It’s important to us that you have all the facts about how we care for our bees, how we harvest their honey, and the process it goes through to get to your table. We call this Honey Transparency. There’s a lot of false advertising when it comes to honey, so we want to be clear about what we do, what we don’t do, and what you are getting when you uncork a jar of Apiary Select honey.It’s important to us that you have all the facts about how we care for our bees, how we harvest their honey, and the process it goes through to get to your table. We call this Honey Transparency. There’s a lot of false advertising when it comes to honey, so we want to be clear about what we do, what we don’t do, and what you are getting when you uncork a jar of Apiary Select honey.
- Bee Care
- Honey Production
Bee Care
Bee Care
As you’ve probably heard, honeybees aren’t easy to keep alive. A variety of ailments and parasites can wipe out colonies and keep that sweet, sweet honey out of your hot tea. Despite a plethora of folks who will say that “treatment free” bees will naturally find a way to survive the various pests and ailments that plague the honeybee population, science shows that to be false – at least in the short term. Because we want to be able to deliver as much honey as possible each year, and keep as many of our bees alive as possible, Apiary Select adopts a comprehensive integrated pest management program that includes a variety of measures to keep our bees at maximum health and production. These include a strong nutrition program and physical measures that prevent, trap, and kill common bee foes like varroa mites and small hive beetles. However, sometimes these pests, especially varroa, survive and thrive despite these measures.
We always try to minimize treatments, and so we regularly inspect our colonies to only treat when absolutely necessary – and never during honey production. In all cases, we only use natural treatments with compounds and methods approved by the Environmental Protection Agency. When we do need to provide treatments to keep our hives healthy, we rely on three types of treatment: formic acid-based, oxalic acid-based and hops beta acid-based. These are naturally-occurring (formic acid is even produced by bees!) and are approved, effective, and safe.
These measures ensure that our bees can keep making honey (and more bees!) and that Apiary Select can keep bottling that sweet, sugary nectar of the gods.