Bee in the know…

Organic Honey

Surfcoast Bees honey is as close to organic as it can possibly be, however we cannot technically claim our honey to be ‘organic’. While our hives are in beautiful natural environments, close to forests, virgin bush and coastal vegetation, bees forage for a radius of up to 7kms from their hives. We cannot guarantee that there is no use of garden chemicals in the areas where the bees may fly. Organic gardening practices are in use on the private properties where our hives are situated and the pristine coastal and Otway regions are so abundant with flowering native trees and shrubs year round, that our bees don’t need to travel great distances to find nectar.

 Bee Facts

There is one queen in each hive. She is larger and can live for several years. She can lay approximately 2,00 eggs per day. The beekeeper will replace her if her offspring are aggressive, if she is a poor layer, or too old or weak.

Worker bees are all female. On average a healthy hive will have about 50,000 worker bees. They live for about 6 weeks during the height of summer foraging. They are the only ones that sting, but will die afterwards.

Drones are male bees. Their sole purpose is to mate with queen bees. After mating they will die. In a hive of 50,000 worker bees there will be 100 to 200 drones.

Hives will swarm in spring as a natural way of reproducing the ‘organism’ that is a bee colony. They take the old queen with them and the bees remaining in the hive create a new queen.

Nectar to Honey

Honey is the bees’ food. Foraging worker bees return to the hive carrying nectar. This is stored in hexagonal cells (honeycomb) and converted to honey by the bees fanning the nectar to reduce the water content. They then cap the cells with wax to store it for later consumption. The bees also collect pollen which is carried on their hind legs. While gathering pollen, bees pollinate flowers to produce fruit, nuts and seeds. Bee larvae are fed a mixture of honey and pollen by worker bees inside the hive.

Photos
All photos on this website are taken by us and are images of our own hives and of flowering trees and plants nearby. Produce from our own gardens.