Thanks, Pete from Aldridge.

Meeting a Local Professional Bee Keeper with 2 million bees, who want shorter flowers and more honey

...and on a more serious note, we found that....

Natural English Honey is in shortage this year, due to low temperatures in Spring.

Even Bee's don't like a cold wet Spring, which is why they stay in the hive waiting for warmer weather. A Hive will have around 60,000 Bees, but if disease or other influences reduce that number to around 10,000 they will all die from from the heat generted in the hive, which can't be regulated to a crtical constant tempreature, by the bees beating their wings.

Typically a hive needs at least an acre of flower abundant land such as yellow rape, star flower or blue heather, dependant on season and location, to produce good honey in volume.

forager bee's collect pollen and nectar for food and to produce honey. The full honeycomb cells are capped with wax as a food store, to be used when the outside weather and temperature stops foraging activity, this store of honey is harvested by the bee keeper. In return he provides a special formulae for them to feed on when they are not active.

Organic Honey, which by definition means, honey produced by bees visiting land and plants untreated by chemicals, is very hard to find, simply because bee's "fly freely" to gather pollen and nectar, and don't complete a declaration on return to the hive for quality control and organic regulations.( Maybe that's why you don't see men in white coats with clip board and pen chasing bee's around the fields )

Honey from the hives of a local Bee keeper will have a colour and taste that varies with the source of local flowers and the season, that's the variation you will see in a natural product.

Honey produced in your local area can best be described as not technically organic, but natural, and many people feel it helps hayfever sufferers too.

Chemical treatment of bees overseas to keep them healthy is widespread, however British Bee keepers are not permitted to use chemicals to treat bees.
Commercially sold honey, often imported from overseas, typically goes through high preassure filtration treatments which remove important elements changing both flavour and colour. This helps to allow jars of honey to appear on the supermarket shelf with a consistant appearance all year round.

To experience the real flavour of local Natural honey and a wide range of Organic fruit & veg Produce, Visit Organic Planet, 210 Walsall Wood road, Aldridge WS9 8HB
Tel: 01922 743983

Organic planet

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