- About Our Products-
Commitment to Wholesome
Our family is dedicated to wholesomeness here at Hens & Hives Farm. We believe in the goodness of nature and the special purity of raw honey. Honey just may be the perfect food. Honey never needs refrigeration or preservatives. Honey never goes bad. Pure honey will naturally crystalize, but crystalized honey isn't bad honey. Some people actually prefer crystalized honey. Honey has been found that is thousands of years old and is still edible!
Honey bees are amazing! Each of our colonies has only one queen that lays all the eggs. All the worker bees are female. There are a small number of drones in each colony who have but one purpose- to mate with a virgin queen from another colony. These male drones are so lazy that they depend on the female workers to feed them. In the height of summer, each colony can reach 60,000-80,000 bees. Honey bees will visit about two million flowers and fly 50,000 miles (That's equal to twice around the world!) to make one pound of honey. Honey is precious indeed. The bees manage to make a surplus of honey, more than what they need to survive the winter. It is this surplus that we harvest while making sure that each colony has ample supplies until the next spring. We also harvest bees wax along with some extra honey comb. We are pleased to help the bees and to offer the surplus honey, wax and comb for sale for your enjoyment.
Why Raw Honey?
Raw honey means unpastureized honey. Raw honey doesn't spoil and it doesn't need to be pastuerized. Raw honey is anti-bacterial, anti-fungal, and anti-viral. Some have found these antiseptic qualities of honey to be an excellent wound healer. Raw honey contains natural enzymes that are destroyed by heating. Unpastuerized (unheated) honey contains these natural enzymes that are also essential for human digestion. Raw honey will crystalize in time, but simply heating it will de-crystalize it. Heating should be done slowly and the temperature should never be allowed to reach 140 degrees or higher. At this temperature honey can be considered pastuerized.
In addition our honey is unfiltered. We strain our honey but never filter it. Filtering honey removes beneficial particles such as pollen beeswax, and propolis. This is why some people find allergy relief with honey. Local raw honey contains local pollen. If you are attempting to find allergy relief, be sure to buy local raw honey. This will ensure that the pollen in your honey is the same as in your environment. Our bees are free to roam all the local foliage of the Brookfields, foliage that is typical in the northeast USA.
