WELCOME TO B&E HONEY
Local * Unfiltered * Raw
Welcome to B&E Honey. Our main goal is to always achieve a high level of customer satisfaction with the services and products that we provide. This simple approach has effectively fueled our growth since we opened our doors in 2021. We’re thrilled you’ve decided to visit us - please browse our site to discover what we’re all about.
NEWS
October 5, 2024
Fall Honey has arrived. The Fall harvest yielded a dark amber honey with robust flavor. This honey won 2nd Place in the annual Bucks County Beekeepers Association honey judging contest held on October 8, 2024.
June 20, 2024
Now Available - Spring Honey. It has a subtle floral aroma and is a beautiful golden color.
Got Allergies?
Springtime is the time of new beginnings. The trees and flowers bloom creating a beautiful scene. With it comes allergies. Honey has been known to be a natural anti-allergen product. By taking honey daily people have found some relief of their allergies. If you are using honey for allergies, it is best to take it directly. By putting honey in hot tea, for example, you may be reducing some of the antiallergic properties.
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Spring 2023
We are Growing
B&E Honey is expanding. We have expanded our apiary to three additional properties in Bucks County. One in Langhorne and two in Solebury. The objective of this expansion is to diversify our honey crop. Different areas produce different honey. it will be exciting to see how this honey differs in taste and appearance. All of this depends on the flowers the bees can harvest nectar from. With luck, we are hoping to harvest honey from these new locations by the end of the summer.
THE SNOW HAS ARRIVED AT B&E HONEY
January 2024
We had our first significant snowfall in 2024 with about 4 inches falling in the apiary. Snow acts as an insulator for the hives as it keeps warm air in and cold air out. The snow on the landing board blocks cold drafts from coming into the hive. At this point, the bees are clustered closely together to generate warmth. I supplement their food with a special natural ingredient fondant from Ireland that contains carbohydrates plus other nutrients to promote bee health. This will help the bees be strong during the final weeks of Winter.
OUTSIDE THE HIVE IN FEBRUARY
February 2024
Lentin Rose or Hellebore is one of the first flowers to bloom in late Winter. These plants thrive in the cold weather and provide both nectar and pollen. The bees actively collect the pollen and nectar. Pollen is essential because it is the primary source of protein. At this point in time the queen bee will start to lay eggs. The pollen and nectar collected will be used to feed the larvae. The bees are also collecting water. They use the water to dilute the honey to feed the brood. This is all part of the cycle to build up the bee population in preparation for the Spring nectar flow.
WHY IS HONEY DIFFERENT COLORS?
Honey is a magical substance with a light side and a dark side. Honey gets its color from the nectar that bees of a hive gather. Because plants blossom at different times of year; bees collect available nectar to make honey. A single hive can produce radically different colors of honey from season to season. All that changes is the bees’ nectar source: what we call a “varietal”. In her book The Honey Connoisseur, Marina Marchese describes the limit of what you can learn about honey from color alone: “Each varietal of honey generally falls within a color range, with slight variations…but color does not always correspond to what we expect to taste.” The common wisdom is that light honeys are mild while dark honeys are heavy and rich. This is generally true, with some exceptions. For example, goldenrod will make honey darker, but doesn’t bring along particularly intense tasting notes. Bees use whatever nectar they can find, so if lots of plants are in bloom, the honey that results will be a unique mix of different varietals with an equally unique color and flavor. Single-varietal honeys, like clover, have more consistent taste but can only be produced when that one plant is in bloom. Most honey on store shelves isn’t particularly light or dark. It’s more of a golden-orange color, consistent from bottle to bottle and brand to brand. But that honey has to be heavily processed, blended and pasteurized to end up that way. All those “unusual” light and dark honeys are what honey really looks like. They’re more likely to be pure, raw and unfiltered local honey. Even though their colors range from what beekeeper’s call “water white” to “motor-oil black,” raw and unfiltered varietal honeys are almost always cloudy and opaque, with their natural pollen––and flavor––still intact. Shop for honey by cloudiness, not color, and you won’t be disappointed. Every bottle of raw and unfiltered local honey–light or dark––has its own origin story.
HONEYBEE SWARMING IS A NATURAL PHENOMENON
Swarming is the natural way for a colony of bees to reproduce.
Springtime is a very busy and stressful time for beekeepers. If your hives (colonies) have made it through winter, it is a time of quick buildup given the blossoming of pollen-rich trees and flowers. The availability of pollen stimulates the queen to lay eggs that results in new bees being born. This results in a quick build up the colony and could quickly lead to overcrowding. This can result in a swarm.
What is a Honeybee Swarm?
Honeybee swarms are the natural way for bee colonies to reproduce. It is a sign of a healthy colony. A honeybee swarm occurs when the worker bees sense that there is no more space for the hive to grow. The queen has no more space to lay eggs. Thus, the hive will not be able to survive long-term if new bees are not born every week. In preparation for swarming the queen will slim down so she can fly. Scout worker bees will seek out a new home. Once the decision has been made to swarm the worker bees will create Queen cells at the bottom of the frames. These will house the new developing queen. As these queen cells mature the queen and half of the worker bees will leave the hive in a mass exodus. In about a week the queen cells in the hive will hatch and the new queen emerges. If more than 1 new queen emerges the new queens will fight to the death. The surviving queen will then take a mating flight, return to the hive and start laying eggs to repopulate bee the colony. The swarm finds a new home and reestablishes the colony. Thus 1 colony becomes 2.
What to do if you encounter a swarm?
Beekeepers are keen on reducing the colony’s desire to swarm by providing more space or by purposely splitting the existing colony into 2 separate colonies. It is common for swarming bees to temporarily land on tree limbs, tree trunks, sides of houses, mailboxes, etc. Bees within swarms are usually docile as they are not protecting their hive. If you see a swarm, please do not try to kill the bees. Instead contact a local beekeeper immediately. They will be glad to collect the swarm and give the bees a new home.
