Local Ringwood Honey 2017 Harvest Notes 

2017 was a good year - 56 lbs.  Overall the weather was pretty much standard. A reasonably warm spring and the usual mixed summer. Not too hot, plenty of rain and the odd few days when the nectar flow was strong. 

The 2017 crop of Ringwood Honey is a little lighter and dare I say sweeter.  Although I'm not an expert, I would put this down to higher levels of glucose in the 2017 crop. 

February

February saw the usual routine jobs - some new supers being made ready for the year. I always feel a sense of accomplishment when I've built these - it's an enjoyable job and you know that the bees have fresh foundation to go to work on.

April through July 

There were good levels of nectar around in 2017. We're fortunate enough to be located in an area with many natural and cultivated plants. The yucca blossom was very strong this year and the bees spent a lot of the early summer months working it.

To the back of the apiary, there are many acres of wild flower which they feast on. I'm not much of a horticulturist so have no idea what these wild flowers are called, but the bees certainly liked them!

2017 Ringwood Honey jars and label design

I spent much of the winter months researching various honey jars and packaging concepts and given the brilliant feedback I had about the 2016 crop, I went a bit overboard.

Someone showed me a hexagonal honey jar from a design magazine and instantly,  I was hooked. I had to get some and spent a couple of months trying to source them. After a lot of negotiations with a company in China, I was the proud owner of 200 hexagonal honey jars. It cost a small fortune to buy and ship them - but they looked fab. The hexagonal shape really showed off the honey and the bamboo tops, with integrated dipper were pretty cool too.

But looks aside they just weren't very practical and they were too expensive. The tops were not robust enough to allow the honey to be sent in the post and the shape of the jar meant it was a messy affair getting the honey out. They're great as feature bottles and they people who had them loved the design, but I had a few comments about them being unpractical. 

I used a transparent label to keep the brand centred and the honey showing through.  A minimal amount of statutory information was placed on the front and a smaller label on the back carried the other required information.