We do not use antibiotics or synthetic pesticides in our hives. The nectar sources in our locale give us some outstanding honey flavor.
Heating and filtering honey for a longer shelf life removes the finer flavor elements and healthful components. Our raw honey is never heated or filtered.
Honeybees collect nectar from trees, shrubs, berry plants, and flowers. Plant nectar has about 2% sugar - similar to maple sap.
The foraging bees bring the nectar back to the hive where other bees store it in the hive honeycomb. Worker bees fan the stored nectar inside the hive to reduce the water content down to 18% moisture or less. Our honey ranges from 17.5% moisture down to 15.5% moisture.
At this concentration, the honey will not spoil hence does not need to be refrigerated. By comparison, liquid maple syrup is about 33% moisture.
Our honey frames are brought directly from our hives to our stainless steel extractor.
After the extractor spins the honey from the frames, the honey falls through stainless steel screens into food-grade tanks leaving all of its healthful properties intact.
We carefully bottle it fresh by hand into several types of glass honey jars for your enjoyment (we do not use plastic honey jars.)