diff --git a/ckan/lib/search/index.py b/ckan/lib/search/index.py
index 9b50031df4b..bea24535e03 100644
--- a/ckan/lib/search/index.py
+++ b/ckan/lib/search/index.py
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@
 import logging
 import collections
 import json
+import datetime
 from dateutil.parser import parse
 
 import re
@@ -200,11 +201,18 @@ def index_package(self, pkg_dict, defer_commit=False):
         # be needed?  For my data not changing the keys seems to not cause a
         # problem.
         new_dict = {}
+        bogus_date = datetime.datetime(1, 1, 1)
         for key, value in pkg_dict.items():
             key = key.encode('ascii', 'ignore')
             if key.endswith('_date'):
                 try:
-                    value = parse(value).isoformat() + 'Z'
+                    date = parse(value, default=bogus_date)
+                    if date != bogus_date:
+                        value = date.isoformat() + 'Z'
+                    else:
+                        # The date field was empty, so dateutil filled it with
+                        # the default bogus date
+                        value = None
                 except ValueError:
                     continue
             new_dict[key] = value