Local Aberdeenshire Honey
April 2025: Due to personal circumstances we are taking a break from beekeeping. Our bees are now in good hands with a fellow beekeeper. We are holding on to all our tools and equipment and hopefully will return to beekeeping at some point in the future. Many thanks to everyone who liked our honey and supported us over the years. 🧡
We keep just a handful of beehives outside of Echt Village in Aberdeenshire,
on the fringe of the Dunecht estate. This is an ideal location, because throughout
the year the bees have access to a great variety of wild flowers, flowering shrubs and trees on the estate.
In spring the bees may visit dandelion, bluebells, hawthorn, raspberry, cherry, apple, chestnut and sycamore blossoms or,
if within their 3 mile radius, a field with oilseed rape.
In summer they typically forage on clover, phacelia, brambles, rosebay willow herb, lime trees
etc and may even fly as far as the Barmekin Hill for some bell heather or ling.
Unlike many commercial beekeepers we use traditional wooden beehives
(not polystyrene) and traditional wooden frames with beeswax foundation.
We allow our bees to follow their natural swarming instinct and catch swarms rather than suppress them.
Our honey is as natural as it gets.
We don't apply heat above the natural hive environment at any stage of the extraction
nor do we filter the honey except through a pair of strainers.
Therefore all the natural goodness is maintained, including traces of pollen and beeswax.
As a consequence our honey doesn't stay runny for very long, but crystallizes fairly quickly.
This is a natural process, the speed of which is primarily governed by the type of nectar but also by
the amount of post-processing applied. Less processing means faster crystallization.
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Sometimes the natural crystallization process is uneven, producing patches of white crystals
typically at the top of the jar.
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This is merely a visual blemish and has no effect on taste or quality of the honey. It is only an indication that the honey was put into the jar immediately after extraction from the comb.
We sell our honey through the following shops:
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Nature's Larder
60 Holburn Street, Aberdeen AB10 6BX -
Gourmet Cheese Co. (formerly Mellis)
201 Rosemount Place, Aberdeen AB25 2XP -
Refillosophy
12-14 Albyn Grove, Aberdeen AB10 6SQ
Once a year we also have a stall at the National Trust's
Pitmedden Garden
on their "Apple Sunday" (every year on the last Sunday in September).
Spring 2024: After a very wet and cool start of the year we finally had a spell of decent weather in May, which however was shortlived and was followed by an unusually cold and wet June. During the good spell the bees produced a fair amount of honey, but when it was time to take it off, the bees had consumed most of it themselves.
Fair enough, that's why they make and store the honey in the first place, to get them through times of bad weather. So we just have to accept that we only have a very limited amount of Spring Blossom Honey this year, unfortunately not enough to sell through the shops. The small surplus we got we'll keep for our "Apple Sunday" stall at Pitmedden Garden.
Summer 2024: It's now the end of September and we have harvested our Summer Blossom Honey. It's a somewhat unusual summer honey this year, crystal clear with a pale colour and a medium strong flavour with a distinct lemony aftertaste. It's always amazing how the honey can be so different from one year to another, considering that our hives remain always in the same location. Unfortunatey the quantity of honey obtained was again much lower than normal. So, overall a very difficult beekeeping year.
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Spring Blossom Honey A light coloured, creamy honey with a pleasant, well balanced flavour and aroma. |
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Summer Blossom Honey This year a light, clear honey with a floral aroma and a distinctly lemony aftertaste. |
Many thanks to all who supported our neighbourhood honey sale in December 2024. With your help we raised £216.00 for Aberdeen Cyrenians.
Please support your local shops!
19 Brighton Place
Aberdeen AB10 6RT
