a 3/5 rating on nectar and pollen production, ranking them as an average flower (which is not a bad thing), they do not produce over a long enough period of time to sustain the bees long term. Yes, at one stage all hives were filled with the marigold honey, but the bees knew that this plant would soon stop flowering, so they had to eat that honey to keep themselves going.
We were happy that we could have a small taste of this special honey and experience its unique and delightful bitter aftertaste. But I don't think we'll be getting our hands on marigold honey again anytime soon.
Check out our Instagram page for some video content of last night's expedition.