Analyzing Honey In Support Of The Kyhtl Launch – Identifying Tiny Pink Dots Is Harder Than You Think
Description
The Kentucky Honey Testing Laboratory (KYHTL) was launched in Fall 2019 and is supported by an initial grant from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture. Completion of the analyses of initial round-robin honey samples between Morehead State University and Bluegrass Community and Technical College was delayed by the onset of COVID, and are now nearing completion. Remaining, however, were some of the more interesting samples, clearly of unknown origin. Simultaneously, a complete turn-over in melissopalynology student researchers occurred at Morehead State University, and pollen identification skills had to be taught to the next generation before they could tackle the unknown. This poster presents the trials and tribulations encountered by a new analyst during identification of significant numbers of unknown pollen and outlines new guidance for identifying pollen from unknown sources.