Different honey same yard

[qa33010]

    I have a really stupid question and I have not found it in any books.  I pulled honey from my 'feral' local hive and from two russians from nucs in May this year.  The hives are in the same yard (my backyard) and no more than twelve feet from one end to the other.  There are no differences in feeding, both fed a half gallon and a small patty in May and nothing after.  All three hives were doing well and currently strong for winter with plenty of stores.

     Okay.  The question is how can I get two types of honey?  The frames were pulled on the same day and extracted in different extracters at the same time.  The 'feral' honey is darker and fuller tasting where the Russian honey is lighter in taste and color.  Can anyone tell me how this happens and if it has happened to you?  I thought the bees all wound up at the same sources since they are all in the same yard.  Is it tongue length?


Modified to read quicker and try to add photo

[tig]

i've experienced that before when the mangoes bloomed along with the wild sunflower.  some colonies had mango honey and some had sunflower honey while others had a combination of both.  maybe its like pollen gathering.   to this date there are several colors of pollen coming in.  white, yellow, orange, green and reddish brown.  i have colonies bringing in only the green and white pollen, some mostly yellow and orange with a little white and very few bring in the reddish brown.  i guess the scout foragers convince the rest that theres a certain abundant source of honey and/ or pollen and the colony sticks to those plants.  i have almost 40 boxes in one site all together and very close by each other.

[Michael Bush]

Bees are very loyal to a nectar source. If two things bloom at once, sometimes one hive finds one and the other hive finds the other.  Then they stick with it until the nectar runs out.