Crystallizing Honey

Honey crystallizes naturally
Lovers of good honey may mistakenly believe that when honey crystallizes or sets, it has somehow gone off. This is not the case, in fact it is a sign of quite the opposite.
Most honeys will at some point become crystallized or set. This is a sign that it is genuine pure honey and that it has not been overheated or filtered excessively. The reason why some honeys crystallize quickly and others do not, and also why different honeys vary in colour and flavour, is all down to the type of flowers that the bees gathered the nectar and pollen from.
It is the balance between the naturally occuring sugars in honey that is the main factor that determines how fast the honey crystallizes. We try to choose honey that is likely to stay clear and not set too quickly to put in jars for our clear honey. The honey that we think is likely to set quickly is “creamed” and jarred for set honey. Creamed means we put the honey into a machine that breaks the crystals as they form, so the honey sets, but not to a rock hard consistency. Nothing is added to the honey when we cream it. We don’t always get it 100% right; it’s our best guess as to which flowers the bees collected the honey from. As a consequence, sometime our clear honey starts to set before the jar is empty. There are other factors involved in the crystallization process, such as the storage temperature, mineral and enzyme content in the honey.

Restoring Honey to its clear/liquid state
Honey can easily be restored to its clear/liquid state by warming it very gently. Overheating honey destroys the enzymes naturally found in honey and can spoil the taste. Standing the jar of honey in a bowl of warm water is usually enough to restore it to liquid. A microwave oven on a low setting for a short time will also do the trick. Microwaves vary greatly, so start off cautiously and increase the time if you need to; stirring the honey intermittently will speed up the process. Don’t forget to remove the metal lid before if using the microwave method.

“Raw Honey” statement

 

The Pont family’s bees have been making honey from the fields and hedgerows around Lincoln for four generations. Our honey is extracted without heating. It is not pasteurised. It is not filtered – only coarse strained. Some people choose to describe honey produced by this method as ‘Raw Honey’. By this definition all honey sold legally in the UK would be described as “raw”, however at Ponts’ honey we see no need to over emphasise the quality of our honey and mislead customers. The taste of our Pure English Honey speaks for itself.

Spring Feeding

It is important to give the colonies that are light a little help in early spring. Most plants that flower early in spring produce an abundance of pollen but not a great quantity of nectar. If weather conditions do not allow the bees to fly then we may decide to feed pollen in the form of Candipolline. Feeding in spring stimulates the queen to lay eggs, therefore feeding in spring is a double edged sword. Feed too soon or if winter returns for a final thros we may find feeding has merely resulted in producing more mouths that the colony is unable to feed without more intervention from the beekeeper.

PONTS’ WINTER PREP

WINTER PREPARATION BEGINS

Winter is a time for preparing for the new season ahead. We at Ponts Honey and Lincolnshire Apiaries are busy making new frames and dipping old ones in a solution of boiling washing soda.The frames come out free of old wax and propolis, ready to be fitted with new foundation wax.

My late father, who founded the business, was always reluctant to fit new foundation in frames before March. I have to concede he was right about most things bee related (sixty odd years of experience has to count for something) but about this he was wrong.  My advise is alway get prepared as much as possible in advance. That includes fitting foundation to frame – sooner the better. We know we will not have the time when the season starts.