Long before harvesting takes place, thousands of honeybees have spent weeks collecting nectar from blossoms, hedgerows, wildflowers and crops across the Lincolnshire countryside.
Once the bees have transformed that nectar into honey and stored it within the hive, the next stage of the journey can begin.
This is how honey travels from the hive to the jar.
Honey Harvest & Extraction
Part of the Ultimate Guide to Lincolnshire Honey
Once the bees have filled and capped their honeycomb, the beekeeper's part of the journey begins. From carefully removing the frames to extracting and gently filtering the honey, every step is about handling the harvest with care.
This is one part of our Ultimate Guide to Lincolnshire Honey, where we follow the journey from forage to hive, harvest to jar.
When Is Honey Ready To Harvest?
Bees do not store nectar as honey immediately.
After nectar is collected, worker bees repeatedly pass it between themselves while enzymes begin breaking down the natural sugars.
As moisture is gradually reduced, the nectar thickens into honey.
When the honey reaches the correct consistency, the bees seal each cell with a thin layer of wax known as a capping.
For beekeepers, these capped frames are one of the clearest signs that honey is ready to harvest.
Only once the bees have finished their work do we begin ours.
Removing The Honey Frames
During the honey season, colonies store surplus honey in boxes known as supers.
These frames are carefully removed from the hive while ensuring the colony retains enough of its own stores.
Every hive, season and harvest is different.
Some years produce abundant honey, while others depend heavily on weather conditions and forage availability.
Beekeeping often teaches patience.
Nature decides the harvest.
Spring and Summer Honey
Our honey harvest follows the rhythm of the seasons. Spring and summer bring different flowers, different weather and different nectar flows, so the honey produced during each period can behave quite differently.Spring honey can crystallise particularly quickly, which is why we take care to extract it promptly while it is still warm. As summer progresses, the bees work a changing mix of flowers across the Lincolnshire landscape, bringing a different character to the honey they produce.The bees decide the harvest. The season shapes the honey.
Extracting The Honey
Once back at the honey room, the wax cappings are carefully removed from the surface of the comb.
The frames are then placed into a honey extractor.
The extractor spins the frames at speed, using centrifugal force to gently remove the honey from the wax comb without damaging it.
This allows the comb to be returned to the bees for future use.
The honey collects inside the extractor before flowing into settling tanks.
Lightly Filtered, Never Heat Treated
Freshly extracted honey naturally contains tiny pieces of wax and other particles collected during harvesting.
To create a clean finished product, the honey is lightly filtered.
This removes larger particles while allowing the honey to remain as close to its natural state as possible.
We do not heat treat our honey.
Nothing is added.
Nothing is taken away.
Just honey produced by our bees.
From Settling Tank To Jar
After extraction, the honey is allowed to settle naturally.
This gives any remaining air bubbles and fine particles time to rise to the surface.
Once ready, the honey is carefully jarred, labelled and prepared for customers.
From this point, the journey continues from our Lincolnshire apiaries to homes across the UK.
Why Every Harvest Is Different
No two honey harvests are ever exactly the same.
The flavour, colour and aroma of honey are influenced by:
• Seasonal weather
• Local forage
• Flowering conditions
• The timing of nectar flows
• The landscape surrounding the apiary
Because honey is a natural product, each harvest reflects a unique moment in time.
This variation is one of the things that makes genuine local honey so special.
From Hive To Jar
At Stax Of Wax Ltd, we believe the best honey begins with healthy bees and a thriving landscape.
Every jar starts with forage collected by our bees across Lincolnshire. The bees have spent weeks working the landscape around their hive, gathering nectar, transforming it into honey and filling their wax comb.
By the time the honey reaches the extraction room, the bees have already done the most important part of the work.
When the time is right, we carefully harvest the surplus honey, ready for its journey from hive to jar. Our part is much simpler: harvest carefully, extract promptly, lightly filter, maintain high hygiene standards and fill the jars with the honey the bees have produced.
Every harvest carries something of the season in which it was made — from the first spring blossom through to the abundance of summer. Blossom, hedgerows, weather and the changing landscape all play their part.
From hive to jar, the bees make the honey. We simply look after it.
Frequently asked questions
Honey harvesting follows the seasons and the bees' natural forage. Our main honey harvest comes through spring and summer, when the bees have been working the flowering landscape around our hives.Spring honey is particularly important to us. Once it is ready, we remove it from the hive and extract it promptly while the honey is still warm.This is because spring honey can crystallise quickly. If it is left sitting in the frames for too long, it can begin to set hard, making extraction much more difficult.
