We do not heat our honey to bottle it, so it does crystallize in the fall. We think this is actually an advantage for you. Because it is not heated, the healthful enzymes are still active. We lightly filter it, so there is still a good bit of pollen in it. We pack in wide mouth canning jars so it is easy to just spoon or knife out what you need – no drips and stickies since it is crystallized. We do not force our bees through pollen traps to collect pollen, so no, we don’t sell “pollen” alone, just what is in the honey.
We have not needed to treat our bees for mites and disease, yet, and hopefully will be able to keep our stock this naturally healthy. We leave them lots of honey in the fall for their winter feed, but bees can starve even if there is lots of honey in their hive. They move upward, ignoring honey two inches to the side. So in early winter, we take jars of their crystallized honey down and put them in the top of their hives to be sure they have good eats into spring.
We hope to have our honey Certified Naturally Grown, but one of the requirements is to have a group of at least three beekeepers following natural methods who get together regular to build our skills and knowledge. Though I get together with the local beekeepers, I have not found two others willing to form a “natural” group. Our production methods easily meet the standards though.
The “going price” for small quantities of honey, which all we generally have, is $6/lb plus the jar. So a 6 oz jar is $3. A 12 oz jar is $5.50. A 24 oz jar is $10.50.
