Norway spruce
The tree of central and northern European mountain forests; no nectar, but scale and aphid honeydew make it the main source of dark, slow-granulating spruce honey. Flows vary greatly.
- Nectar
- None
- Pollen
- Low
- Flowering
- JanFebMarAprMayJunJulAugSepOctNovDec
- Crystallisation
- Slow
- Height
- 30-50 m
- Life cycle
- Perennial
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Norway spruce is common in the mountain forests of the Alps, the Carpathians and Scandinavia, and there are large plantations in central Europe. It gives no nectar. Its value is the honeydew left by spruce scales living on the shoots and by aphids on the branches and trunk; in good years this honeydew produces a strong forest honey flow.
Flowering
It sheds pollen in May-June; bees hardly collect it. Honeydew usually lasts from late May to mid-summer; insect populations vary greatly from year to year.
Honey and pollen
Spruce honey is dark reddish-brown, with malty and resinous notes, not very sweet, and usually crystallises slowly. In some years honeydew high in melezitose can set solid in the comb, making it hard for bees to use in winter.
Note for the beekeeper
To predict honeydew years, the density of scales and aphids on the branches is monitored in spring. Feeding sugar syrup is safer than leaving honeydew honey as winter stores. This species does not grow wild in Turkey.