Hive to table honey
Latest Updates
Is your honey "raw"? Is your honey organic?
We have not classified our honey as "raw". The reason is that we feel this is unfair marketing for you. There is NO established standard in the US for raw honey. As such, if you buy "raw" honey, you don't actually know what you're buying. With our honey, we tell you exactly what we do to it. See the next question in our FAQ for details. We believe our honey is the closest to using honey right from the hive as possible.
There is also no standard in the US for organic honey because bees will fly up to five miles away to collect nectar. There is almost no place in the US where nectar can be collected by bees and guarantee they have visited all organic flowers.
However, please know that we have used the highest standards in all of our beekeeping management decisions to bring you the purest honey possible. Because that's the honey we want to eat and give our families! We follow all FDA guidelines in the application of treatments for Varroa mites and other hive pests to ensure our bees are healthy and productive. We manage all our hives to avoid the use of any pest treatments until after honey has been collected.
How is your honey processed?
Because our honey is collected using Flow hives, it requires very little processing before going into a container! We consider our honey minimally processed. Here is how the honey you will get from us has been handled:
1) During extraction, we use a 400 micron strainer. This size will catch particles of wax, propolis, and other hive debris, but still allows almost all of the beneficial pollen to pass through and remain in the honey.
2) After extraction, we let the honey settle in the collection container for three days at a warm temperature of 100°F - 105°F. This is only about 10°F more than the internal temperature of a beehive. The reason for this is to allow air bubbles to rise to the top (so your bottle is filled accurately) and it dissolves any tiny crystals that may have formed in the honey. These tiny crystals are a normal aggregation of sugars in honey but they can speed up crystallization if not dissolved.
3) Our honey is then bottled, labeled, and placed in a freezer dedicated for our beekeeping.
Why do you freeze the honey?
Freezing honey is the best way to store it! Frozen honey will never crystallize and preserves all the pollen from deterioration! This ensures the honey you get is as close as possible to being the same as the day it was collected!
Should I freeze the honey when I get home?
You don't have to if you plan to use it. Just keep in mind that honey begins to crystallize immediately. How long honey takes to crystallize depends on the temperature where it is maintained and the nectar source that the bees collected. Some types of nectar sources will crystallize the honey faster than others. So to prevent your honey from crystallizing, you may want to keep it frozen. The good thing is that honey thaws very quickly if you need it. You can always decant some honey you will use in the coming weeks in a clean jar or other container and freeze the rest!
Is crystallized honey bad/spoiled?
No. In normal conditions, honey never spoils! Honey was found in ancient Egyptian tombs and it was still good! But it was crystallized. Crystallization is a normal aggregation of the sugars in honey stored at typical room temperatures. A number of factors contribute to how fast a particular container of honey will crystallize, including moisture content of the honey, the nectar source, and the storage temperature. Once crystals begin to form, the process picks up speed. While it won't harm you, it has a gritty feel from the crystals and is not the smooth honey you may want to eat. If your honey crystallizes, just gently warm it, such as placing it in pot with warm water. It will eventually dissolve.
With certain conditions, honey can ferment. Fermented honey creates a lot of bubbles. If you ever have any questions about the appearance of your honey, even if you didn't get it from us, feel free to contact us and we'll be happy to take a look and provide any guidance.
Click here to learn more about the honey found in ancient Egyptian tombs!
Where do we go to buy your honey?
We are proudly craft honey producers. As such, we can provide the highest quality honey due to our small batch sizes. Therefore, our honey will be a very exclusive product.
Due to the small quantity of honey we are producing, we operate under Pennsylvania's laws for "on-the-farm" sales. This means that we can ONLY sell our honey out of our home. Our honey will not be available in any store or market stands. Additionally, to keep the price competitive for our craft honey, we will not be shipping honey. All honey must be picked up. To make arrangements, please contact us at 3bh.info@gmail.com or fill out the form below.
Add a Testimonial
Without our customers, we could not support our bees.
If you purchased some of our products, please take a moment and leave us some feedback. Thank you!
