When it comes to harvesting honey, the wellbeing of our bees always comes first. Before any honey is collected, each hive is carefully inspected to assess the overall health of the colony. We check that the queen is laying well, the brood pattern is healthy, and the bees have sufficient stores to support the colony.
Our first priority is ensuring that the bees have enough food for themselves. Honey is their natural food source, and we only harvest surplus honey after confirming that the colony has ample reserves. We never take honey at the expense of the bees’ health or survival.
Once we have determined that a hive has excess honey available, we select frames that are fully capped. Capped honey indicates that the bees have reduced the moisture content and sealed the honey with a layer of wax, ensuring it is properly ripened and ready for harvest.
To remove the bees from the honey frames, we use a hand blower to gently encourage them back into the hive. The frames are then placed into a collection box and transported to our extraction room.
The extraction process is designed to preserve the natural qualities of the honey. Each frame is carefully uncapped by removing the thin layer of wax sealing the honey cells. No heat is used during this process. The frames are then placed into an extractor, where centrifugal force spins the honey from the comb while leaving the wax structure intact for the bees to reuse.
After extraction, the honey is passed through a mesh strainer to remove larger particles of wax. Unlike many commercial honey products, our honey is not heated or ultra-filtered. By avoiding excessive processing, the honey retains many of its natural characteristics, including trace amounts of pollen, propolis, and fine wax particles.
This gentle harvesting method allows us to produce honey that is as close as possible to the way the bees created it pure, natural, and full of the unique flavours and characteristics of the local environment. Every jar reflects the hard work of our bees and our commitment to caring for them responsibly.
One of the things we love most about honey is that no two harvests are ever exactly the same. The flavour, colour, aroma, and texture of our honey naturally vary throughout the year because our bees forage on whatever is flowering in the local Yatala area at the time.
Honey bees can travel up to 6 kilometres from the hive in search of nectar and pollen, gathering resources from a diverse range of native and garden plants across the region. The local flora changes with the seasons, creating a constantly evolving blend of nectar sources. Throughout the year, our bees may forage on various species of paperbark, bottlebrush, wattles, flowering herbs, and the many eucalyptus species that are found throughout the area.
These changing floral sources create subtle differences in every harvest. Some batches may be lighter and more delicate, while most of ur honey has a richer, more robust flavour and deeper colours. This seasonal variation is one of the hallmarks of raw, local honey and reflects the unique environment in which the bees live and forage.
Rather than trying to standardise the flavour, we celebrate these natural differences. Each jar captures a snapshot of the local landscape at a particular moment in time, telling the story of the flowers that were in bloom and the remarkable work of the bees that visited them.
