48 hours before we plan to extract, we place ‘clearer boards’ in-between the honey boxes we wish to extract (most hives will have at least 2 honey boxes at this time) allowing the bees to safely leave and restrict their return. This gives us clear honey boxes to remove, placing them on our trolley and taking to the extraction van ready to be processed.
 
All of our boxes and honey frames are marked with our unique beekeeping brand. This allows us to keep track of hive and box orders to ensure all frames and boxes are returned to their correct homes, in the exact order we removed them. One of the most important reasons we do this is for quarantine and hygiene standards. In the unlikely event of disease contamination, we can pin point location and prevent the spread of disease.

Once our full honey boxes have been loaded into the extraction van that we affectionately call our ‘big white box’, we get to start our extraction process. We remove the honey frames from the boxes and load them into the top of our uncapping machine. The uncapping machine passes the frames down through 2 warmed blades, slicing all the excess wax cappings and honey that is protruding on the frame so it’s nice and even to fit into the spinning extractor. Once the frames have worked down to the base of the uncapper, they are pushed along a rail towards the extractor. This rail allows 2 and a half honey boxes worth of frames to build up, ready to be loaded into the extractor. This is another way we ensure the frames are unloaded in the exact order they are loaded.
 
All of the wax and honey that is cut off from the frames during the uncapping falls down into a reducer. The reducer warms the wax, separating it from the honey and allowing it to be poured into buckets after the process has been finished. The wax will sit on top of the honey so we can easily remove, which we then use for other products such as tea light candles or we sell as is. This honey is usually discarded or used to treat animal wounds, as it’s not good enough to eat due to being heated in the reducer.
 
The extractor has a marked starting point to again allow us to keep track of hive and frame order and to ensure no mix-ups. Our current extractor holds up to 24 frames at a time. Once the extractor is full we then turn it on. Ours spins both forward and backwards and has a speed adjustment too. This ensures we spin the most amount of honey out of our frames as possible. The frames spin for several minutes in both directions before being stacked in their correct order back into their corresponding honey boxes. The honey that is spun out of the cells falls down into a sump and then is sucked up by the honey pump and pumped into honey drums ready for transport. At all times, the honey only comes into contact with either stainless steel or food grade surfaces.
 
Once the frames have been returned into their boxes, we load them back onto the trolley and return them to their corresponding hives. We always place the fresh empty honey boxes underneath any other existing honey boxes and on top of the brood box. This is because bees work from the bottom of the hive upwards. Our bees will then clean the freshly harvested frames, ready to be refilled with their incredibly delicious honey.
 
We then either store the honey drums for future use or pour the honey into buckets and allow it to settle for at least 2-3 days. This allows any wax to move to the surface for us to remove before tipping the honey into a stainless steel vat. From the vat, we pour straight into the jars that you’ve come to know and love.
 
By not filtering our honey, this ensures all the amazing natural goodness of the raw honey is kept intact and you, the consumer, are eating the most natural form of honey that nature can provide. YUM!