Honey

We have a few hives on the edge of the farm. The bees collect nectar and pollen from our fruit trees, wildflower garden, the clover in our yard, and the forest and conservation land around us. We extract and strain the honey producing a delicious pure natural raw product.

We sell our honey in Bormioli Rocco Fido serving jars that have a metal clasp and gasket to keep air out. These jars can be reused many times as part of our commitment to sustainability. We also sell bulk honey in reusable Ball Mason jars to refill the serving jars. The price for honey is $1 by ounce of weight plus the cost of the jar.

• Small Jar, 8oz: $15

• Large Jar, 12oz, $20

• Bulk Pint, 24oz, $25

• Bulk Quart, 48oz, $50

You may return of the jars for re-use and we will credit a portion of the cost of the jar. We prefer cash when you pick up the honey. We also accept Venmo or PayPal @RoyalBlueRoosterFarm. To arrange for purchase, contact us at honey@royalblueroosterfarm.com.

Keeping Honey

Honey can be kept indefinitely without going bad as long as it is in a sealed container that prevents moisture from entering. Honey left exposed to the air will absorb moisture and can ferment as a result, which is generally undesirable.

Honey will naturally crystalize as it is a super-saturated solution. You can slow that process down by freezing bulk honey. It never actually turns solid, but does slow down its movement so much that the crystals can't form readily. Frozen honey can be warmed on the counter and will return to its room temperature liquid state in a couple of hours. Honey that has crystalized can be re-liquified by placing the jar in warm water. Tap water at 104 degrees is plenty hot, getting the honey too hot (such as on a stove) will destroy some of its beneficial qualities and aromas. Re-liquified honey does tend to re-crystalize quickly as any small crystal of honey that didn't liquify jump-starts the crystallization process.

Bormioli Rocco Fido Jars

These serving jars can be re-used indefinitely for storing honey and so are much more sustainable then repeatedly recycling plastic or glass honey containers. You can simply refill more honey into the jar when it runs low. If you find the honey is crystalizing too soon, completely empty the jar and then rinse it in warm water to remove the remaining honey residue along the edges. You may need to scrub a little, but typically don't need to use soap as honey will dissolve with just warm water. Do not use dishwashing soap on the gasket as it could ruin it, and do not place the jar in the dishwasher as the harsh dishwasher soap will discolor the aluminum bale ring and will likely destroy the gasket.

About Honey & Bees

Honey is the only food produced by an insect that is suitable for human consumption. The bees gather nectar all summer long in order to have enough food to last through the winter. The bees mix the nectar with their own enzymes and evaporate off the water till it is about 18% water making it into honey. Strong colonies of bees create enough honey in the summer that they can share it with us.

Bees live very short lives, around 6 weeks in the summer, but the hive survives as a super-organism. Throughout a bees short lifecycle it will do many different jobs including nursing baby bees, foraging for nectar and pollen, and some are even promoted to scouting for new sources of nectar and pollen. Scout bees communicate about food sources with foragers inside the hive by doing a special dance that describes the location, distance, and quality of the food allowing the foragers to go out and collect it.

All the bees that you see out foraging are female bees. Male bees are far fewer in number and exist only to mate with virgin queen bees from other hives, after which they die. Queen bees are female bees that were fed special food, called royal jelly, when they were a baby larvae allowing their reproductive system to develop. Although they live longer than the average bee, they have a tough job all summer while laying up to one egg a minute to raise the population of worker bees high enough so they can gather the necessary food to survive the winter.

Bees will rarely go out of their way to sting you. If it does happen, remove the stinger ASAP using a scraping motion with something like a credit card. It doesn't happen often because a bee that stings someone dies shortly thereafter as it leaves behind critical parts of its body attached to the stinger. The bee has to believe you are an imminent threat usually not just to her, but also to her hive before they will take this drastic action. Most times of the year you can literally stand right next to or behind a hive and the bees will ignore you. Standing in front of a hive is inadvisable because the guard bees may consider you a threat, or you may be in the way of a take-off or landing flight of a foraging bee and they'll freak out when they bump into you. Late August through mid October are tough on the bees as other insects and animals are trying to steal their honey and so they can get a little more aggressive. Best to give their hives a wide berth this time of year to avoid accidentally being deemed a threat.

Finally, did you know that not all honey is created equal? There are unscrupulous folks out there who will mix sugar and water together and claim it is honey. There are laws against this at both the federal and state level, but they are very hard to enforce. The Netflix series Rotten explains Honey Fraud in its first episode. To avoid getting taken in by this scam, always buy honey locally from reputable sources, like Royal Blue Rooster Farm.