Problems of Practical Importance in Honeydew Research

Abstract

To many English-speaking beekeepers, honeydew honey is regarded as an unwelcome contaminant of ‘good’ flower honey. This is largely because their most obvious sources of honeydew are the leaves of deciduous trees, whose sticky surfaces can collect soot and dust in towns, leading to a dark and dirty honey. The coniferous forests of Europe have always been a source of honeydew, produced in large clear drops on the leaves and stalks of the trees, and often yielding prodigious honey flows. This honey has little in common with the sooty honeydew honey from deciduous trees in industrial regions, and it commonly fetches a higher price than flower honey. The past few decades have revolutionized our thinking about honeydew honey, and it is now clear that countries with coniferous forests may be able to offset the decrease in their honey yields brought about by changes in agriculture, by exploiting these forests. But the great new interest in honeydew honey has been centred in continental Europe, and English-speaking beekeepers are largely unaware of it. Much of the new development is due to the work of Dr. W. Kloft at the Institut für angewandte Zoologie der Universität Würzburg, who had been persuaded to write the present article. It has been translated from German by Miss M. D. Bindley, and is partly based on an article in Dtsch. Bienenw. 13: 240–244 (1962). Photographs on pages 24–26 show some of the honeydew producers at work. They were taken by Dr. A. Fossel and were exhibited at the meeting in Vienna referred to on page 14.