So how is honey made?

Each year begins with  spring. Colonies are checked and given room to expand. 

Bees must be kept safe from predators, parasites and infection so they are healthy and strong, ready to collect the nectar when the blossoms appear. 

 Honey itself is a complicated mixture of natural sugars, enzymes, pollen, water and minerals. 

Bees make honey from the nectar of flowers. This nectar is called the flow. The taste of the honey harvested varies based on the nectar available to the bees.  

 When the flowers bloom they produce sweet nectar which the bees collect and take back to the hive to turn into honey.

 Starting with a wax foundation the bees draw out the honeycomb and fill it up with delicious honey. 

They make the honey by adding natural enzymes to the nectar and then fanning their wings to reduce the moisture so it does not ferment. 

Being able to recognise and preserve the  quality of this harvest is our business. 

 When the bee boxes (Supers) are full of honey they are harvested. Making sure to leave enough honey behind for the bees the full boxes are loaded onto the truck and taken to the extraction plant.

In the extraction room the full frames are unloaded from the boxes onto the uncapping line where each frame of honeycomb passes through the uncapping knife and then the pricker. 

This exposes and loosens the honey so it is ready ready for spinning. Uncapped frames are transferred into the extractor then spun around for several minutes at very high speed. 

The honey flies off the comb and onto the walls due to centrifugal force and then collects in the base where it is transferred to specially containers ready for bottling.

When it is time to bottle the honey drums are gently melted using the same temperature as found inside the beehive.

 The honey is then pumped into the creamer and churned until it is soft set. 

All honey will crystallize in time, so to ensure a great consistency we cream it using our special soft set process.

Once the honey is at the desired consistency, it is ready for bottling.

Each bottling head can fill up to 3000 jars per day and batches can be up to 3.3 tonnes per filling line. We use Nassenheider geared fillers for accuracy, consistency and reliability.

Once bottled, product is labelled, put into cartons, loaded onto pallets and wrapped up ready to ship.