The Honey Process

The colony can be treated as its own organism. Fully mature, it can have upwards of 60,000 bees. Each individual bee has a definitive job. Worker bees perform the majority of tasks, including janitorial service, nursing the young, feeding the queen, organizing the hive, foraging for pollen, nectar, and water, and defending the hive with their lives. Drones have the mission of passing on the colony’s genetic makeup by mating with other virgin queens. The queen has the primary role of laying eggs to expand the colony and maintaining hive order.

A particular type of worker bee, the foraging bee, will collect pollen (the colony’s protein source) and nectar (the carbohydrate source) from flowers within a 3-4 mile radius of the hive. The pollen and nectar are then stored, for future use, in hexagonal-shaped wax comb. The worker bees then convert the nectar into honey. Typically, each colony will store more honey than needed, and, so, we pull the extra frames of honey for our own use.

The honey is extracted from the wooden frames with a centrifuge extractor. It is then strained to remove unwanted items that have found their way into the honey, such as wax particles and propolis. In contrast to large industrial bulk honey production, which heats the honey to above 100 degrees Fahrenheit simply for ease in bottling, we apply limited heat during the bottling process. Using limited heat allows us to maintain the honey’s integrity and taste.