For many years we have had a love hate relationship with raising bees. We love raising them, but they hated the environment we lived in with crop dusters overhead, spraying and surrounded by intense ag. We would lose them every year to the sprays, the pesticides, neonicotinoids and then lost them with a slow change in their environment that was no longer full of the foods they love to eat and pollinate. (as everything became even more intense mono culture and about production)
We stopped raising them for a few years and after moving to an area with a bit more protection, we got back into raising them - although I truly feel like that is a stretch of the phrase as bees kind of do their own raising. We've had bees for a few years now, and some years are fantastic, some are not so great with weather, pests and other things being a challenge. But we love the little insects and their incredible symbiotic relationship with everything on our property.
We spend hours watching and interacting with them - little Reuben running around scooping up ones who are on the ground after falling off an inner cover, singing to them the cowboy songs and gently setting them back on the landing board of the hive he hopes they came from :)
A couple of years ago we got into making splits and raising queens to help break the mite cycles. Some years in June we may have splits available for purchasing and depending on the year, home raised queens. We usually have 20-40 hives going and support nucs(smaller hives). We do 4 frame, 6 frame, 8 frame and 10 frame as well as trying Sam Comfort's square box style as we are always looking for what works best with the bees in our climate. We have several mentors in the non treatment world who help us keep our bees healthy, nutrition high and help to cheer us on in this never ending learning curve called bees. Because it is never the same two years in a row! We have transitioned to Russians over the last couple of years and so far have enjoyed our experience with them and hope to continue in our treatment free journey!
So, now for the honey :)
All of our honey is raw, unheated and minimally filtered. We could certainly triple filter to give you the perfect pristine product you purchase from the stores, but that would defeat the purpose of the product we produce - honey full of bee pollen, bits of royal jelly, yeasts, propolis, enzymes and other complex immeasurable things that make honey a superfood. Yes, local honey has the ability to reduce your seasonal allergies, calm bronchial spasms, sooth sore throats, fight infections, heal burns and many more things.
Why we don't pasteurize or triple filter?
Pasteurizing involves heating up the honey which helps to eliminate yeasts that can cause honey fermenting and also slows down the crystallization process. Pasteurized honey remains liquid longer than raw honey, something useful when you sell it in a squeeze bottle. But it also kills the natural yeasts and enzymes which are healthy for you. Filtration helps to keep a transparent product that is aesthetically appealing unless you realize that much of what has been filtered out was contributing to the health of the product. When I look into a pail of our honey, I see health.
Processing definitely affects honey's nutritional value, and the lack of extra filtration or pasteurization means your honey has higher nutritional value including amino acids, vitamin b6, thiamine, niacin, riboflavin, pantothenic acid, calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, sodium, zinc, enzymes, and antioxidants known as polyphenols. Polyphenols help to fight heart disease and cancer.
Our honey has no extra added ingredients - it came from the hive to the jars with no heating at all. Some companies do low heat treatment to extract the maximum amount of honey from the frames, and that does affect the honey. We have used honey extensively on burns and injuries and one year when we tried local unpasteurized honey that the producer said had stayed under 110 (so able to be claimed unpasteurized), it did not have the benefit that good raw honey has. And I know from too many burns that heat treated honey does not sooth the burns immediately like raw honey. Did you know that raw honey is used even in vet clinics and human ER's to treat burns and wounds?
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We sell honey in pints, quarts, half gallon, and 5 gallon pails.
We also sell creamed honey which is not simply a whipped or spun honey, but a process where you take crystallized honey and break the large crystals into small smooth crystals by blending or grinding. When you have done this, you "seed" your regular liquid raw honey with this creamed honey and blend it to control the size of the crystals. You then bottle it and let it sit in a controlled environment and the entire bottle of honey becomes small smooth crystals - the smaller the crystals, the smoother and creamier the honey will be. So the creamed honey is still raw honey, but it is smooth, sumptuous and creamy, and unlike regular honey, it is spreadable. BUT creamed honey is still good raw honey.
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If our regular raw honey crystallizes (how quickly it does so depends on what the bees have been collecting as many bee foods cause faster crystallization), simply warm the jar in a pot of water that is not hotter than 98F. That way you will retain all the benefits of raw honey, but take it back to it's lovely pour able self. The creamed honey is stable and will not change.
We also sell infused honeys which are raw liquid honey infused with spices or freeze dried fruits or peppers. Our creamed and infused flavors include Chai, Spiced Citrus, Cherry Dragonfruit, Peach Mango, Chocolate, Strawberry, Raspberry, Regular (unflavored), Lemon, and infused Sweet n' Spicy Jalapeno.
​Regular honey:
12 oz. - $7.50
1.5 lb - $13
3 lb. - $22
1/2 gal. - $39
5 gallon pail - $295
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Creamed and Infused:
5oz - $6.00
10oz -$11.00
20oz - $19.00
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For legal reasons, we have to share that raw honey and processed honey can contain a bacteria known as Clostridium botulinum. This bacteria can be harmful and potentially fatal to children under the age of one as their digestive system has not developed enough to handle the bacteria. Clostridium botulinum causes an illness known as botulism and it is not recommended that children under 1 year of age be fed any honey. What you choose to do is your own choice :)