This evening I visited Council Bluffs, IA to join a woman in taking care of eight of her forty hives. We stopped by two locations that both had four hives. I had not been planning on tasting honey during this trip, but I am also not one to pass up freshly broken comb.

The first honey came from the first location (pinpoint on map). The box that supplied the honey is a first year colony that is located adjacent to a few dozen rows of peonies. Some of the burr comb that we scraped off the inside of the hive oozed out a colorless honey that trickled over my knuckles.  (Burr comb is comb built between the frames that often connects two or more together: it makes it inconvenient for the beekeepers to check on the state of the bees’ health).

The texture had a liquid-like texture, much like what one would expect if one was to eat artificially produced “maple syrup”. The aroma was subtle, but since I was still standing in front of the open hive, my nose was more overwhelmed with the smell of propolis than anything else. The taste had a saccharine floral flavor to it, but I was unable to pick out any resemblances to specific flowers.

The second honey came from a second location about a mile away. However, this honey was entirely different! Its color was much more yellow yet still very light. The texture appeared viscous as I eyed it from its landing spot on the top of a frame, but when I eventually felt it between my fingers, it took on the same liquid-like state that the first honey had. This honey tasted much more musty and had a spicy wood flavor to it. It was biologically sweet, just like the other one, but had much more zest.

What I find so incredible about this tasting I experienced was the proximity that the hives had to each other yet the differences in terroir. Bees will travel an average of two miles away to collect nectar to bring back to the hive. So although these bees were in the same two mile radius from one another, they chose to visit different primary nectar sources.

But WAIT, don’t stop reading yet, this is really cool! Not only do bees typically stay around two miles from the hive, but they will only pollinate the BEST plants they can find. For example, if you grew two lavender bushes in the same part of your yard, where both had an accessible route for bees to find, and were treated for in the same ways, there is no guarantee that bees will pollinate both plants. Honeybees choose the best nectar from the flowers and individual plants with the best genes. However, this will also change by year. So if in year one lavender plant A produced more flowers than lavender plant B, there is no guarantee that this pattern will maintain for the lifespan of the lavender plants. If five years down the road, lavender B is producing better nectar than lavender A, the bees will begin visiting lavender B.

So that’s simple enough. But let’s take a look at the current situation. We have two hives in a very close proximity to each other, following the same patterns of flight that take them about two miles away from the hive. Many of these bees will be traveling to the same flowers in the same areas, so why are they producing different flavors of honey?

It’s the same reason that my family may buy raspberries from Whole Foods ($3.50) and our neighbors may buy blueberries ($3.50). Even though the same amount of effort is involved to retrieve the berries from the store, honeybee colonies, like people, have preferences! While one colony of bees may choose between one plant of lavender as opposed to another, if two colonies are occupying the same area, we begin to see that one may choose a different varietal of plant as the other colony chooses.