Health benefits of honey

The three main benefits of eating honey are:

• Natural energy booster
• Great for building immunity
• Natural remedy for many ailments

Why do bees make honey?

Honey bees are special in that they overwinter as a colony unlike wasps and bumblebees. The colony does not hibernate but stays active and clusters together to stay warm. This requires a lot of food stored from the summer before.

Although a hive only needs 20-30lb of honey to survive an average winter, the bees are capable, if given the space of collecting much more. This is what the beekeeper wants them to do.

Do the bees miss the honey that is taken?

No. A strong colony can produce 2-3 times more honey than they need. If necessary the beekeeper can feed sugar syrup in the autumn to supplement for the loss of honey.

The Cornish Bee Farm

Tony Poor, owner of The Cornish Bee Farm, was interested in bees as a young boy. His neighbour kept hives and so it later became a part-time hobby. Several years ago he created The Cornish Bee Farm as a commercial enterprise and it is now a family run business with his wife Emma, which not only includes her but also their very dedicated children.

They manage about 300 hives in various apiary sites in Cornwall. The honey their bees produce is wildflower honey as they forage from hedgerows and pastures in a 3 mile radius around the apiary site.  In the height of summer a hive will contain approximately 35,000 bees.

Size: 360g