Honey Blog #2

11 June 2025 

Dear Honey Lovers,

There’s been some heavy rain and wind over the last week and we were impatient to get to our spring harvest. With a bit of time on my hands (it can be like that—either working like mad or sitting around and watching The Boy and the dogs getting muddier by the second), I was watching Clarkson’s Farm. Jeremy was saying that by far the best time of his year was the harvest. I couldn’t agree more.

The winter months are punishing—all you can do to help the the bees along is to keep an eye on them (without opening up the hives and letting out heat of course), and feed and treat for varroa when necessary. The worrying is a bonus. Then comes the spring rush, getting the hives up and running, setting up the new ones, catching swarms, all that.

But then—like a few days ago—the skies clear and the sun comes out and it’s finally harvest time. Pulling out laden, fully capped frames from the hives makes those anxious winter months disappear. And then after extraction and filtering, when the pure golden nectar runs out the tap, well, I’m a beekeeper not a poet so I’ll just say it’s lucky we can jar it!

And another beautiful thing about real honey is that no one batch is ever the same as another because there’s so much variety in the forage around here. Bee paradise—when it’s not bloody freezing that is! We’ve noticed that the honey from this harvest is lighter than this time last year. We can’t wait to hear your feedback!

So what now? Well, the so-called ‘June gap’ is ‘maybe’ round the corner – this is when the spring flowers finish and the summer flowers haven’t quite come into bloom yet. We will need to check that the bees have enough stores to feed on so that they stay strong and ready for when the summer flowers do appear. The June gap can last, say, 3 weeks, 2 weeks, just a few days or not at all – it all depends on the weather and Mother Nature.

Anyway, that’s it for now, I’ll update on what’s been happening again soon.

Order now and you’ll get some of the new batch of spring honey! We’d love to hear what you think so let us know on Instagram @nakednectarhoney or leave us a review here https://nakednectar.co.uk/products/honey.

Naked Nectar – Nothing But Honey!

Your beekeeper, Huw