From Hive to Jar
From our bees collecting nectar around Rainford to each jar being filled and labelled by hand, here is how our Rainford Honey gets from the hive to your cupboard.
Step 1.
Collecting the nectar
Our Rainford honey begins with the bees collecting nectar from flowers, trees, hedgerows and gardens around our apiaries.
Step 2.
Turning nectar into honey
Back inside the hive, the bees work the nectar into honey by reducing its water content before storing it in the wax comb.
Step 3.
Sealing the honey
Once the honey is ready, the bees seal each filled cell with a thin layer of wax.
These are the wax cappings you see covering ripe honeycomb.
Step 4.
Choosing what to harvest
We only harvest honey when the colony has sufficient stores for itself and the frames are properly capped and ready to take.
Step 5.
Removing the cappings
The wax cappings are carefully removed by hand, exposing the honey stored inside the comb.
Step 6.
Extracting the honey
The uncapped frames are placed into a honey extractor and spun, allowing the honey to leave the comb while the wax structure of the frame remains intact.
Step 7.
Straining and settling
The extracted honey is lightly strained to remove larger pieces of wax and then left to settle. We keep this part of the process deliberately simple.
Step 8.
Into the jar
Finally, the honey is poured into jars before being labelled and packed by hand in Rainford, ready to head out to our customers and local stockists.
