'The knowledge of bees is the basis of the beekeeper’s success; and for all other people who, amidst the whirl of present-day technology,
still prove to have a clear feeling for lively Nature, they are a source of joyful edification.’
The Dancing Bees, Karl Von Frisch, 1967
Our Wild Honey: The Proof is in the Pollen
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| Cross section of wild comb from our Warré hives showing cells of bee bread (fermented pollen), prior to pressing. Bee bread gives our honey some of its remarkable flavour and health benefits. Photo © Kirsten Bradley |
144 times the typical amount of pollen found in our Post Brood Honey
Every now and again we send our Warré honey away to be tested at an independent laboratory that specialises in analysing honey. The range and accuracy of testing has increased in recent years and forms the basis of many peer reviewed scientific papers.Researchers, beekeepers and honey packers can test for sugar adulteration, presence of chemicals, disease load, medicinal activity, pollen type and richness (concentration), environmental pollutants and much more.
Although there are numerous tests currently available for honey analysis, we prefer to focus on a select group, namely total activity (TA), pollen concentration (grains of pollen per gram of honey), HMF (overheating of honey) and C4 sugar (sugar from cane/maize).
This year we sent a variety of our own Warré hive honey samples. We also included a ‘certified organic’ raw honey that was randomly selected from a retail store to see how our honey compared to another brand.
In an effort to cut through the greenwash marketing used by many beekeepers and honey companies and to continue our ethos of transparency, we will be sharing and explaining the results here and on our Instagram page over the coming days and are always happy to answer any questions.
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| Blossom of Yellow Bloodwood (Corymbia eximia), which is endemic to the sandstone country of the lower Blue Mountains. Pollen identification can fingerprint a honey to a particular geographic region. | Warré hives in the Blue Mountains wilderness. Our medicinally active honey is an outcome of our Natural Beekeeping practice and philosophy. |
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| Blossom of Yellow Bloodwood (Corymbia eximia), which is endemic to the sandstone country of the lower Blue Mountains. Pollen identification can fingerprint a honey to a particular geographic region. |
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| Warré hives in the Blue Mountains wilderness. Our medicinally active honey is an outcome of our Natural Beekeeping practice and philosophy. |
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| Wild comb being pressed, showing Bee Bread (pollen) and Honey. Pressing whole combs from Warré hives results in a pollen rich honey. Photo © Kirsten Bradley |
Five year aged post brood comb from our Warré Hives, ready for pressing. This unique honey has an incredibly high pollen concentration. |
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| Wild comb being pressed, showing Bee Bread (pollen) and Honey. Pressing whole combs from Warré hives results in a pollen rich honey. Photo © Kirsten Bradley |
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| Five year aged post brood comb from our Warré Hives, ready for pressing. This unique honey has an incredibly high pollen concentration. |
Why it is interesting or important to test honeys for pollen type and richness
Firstly, pollen type (plant species) is important as it can ‘fingerprint’ a honey to a region or country of origin. For example, a honey that is sold as ‘Eucalypt’ but does not contain a high level of Eucalypt pollens would/should raise a red flag that the honey is not true to label and may not even be honey at all! Secondly, if the pollen concentration of a honey is found to be particularly low, the honey may be adulterated or highly processed. Micro filtration can remove the ‘fingerprint’ of a honey that links it to a region or country. Dubious re-sellers of honey use micro filtration to move honey around the globe, increasing its value due to the perceived ‘country of origin’ i.e. where it was last dispatched from.
Pollen richness is a key marker of the ‘rawness’ of a honey and contributes to any health benefits, as pollen (bee bread) has anti-bacterial, anti-oxidant, anti-allergic and anti-cancer properties. The typical pollen concentration found in conventional honey is between 2,000 - 10,000 grains per gram.*
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| Malfroy’s Gold Wild honey varieties, Post Brood and Polyflora from the Blue Mountains that were used in the pollen concentration testing |
The Blue Mountains World Heritage area, where many of our apiaries are located, is one of the great wildflower regions of the world, with over 1500 species of unique flowering plants identified. The Terroir of this incredible region is imprinted in our Warré hive honeys. Photo © Owen Wilson |
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| Malfroy’s Gold Wild honey varieties, Post Brood and Polyflora from the Blue Mountains that were used in the pollen concentration testing |
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| The Blue Mountains World Heritage area, where many of our apiaries are located, is one of the great wildflower regions of the world, with over 1500 species of unique flowering plants identified. The Terroir of this incredible region is imprinted in our Warré hive honeys. Photo © Owen Wilson |
The results
Our Blue Mountains Polyflora honey was found to have 1,131,428 grains per gram and 97% Eucalyptus/Acacia pollens.Our Blue Mountains Post Brood Polyflora was found to have 2,601,285 grains per gram and 98.5% Eucalyptus/Acacia pollens.
The ‘Certified Organic’ Raw honey from a different brand that we submitted for testing as a point of comparison was found to have 18,321 grains per gram, placing it slightly above the typical pollen concentration and had a high percentage of ‘Australian’ pollen types (87%).
The results speak for themselves but in a nutshell our Blue Mountains Polyflora has 61 times the pollen of the ‘Certified Organic’ raw honey and our Blue Mountains Post Brood Polyflora has 144 times the pollen found in the ‘Certified Organic’ raw honey, confirming that our Wild Honeys are truly a different product when compared to conventionally produced honeys.
Next up I will look at the HMF (Hydroxymethylfurfural) result which shows whether a honey has been overheated, and the TA (Total Activity) results, which give a medicinal activity number rating.
| Honey/Variety |
Pollen Concentration (grains of pollen per 10 grams of honey) ~ |
| Malfroy's Gold Wild Honey Blue Mountains Polyflora | 11, 314, 286 |
| Malfroy's Gold Wild Honey Yellow Box Post Brood | 14, 351, 071 |
| Malfroy's Gold Wild Honey Blue Mountains Post Brood Polyflora | 26, 012, 857 |
| Malfroy's Gold Wild Honey Mountain Meadow Post Brood Polyflora | 17, 507, 143 |
| Malfroy's Gold Wild Honey Red Stringybark | 39, 496, 786 |
| Certified Organic Raw Honey + | 183, 214 |
+ Brand selected randomly from a retail store
* N.T. Moar (1985) Pollen Analysis of New Zealand Honey, New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research, 28:1, 39-70, DOI: 10.1080/00288233.1985.10426997