Clover Honey
Clover honey
is New Zealand's most common honey type. New Zealand historically has a pastoral
economy and a reliance on sheep farming. Clover and rye grass mixtures have
dominated pastures with their high forage yield and
natural nitrogen fixing for soil fertility. More recently, dairying has become
a significant part of the New Zealand rural scene and clover is a major component
of pasture in progressive dairy farms where it minimizes the need for synthetic
fertilizers with their high carbon footprint.
The normal growth cycle is that clover starts to predominate in the pastures
in late Spring and early Summer. The peak of the honey flow is at the point
where lowering moisture levels start to slightly tress the plant. This peak
may last a few days or in exceptional circumstances (perhaps when boosted
by additional rainfall) over a few weeks to produce a bumper harvest. In many
areas, high country pasture is oversown from aerial top dressing and beehives
in these areas can produce large crops of high quality clover honey.
Clover
seed production is another large source of clover forage for honeybees and
under good conditions, clover honey production can be exceptional.
The main clover species in New Zealand is white clover
(Trifolium repens) but a variety of other
clover
species are present. These include red clover (T. pratense), strawberry
clover (T. fragiferum), subterranean (T. subterraneum) and
alsike clover (T. hybridum). Typically these different clovers have
their own flowering period that may be before or after the White Clover flowering.
Colour
Clover honey has a normal colour range of 10 - 35 mm (pfund
scale). Approximately 80% of clover honey will fall
into this range. We typically grade clover into 4 colour ranges.
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Soil type can affect colour but
blends with other honey types are the most common cause of colour variance.
Normally honey from the South Island is lighter than honey
from the North Island, mainly 
due
to the large number of difference floral sources in the North Island.
Crop Timing
The clover crop usually starts around mid December and finishes end of January.
It can however start as early as November and finish as late as early March.
However normally the majority of the crop is produced over a 2-3 week period
in any one area. Most producers will have the majority of their clover crop
extracted ready for sale
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Airborne Honey Ltd
