Posts Tagged ‘honey’

From Pessimism to Sweet Success – A Reflection on the 2024 Honey Season

Monday, October 28th, 2024

As a beekeeper, the beginning of each year brings a mix of excitement and uncertainty. However, 2024 tested my patience and optimism like no other. Back in May through July, my outlook was far from positive. With spring weather patterns working against us, the critical early-season crop seemed doomed. It’s no exaggeration to say that by mid-summer, I was feeling quite pessimistic about the year’s honey crop.

Spring Setbacks: A Beekeeper’s Challenge

Spring is typically when the hives kick into high gear. The bees emerge, eager to forage on early blooms, and begin building reserves that set the foundation for the rest of the year. But 2024 had different plans. The season’s unusually poor weather disrupted the natural cycle – what should have been a time of abundance turned out to be a near-washout. With fewer foraging opportunities and continued unpredictability in the climate, the colonies faced one challenge after another, putting both the bees and myself on high alert.

To add to this challenge, the spring crop didn’t just underperform; it was, frankly, a disaster. Hive after hive struggled to produce the usual bounty, and despite my best efforts to mitigate losses with supplemental feeding, the lack of natural forage meant the colonies could only do so much.

Turning the Tide: A Summer Comeback

Around mid-summer, just when I thought we might be on track for one of the leanest seasons I’d ever had, the tides began to turn. The weather started to stabilize, and a late surge in blooming forage plants provided a second wind. Watching the bees set out on these fresh foraging runs was a welcome sight, and I noticed a significant improvement in hive activity.

By late July, my pessimism began to soften. The bees’ tenacity had paid off, and we started seeing the hives gradually replenish themselves. While the honey flow wasn’t as fast or plentiful as in previous years, the resilience of the colonies brought in a decent summer crop. With careful management and a bit of luck, I found myself – despite my early doubts – with honey stores that could just meet demand.

The Harvest: Warming Cabinets and the Big Clean-Up

Now, with the final supers – or “honey boxes” – extracted and the honey filtered, they’re stacked neatly in the honey warming cabinets, ready for jarring. But before the first jar can even be labeled, there’s a massive clean-up ahead. If you’ve never experienced it, imagine honey practically everywhere – likely even in my ears! Every surface in the processing area needs a thorough washdown, and then each sticky super needs to be wrapped, racked, and palletized for safe storage until next season.

With the last of the honey tucked away, the work continues with inventory checks and restocking in the bee shed. Final orders are placed with distributors for fresh frames and wax foundations, and I get down to building frames for the next season. And if time allows, I’ll even try my hand at some candle making from the leftover beeswax – a favorite winter project.

Reflections on Beekeeping’s Ups and Downs

Looking back on the 2024 season, I’m reminded of the resilience and adaptability beekeeping demands. Despite the disappointment of a failed spring crop, this honey season taught me to trust in the bees’ ability to bounce back and adapt to changing conditions. Beekeeping is as much about partnership with nature as it is about hard work and preparation.

So, as I prepare to winterize the hives and reflect on the season, I do so with gratitude – both for the bees’ resilience and the loyal customers who support this journey, year after year. It was a season of twists and turns, but ultimately, one that ended on a much sweeter note than I could have predicted back in those challenging spring months.

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How We at Meltonby Honey Prepare Honey for Jarring

Thursday, October 17th, 2024

At Meltonby Honey, everything is done by hand, from the very beginning to the end product in your kitchen cupboard. The same hands that assemble the beehives, make the frames, work with the bees, graft the queens, and extract the honey are the same hands that jar and label every batch. And yes, they’re the same hands that get stung along the way!

Step 1: Harvesting the Honey

It all starts with harvesting the honey from the hive. The frames from the honey supers, where bees store the honey, are carefully removed. By hand, I decap the frames, a process where the wax cappings that seal the honey in each comb are sliced off. Once the cappings are removed, the frames are ready to be placed in a honey extractor.

Step 2: Extracting the Honey

Okay, I admit—I use an electric extractor! The extractor works by spinning the frames, using centrifugal force to pull the honey out of the comb. As the honey flows out, it’s filtered. But unlike commercially processed honey, we don’t over-filter. This allows all the beneficial pollen, enzymes, and nutrients to remain in the honey, keeping it as raw and natural as possible.

