Honey
How to help bees
⦁ Complex hybrid fancy flowers have no pollen/nectar. Only the second simple snowdrop has food for the bees.
⦁ Bees do not go for a few flowers, they like clumps of flowers where they can flit form one to another. A large block of flowers is more likely to attract bees if you have the space
⦁ Bee friendly trees, hedges and shrubs produce huge amounts of nectar pollen compared with flowers, even a wildflower meadow. As beekeepers we are greedy, we want both. Insert link to pollinator lists, SB to find it
⦁ Bees can starve in the spring,in the June gap, in the Autumn/Winter. So if planting for bees, bee friendly plants that flower late winter/spring and autumn is most helpful
⦁ Bees need water, a bag of old compost laid flat and kept wet with large hole in middle will do, if bees go to a bucket of water, it needs sticks floating so they can get in and out without drowning
⦁ Crops do go up if bees are nearby
Our bees fly over 40,000 miles to provide us with one lovely jar of honey.
We appreciate their hard work and interfere with the honey as little as possible. Our honey is as natural as it can be. To preserve the wonderful flavour It is not heated and it is likely to crystallise. Crystallisation is a sign of minimal interference. The honey stored by the bees is often crystallised in the hive. If you prefer it smooth don’t worry, simply heat it gently in a pan of warm water.
Our understanding is that most commercial honeys are heated to the maximum levels allowed by law and ultra-filtered to try and dissolve/remove any “impurities” so that it stays clear for a long time on the shelf.
We see that as potentially removing all sorts from the honey that is there for a reason. The bees know best. Our experience is that the vast majority of people tasting local beekeepers honey are surprised at the difference in taste.
We have no control over the weather or seasons. The timing of flowering for the plants and trees varies from year to year. So our honey is a little different every year. The spring tending to be a lighter more delicate flavour and the summer darker and stronger. At tastings it is interesting how some people like one much more than the other and some people like both.
We have a couple of outlying colonies that sit next to a 15 acre field of wildflowers, in a good year we have a decent crop of wildflower dominated honey that we keep separate,
