Funny Honey

About a week ago I harvested our first honey crop. I was so excited about the gorgeous golden frames of comb I was sorting through and couldn't wait to divide it into jars and share it with our loved ones. Then I tried it. I didn't think there was anyway to really mess up honey. After all, the bees seem happy. They appear to be disease-free. They come and go every minute that the sun in above the horizon, but the honey turned out...funny.

The taste, to me, is a cross between mushrooms, cough syrup, and honey. Even when I put it on toast with butter the flavor still stands out. Mishka thought it had a smokey flavor, but I really didn't use that much smoke. I am a beginner and may not have a real understanding of what too much smoke looks like, but there were times when I didn't even use smoke when I was working with the hive. The nearby flora could also be the culprit and there's not much I can do about what the neighbors grow. It was suggested to me to just make mead out of it as the taste of the alcohol may mask the unusual/unappetizing flavor.

Above and below are a few pretty pictures of my hive gear. That's my smoker above - still having problems getting it going before harassing the bees. Below is more stuff, namely gloves that I accidentally covered in melted beeswax. A word tot he wise: don't cover you gloves in beeswax. It will transfer to EVERYTHING!