Step 3: Testing the Moisture Content

Before honey can officially be called “honey,” its moisture content must be less than 20%, according to legal standards. After extracting, I test the moisture content to ensure it meets this requirement. If the water content is too high, the honey could ferment, so it’s an essential step to guarantee quality.

Step 4: Settling the Honey

Once the honey is filtered and moisture-tested, it’s poured into a settling tank. This is where the honey “ripens” and any remaining air bubbles rise to the surface. The honey is kept in a warming cabinet at hive temperature for 14 days. It’s important to avoid overheating the honey, as this can degrade its quality.

Step 5: Final Testing & Jarring

After 14 days, the honey is tested again for moisture content and, of course, tasted! I make sure everything is just right before jarring begins. Each jar is carefully filled with 340g (12oz) of honey, lids are secured, and a batch number, such as “H11OCT27,” is allocated, and stuck on the bottom of the jar. This allows each jar to be tracked and traced back to the exact hive and day it was harvested.

Step 6: The Final Warm and Labeling

After jarring, the honey jars are returned to the warming cabinet for another 14 days. This final stage helps the honey maintain its smooth texture and ensures it’s ready for sale. Labels are then added, and a jar is always opened for another moisture content test (and, yes, to spread on toast with heaps of butter!).

It’s a Labor of Love

From hive to jar, a lot of effort goes into every single jar of Meltonby Honey. The next time you enjoy a spoonful of our honey, know that it’s been handled with care and attention at every stage. It’s more than just honey—it’s the result of dedication, hard work, and, of course, some bee stings along the way!

And now you know, there’s a lot more to that jar of honey than meets the eye!

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Preparing for National Honey Day 2024 – 21st October 2024

Wednesday, October 16th, 2024

As the 2024 beekeeping season wraps up, I’m still in the thick of things—extracting honey, and would you believe it, we’ve already sold out again! The demand this year has been incredible, which speaks volumes about the growing appreciation for local, quality honey.

With National Honey Day just around the corner on October 21st, preparations are in full swing. This annual celebration always brings a surge in interest, and it’s the perfect opportunity to showcase the best of this season’s harvest.

Why Beekeeper’s Honey is Superior

One of the key differences between beekeeper’s honey and supermarket honey is how it’s handled after extraction. While large-scale commercial honey is often heavily filtered and pasteurized to give it a longer shelf life and a uniform appearance, this process also removes many of the natural benefits of honey. In contrast, as a beekeeper, I don’t subject my honey to extreme filtration.

By keeping the honey close to its natural state, all of the pollen, enzymes, and beneficial compounds remain intact. This means that my honey retains all of the goodness nature intended, including antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and the natural flavors that reflect the diverse forage the bees have had throughout the season. The pollen in unfiltered honey can even offer some relief to those who suffer from seasonal allergies, as consuming local pollen in small amounts may help build immunity over time.

The Extra Step for Traceability

Unlike some honey packers, I take an additional, time-consuming step to ensure each jar can be tracked and traced back to the exact hive and apiary it was extracted from here in Meltonby. This isn’t a legal requirement, but it’s something I do so my customers know exactly where their jar of honey came from. It’s an important part of transparency, and I believe it builds trust between my customers and me.

When you purchase one of my jars, check the label on the bottom. For example, if you see “H01OCT27,” that jar of honey came from Hive 1, Apiary 2, and has a best-before date of October 2027. This traceability gives you a deeper connection to the honey you’re enjoying, knowing the exact source of your jar.

The Final Preparations

After the hard work of tending the bees and ensuring their health through the ups and downs of the weather, this is the final leg of the journey—filtering and jarring the honey. But when I say “filtering,” it’s a gentle process, just to remove any wax particles or other natural debris from the hive. This leaves all the goodness intact, ensuring the honey is as raw and pure as possible.

Once filtered, it’s on to the jarring. This is where things get exciting as I prepare for the National Honey Day rush! Each jar is carefully filled, labeled, and checked for quality. There’s something deeply satisfying about seeing rows of golden jars, knowing they represent the culmination of months of hard work by both the bees and me.

