The raw honey we sell at Firefly Berries is honey in its purest form. It is not pasteurized or processed and comes from the hives on our property that are cared for by friends and beekeepers, James & Brenda.
What’s the difference between raw honey and regular “store-bought” honey? Most honey you find in the stores is highly process and filtered, and is almost always pasteurized. Through the heating and pasteurization process honey can lose many of its valuable nutrients that are sensitive to high temperatures. Raw honey, on the other hand, still contains all the good probiotic bacteria and natural enzymes that make it highly digestible to humans. Also, unlike its “store-bought” counterpart, raw honey has been shown to not ferment in the stomach, which can help tremendously with acid indigestion.
FUN & INTERESTING FACTS ABOUT HONEY & HONEYBEES
**Recent research has shown that in consuming local raw honey you are able to train your body to better deal with the everyday pollens you encounter in your specific area of the world.
**Raw honey is a liquid when bottled. However, over time (and with exposure to colder temperatures) it can become mirky or milky looking or even solid at room temperature. This is normal! And there is evidence that all the good vitamins, nutrients, enzymes and bee pollen granules are still in it! If this happens to your honey, simply place the bottle in a very hot dish of water and it will turn to liquid once again. And don’t store honey in the refrigerator, as it will solidify sooner. Simply store in your honey in the cupboard at room temperature.
**Honeybees are not native to the United States. They originated in European countries and were brought to North America by the settlers.
**The queen bee can live for several years. The worker bees live only 6 weeks (on average) in the summer and 4-9 months over the winter season.
**All worker bees are female, but are not able to reproduce.
**Drone bees (male bees) are very small in number in a hive (300-3000 approximately) and they do not have a stinger. They are used only in the reproduction process. Worker bees are the only bees who will sting, and because of their barbed stinger, they are only able to sting once before dying.
**A healthy hive consists of 20,000-30,000 bees in the winter and more than 60,000-80,000 bees in the summer.