Spring honey can have a tendency to crystallise rapidly, depending on the nectar sources the bees have been working.For this reason, once we remove our spring honey from the hive, we aim to extract it within 24 hours, while the honey is still naturally warm from the hive.This helps us get the honey out of the comb before it begins to set hard in the frames.It is one of those parts of beekeeping where timing really matters. The bees have done their work; our job is to handle the harvest at the right moment.
When the honey is ready, we carefully remove selected honey-filled frames from the hive.We always make sure the bees have plenty of their own stores before we take any honey. We leave at least one full super on the hive for the bees, and in practice we leave considerably more than they need as a generous reserve.The colony comes first. We only take honey that we are confident is surplus to the bees' needs.
Once the frames arrive back from the apiary, the cells are uncapped and the honey is removed from the wax comb and extracted while it is still in the best condition for processing.The honey is spun from the frames using an extractor, allowing the honey to flow out while leaving the wax comb intact.The extracted honey then passes through our filtering process before being settled and prepared for jarring
We lightly filter our honey to remove unwanted pieces of wax or any other contamination that could have entered during the extraction process.We don't over-process it. The aim is simply to make sure the honey going into the jar is clean while retaining its natural character.The honey itself doesn't need to be transformed into something else. It simply needs careful handling from comb to jar.
Hygiene is an important part of every stage of our honey production.We follow strict hygiene procedures throughout harvesting, extraction, filtering and bottling, with controls in place to monitor for potential contamination issues.This isn't about changing the honey. It is about making sure that the natural product the bees have made is handled safely and carefully from the moment it leaves the hive until it reaches the jar.
Yes — always.The bees' food stores come first.We leave at least one super on the hive, and we deliberately leave more than the bees are likely to need so that the colony has a generous supply of its own honey.We don't work to a fixed production target. The bees make what the season and the landscape allow, and we only harvest what we can responsibly take.That is why every harvest is different.
Frequently asked questions
Honey harvesting follows the seasons and the bees' natural forage. Our main honey harvest comes through spring and summer, when the bees have been working the flowering landscape around our hives.Spring honey is particularly important to us. Once it is ready, we remove it from the hive and extract it promptly while the honey is still warm.This is because spring honey can crystallise quickly. If it is left sitting in the frames for too long, it can begin to set hard, making extraction much more difficult.
Spring honey can have a tendency to crystallise rapidly, depending on the nectar sources the bees have been working.For this reason, once we remove our spring honey from the hive, we aim to extract it within 24 hours, while the honey is still naturally warm from the hive.This helps us get the honey out of the comb before it begins to set hard in the frames.It is one of those parts of beekeeping where timing really matters. The bees have done their work; our job is to handle the harvest at the right moment.
When the honey is ready, we carefully remove selected honey-filled frames from the hive.We always make sure the bees have plenty of their own stores before we take any honey. We leave at least one full super on the hive for the bees, and in practice we leave considerably more than they need as a generous reserve.The colony comes first. We only take honey that we are confident is surplus to the bees' needs.
Once the frames arrive back from the apiary, the cells are uncapped and the honey is removed from the wax comb and extracted while it is still in the best condition for processing.The honey is spun from the frames using an extractor, allowing the honey to flow out while leaving the wax comb intact.The extracted honey then passes through our filtering process before being settled and prepared for jarring
We lightly filter our honey to remove unwanted pieces of wax or any other contamination that could have entered during the extraction process.We don't over-process it. The aim is simply to make sure the honey going into the jar is clean while retaining its natural character.The honey itself doesn't need to be transformed into something else. It simply needs careful handling from comb to jar.
Hygiene is an important part of every stage of our honey production.We follow strict hygiene procedures throughout harvesting, extraction, filtering and bottling, with controls in place to monitor for potential contamination issues.This isn't about changing the honey. It is about making sure that the natural product the bees have made is handled safely and carefully from the moment it leaves the hive until it reaches the jar.
Yes — always.The bees' food stores come first.We leave at least one super on the hive, and we deliberately leave more than the bees are likely to need so that the colony has a generous supply of its own honey.We don't work to a fixed production target. The bees make what the season and the landscape allow, and we only harvest what we can responsibly take.That is why every harvest is different.