Get Ready for National Honey Day

With National Honey Day just around the corner, I’m excited to share this year’s harvest with you—just in time for you to enjoy it in its purest form. Whether you drizzle it on toast, stir it into tea, or savor it by the spoonful, you’re tasting the true essence of nature’s work, without any of the goodness filtered out.

And the next time you pick up a jar of honey, ask yourself: Can you trace where it came from? If you’re an existing customer, don’t forget to check the label at the bottom of your jar to see the exact hive and apiary your honey came from. Mark October 21st on your calendars and celebrate with some raw, local honey straight from the hive!

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Autumn Beekeeping and the Switch to Fondant Feeding

Friday, October 11th, 2024

Returning to the apiary this autumn, I was greeted with warm, summery days – perfect for beekeeping. The ivy is now in full bloom, offering both nectar and pollen to the colonies as we approach the first frosts. It’s always fascinating to observe how much the bees have foraged, and this time of year offers a final opportunity to assess their stores before winter sets in.

This year, I’ve made a significant change to how I feed my bees: I’ve switched from commercial sugar syrup to fondant. While syrup was effective, it was often messy, and the bees consumed it too quickly, reducing the available space for the queen to lay eggs. The syrup also encouraged robbing by wasps and other bees, creating unnecessary stress for the colonies. This made it clear that a better solution was needed, especially as the bees should be focusing on storing resources for winter rather than defending the hive from robbers.

Now, I’m using 12.5kg blocks of fondant per hive, which I’ve found to be far more manageable. To gauge how hungry the bees are and assess their foraging success, I start off with a smaller 2.5kg slab of fondant. This gives me a good sense of whether the bees have been able to gather enough from the flowering ivy. If the colonies are still hungry after consuming the initial fondant, I’ll know they need more support.

Once the bees have finished the initial feed, each colony receives a 12.5kg block, cut into two slabs using a bread knife. This should be enough to last them through the remaining weeks of autumn. I’ll return around bonfire night to check on them, removing any remaining supers, unused fondant, and the treatments. Liquid syrup not only caused issues with robbing but also complicated the treatment process. By switching to fondant, I’ve streamlined the whole approach, helping to maintain the health of the colonies in a less invasive way.

Aside from the feeding, I’ve also got some final colonies to move between apiaries. Once this is done, I’ll be finished for the season and can turn my attention to planning for next year. Though it may seem counterintuitive, the beekeeping season really starts in October, as this is when I begin preparing for the year ahead, making sure the colonies are set up for success through the winter months and into spring.

How well the colonies overwinter plays a crucial role in their performance next year. A healthy, well-fed colony with good stores and minimal stress is much more likely to build up quickly in the spring, setting the stage for a productive season. This is why it’s so important to get things right during the autumn – the work we put in now will directly impact how well the bees thrive when the warmer months return.

With this new system in place, the bees will be all set for winter, ready to settle down as the cold weather takes hold. The switch to fondant has made my autumn beekeeping routine much simpler and, more importantly, keeps the hives healthier and more secure as they prepare for the months ahead.

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Late Summer Harvest: Overcoming Challenges for a Promising Honey Yield

Tuesday, September 3rd, 2024

It’s time for the late summer harvest, and what a challenging year it has been. Poor weather has led to subpar forage and very low honey stores throughout the season. However, in this last warm stretch of August, things have turned around, and the bees have been busier than ever. As you can see in the photo, the hives are getting smaller now. This happens as we remove the honey-filled boxes, known as supers or shallows. During the peak months of June and July, the hives expand to accommodate up to 150,000 bees. Since that many bees can’t fit into just the brood box—the box at the bottom where the queen lays her eggs and the nurse bees care for the larvae—we add extra space. Now, it’s time to remove those heavy honey-laden boxes and take them to the honey room to begin the long, sticky, and messy process of extracting honey. With any luck, this year’s harvest will exceed our expectations, and we may even have some summer honey for 2024.

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Meltonby Honey As Seen On Fish on Friday (FoF)

Monday, September 2nd, 2024

So you probably already know, I have a following for early Marillion (81-91), and after Fish split, I’ve followed Fish Solo career, and the latest and last albums arrived last week.

So last week on Friday 30th August 2024, Meltonby Honey appeared on the show!

The video is the right way wound now, and for those wondering “He Knows You Know” is a Marillion song, one of my favorites, and it still remains a mystery how Dr Emlyin Roberts knew!

