Late Summer Honey: What’s Happening in the Hive in August?

Late August is an important point in the beekeeping year.

The long days are beginning to shorten, many of the summer flowers have finished, and colonies are gradually changing their priorities. For the beekeeper, it is a time for harvesting, assessing stores and making sure each colony is in the best possible position for the months ahead.

It is also one of the most interesting times to think about what makes English honey so wonderfully varied.

The end of the summer honey flow

Throughout spring and summer, honey bees collect nectar from whatever is flowering within flying distance of their hive.

That might include garden flowers, hedgerows, trees, wildflowers and agricultural crops. What is available changes throughout the season, which means the nectar coming into a colony in May can be very different from that available in August.

By late summer, many of the major nectar flows have slowed.

The bees know it too.

The huge expansion of the colony that takes place during spring is no longer the priority. Instead, the colony begins preparing for the colder months ahead.

What are the bees doing now?

A strong colony can contain tens of thousands of bees during the height of summer.

As we move towards autumn, the queen will gradually reduce the amount of brood she produces and the colony population will begin to fall.

The beekeeper's attention changes too.

Rather than encouraging rapid expansion, we're looking at questions such as:

• Does the colony have enough food?

• Is the queen laying well?

• Is there sufficient space in the brood nest?

• Is the colony healthy?

• What honey can be responsibly harvested while leaving the bees properly provisioned?

Good beekeeping isn't simply about taking honey from a hive. The needs of the colony come first.

So when is English honey harvested?

There isn't one single harvest date.

Honey is ready when the bees have reduced its moisture content sufficiently and sealed the finished honey beneath a thin layer of wax.

Depending on the apiary, weather and forage available, harvesting can take place at different points throughout the season.

That variation is part of what makes British beekeeping so interesting.

Honey is an agricultural product, and just like other foods produced from the land, it reflects its environment and its season.

Why doesn't every jar of honey taste exactly the same?

This is one of our favourite things about real honey.

The flavour, colour and aroma of honey are influenced by the nectar sources visited by the bees.

One apiary can produce a light, delicate honey while another produces something darker and richer. Even honey from the same area can vary between seasons as flowering conditions and weather change.

Rather than seeing those differences as something that needs to be engineered out, we think they are worth celebrating.

They are part of the character of the harvest.

From apiary to jar

Once honey is ready to harvest, the frames are carefully removed from the hive.

The wax cappings covering the honey are removed before the frames are placed into an extractor. Centrifugal force draws the honey from the comb, allowing the empty frames to be returned for the bees to use again.

The extracted honey can then be strained before being prepared for jarring.

It is a beautifully simple process.

And when you understand where a jar has come from, honey becomes much more than another sweetener in the cupboard.

English honey is a seasonal food

We're used to buying foods that look and taste identical throughout the year.

Honey doesn't naturally work like that.

Different locations, different flowers and different seasons can all contribute something to the finished honey.

For us, that connection between bees, beekeeper and landscape is an important part of what makes English honey special.

As our own apiaries and our relationships with trusted beekeepers develop, we want to make that provenance increasingly visible too, helping customers understand more about where their honey comes from and the people and places behind it.

How to enjoy late-summer honey

Of course, there is nothing wrong with eating it straight from the spoon.

But a good pure honey is incredibly versatile.

Try it:

• stirred into tea or coffee

• spooned over porridge or granola

• with natural yoghurt and fruit

• on warm buttered toast

• in salad dressings and marinades

• alongside cheese

• or as a natural alternative to refined sugar in everyday cooking

And because every harvest can have its own character, tasting a new honey is always part of the fun. Learn more in the Home Farm Kitchen 

A jar with a story behind it

For us, beekeeping has always been about more than producing jars of honey.

It's about understanding the colonies, working with the seasons and maintaining the connection between the finished product and where it came from.

Late summer brings another chapter of that cycle to a close.

The honey comes off.

The bees begin preparing for autumn.

And the beekeeper starts thinking about what each colony needs next.

Then, before we know it, spring will arrive and the whole remarkable process begins again.

Discover Home Farm MK Pure English Honey

Explore our pure honey collection and discover English honey selected for flavour, provenance and character.