From Hive to Jar:
The Art of Beekeeping
Discover the careful process behind every jar of Sam’s pure Somerset honey.
At Sam’s Honey Bees, producing honey is a carefully balanced process that involves nurturing the bees and respecting nature.
Each jar of honey reflects the dedication we put into ensuring the bees are healthy and the environment is thriving.
Keeping Our Bees Happy and Healthy
The process of producing high-quality honey starts with the health of our bees. At Sam’s Honey Bees, regular inspections are crucial to identify and address potential pests like the varroa mite, which can weaken a colony. By treating the bees at the end of summer, just after the honey is harvested, we give them the best chance of surviving winter and being strong enough to thrive in the spring.
We believe that healthy bees lead to better honey, and ensuring their wellbeing is our first priority.
Life in the Hive: The Role of the Bees
Inside the hive, every bee has a job to do. During the winter months, long-living winter bees help the colony survive, while summer bees live for about six weeks, working tirelessly to collect nectar, care for the brood, and protect the hive. The queen is the heart of the hive, laying up to 2,000 eggs a day during the summer to expand the colony.
Every bee plays a vital role in preparing the hive for the honey flow, making it a true team effort from start to finish.
The Honey Harvest
As the bees gather nectar, they reduce its moisture content by fanning it with their wings, preventing fermentation. When the honey is ready, they cap it with wax to seal in its purity. Only then do we harvest the honey.
We carefully remove the capped honeycomb from the hive, ensuring the process is as natural as possible.
“Our Honey supers fully capped ready for extraction ”
The Honey Spinning Process
Once the honey is harvested off of the hive, the next step is to spin it out of the honeycomb. While spinning is a vital part of beekeeping, it’s not Sam’s favourite task! The frames are uncapped removing the fine layer of wax the bees made to seal in the honey. The frame is placed in a special machine called a honey extractor, which spins the honey out of the comb using centrifugal force. After spinning, the honey is strained/sieved to remove any wax and impurities from the uncapping process, to ensure it’s clear and free from debris before being settled in our settling tanks before being jarred, completely untreated – just as the bees made it.
At Sam’s Honey Bees, we strive to keep the honey as natural as possible, ensuring that nothing is added or taken away from its pure form.
Natural, Untreated, and Pure
What makes Sam’s Honey Bees honey so special is its purity. Our honey is never processed or treated with chemicals. It goes straight from hive to jar, preserving the rich, natural flavours of Somerset. Each jar is filled with honey that reflects the environment it comes from – whether it’s the wildflowers of the countryside or the hedgerows of the fields.
We believe that honey should be as nature intended – pure, untreated, and straight from the bees.
The Beekeeping Year:
A Seasonal Journey
Each year in beekeeping brings its own unique challenges and rewards. Spring is a time for hive inspections and colony expansion, while summer is all about gathering nectar and producing honey. In autumn, the bees are prepared for winter, with treatments applied to ensure their health. Throughout the year, our focus remains on the wellbeing of the bees, so they can continue producing honey for years to come.