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Honey jar labelling Sunday!

Monday, August 19th, 2024

So what did you do with your Sunday! I started to label this years (2024) Summer Honey.

The majority of this year’s summer honey which was extracted weeks ago was delivered to pre-paid Wedding Orders as Honey favours.

 

The next batch which was extracted was not ripe – the water content tested at above 20% – which according to the Honey Legislation Act 2015 is technically not honey so it cannot be sold , and there is a risk it can ferment in the jars – so it was all fed back to the bees for them to deal with it correctly and this will be removed and extracted at the end of August!

This is just one of many issues we’ve had this year, see my monthly notes!

January/February 2024 – Feeding fondant – winter far too warm bees too active and ate through their winter stores too quick.

March 2024 – All hives and nucleus colonies went through the winter well – still feeding fondant

April 2024 – Bees expanding very quickly forage available – good hawthorn, blossom on fruit trees although this year no canola in the area! had to start Demeree and putting honey boxes into hives as the bees were expanding very quickly!

May 2024 – Disaster weather turns cold – large colonies need feeding eating 2.5kg a fondant a week! Many reports across the UK of starvation, queens stop laying, failing , colonies that showed signs of swarming have stopped!Majority of reared queens have failed!

June/July 2024 – Weather continued to be poor and a wash out! A few late swarms around

August 2024 – Weather getting warmer – a few honey flows – there could be some summer honey! Extracted honey not ripe! Fed back to bees!

September 2024 – Remove all surplus honey, and feeding and treating for winter, and bringing hives home for winter.

 

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Andy’s Honey Stall

Monday, June 22nd, 2015

Last Saturday, I did my first honey stall, at a Local Produce Market at the local village hall, to support the local community. Lets just say it was a great success, and I will be ordering my new honey extractor in due course, with the proceeds! I also sold eggs, and plants from the Allotments.

Honey Stall at Yapham Village Hall

Honey Stall at Yapham Village Hall

Honey Stall at Yapham Village Hall

Honey Stall at Yapham Village Hall

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Andy’s Spring 2015 Honey Harvest

Monday, June 8th, 2015

Despite the slow start to spring, and the cold high winds we have experienced this spring, and lack of bees flying, I was surprised by the number of honey boxes or ‘honey supers’, I collected at the weekend for extraction. I’ve still go to go back to remove 4 honey supers, that the bees are not wanting to give up easily!!!

here’s a 1 minute video, of the extracted filtered honey, flowing into rectangular honey buckets to settle, before processing (creaming!) or jarring. None of the pollen is removed from my honey, only the wax bits, and bee parts. The water content of the honey in the comb and extracted was 16.5%, tested with my calibrated refractometer.

Selling Honey in the UK, is subject to the The Honey (England) Regulations 2003, an easier version is here  The British Beekeepers Association Selling Honey Complying with the Law. Yes there is a Honey Law, and monitored by the Honey Police!

and it states “The water content of the honey must be not more than 20%.The higher the water content the more likely the honey is to ferment.”

So that’s what work goes into a jar of local honey from a British Beekeeper, spare a thought for that  the next time, you pick-up a jar of “honey-syrup” from a supermarket! If you have never tasted honey from a local British Beekeeper, I’m afraid you have never tasted real honey.

The analogy I like to use is the difference, between a 21 years old single Scottish malt whiskey and a blended whiskey! The malt whiskey is the local honey, and the blended whiskey is the honey syrup from the supermarket, in this comparison.

So support British Beekeepers, and purchase a jar from your local Beek today!

6 'honey-supers' on my bee barrow!

6 'honey-supers' on my bee barrow!

Andy's Hives

Andy's Hives

Andy's Hives

Andy's Hives

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World Exclusive Meltonby Honey Sold Here!

Sunday, May 24th, 2015

Now that I have my new Catering Certificate, see this blog post, I’m scaling up the Honey Selling activities…first I purchased a ‘A Pavement board”, to replace my smaller Local Honey sign, and Lindsey kindly did the artwork. The artwork is Copyright (c) Andysworld! (well Lindseyworld!) 2015. So be warned anyone that downloads it, and uses it!

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Meltonby Honey Sold Here

Online Ordering coming soon….to a website near you!

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