About our natural, unheated, and pure local Japanese honey

• 1. Environment

  First and foremost, creating an environment where bees can thrive is fundamental.
  Regardless of location, one of the most significant risks for bees is pesticides. In Japan, neonicotinoids are still legal. If used nearby, bees will almost certainly perish. Additionally, even substances claimed to be "harmless to bees" are brought back to the hive by bees. Moreover, pesticides gradually accumulate in beeswax.
  At BeeCamp, we are located in an environment where bees can fly around vigorously, much like at Izumi Farm, which practices nearly organic farming.

  

• 2. Health

  Managing bee health is also crucial.
  Another major issue for honeybees worldwide is the Varroa mite. This mite brings various diseases to bees. Originally parasitic to Eastern honeybees, it spread worldwide via Russia. Treatment for this is essential; without it, colonies with strong momentum can rapidly decline. We administer treatment before the start of spring honey collection and after the summer honey collection continuing into winter.

  

• 3. Feeding

  Feeding is essential, but we feed only the bees.
  Before flowers begin to bloom and during periods without flowers, such as midsummer and late autumn, we feed the bees with sugar water made from refined sugar. However, when we want the bees to store honey for us, we remove all feed to ensure that sugar does not enter the honey. This is because we seek purity.

  

• 4. Honey Supers

  We only consume matured honey.
  Using dedicated honey storage boxes (Honey Supers) with sealed honeycombs, we consume only matured honey with a moisture content of around 18%. While this method allows for honey harvesting only a few times a year, it results in delicious honey.

  

• 5. Queen Excluder

  To ensure pure harvesting, we use a queen excluder.
  We place a board called a queen excluder under the Honey Super to prevent the queen bee from climbing up and laying eggs in the Honey Super, ensuring that bee larvae and other contaminants do not mix with the honey. This allows us to harvest the pure honey we desire.

  

• 6. Twice a Year

  We only harvest honey twice a year.
  We harvest the precious honey that bees have diligently produced only twice a year: spring honey (from late April to June, including cherry blossoms and Iyokan citrus Neroli) and summer honey (after the rainy season with a variety of flowers). The remaining honey is left for the bees for over-wintering.

  

• 7. Almost unfiltered

  To achieve clarity, filtering with fine mesh can produce very clear honey, but it removes even the pollen contained in the honey. Our honey contains natural pollen.

  

• 8. ​​​​​​​​Not undergo heat

  ​​​​​​​​We do not undergo heat treatment.
  Most commercially available honey undergoes heat treatment. It is heated to around 60°C to make it easier to work with and pour into containers. However, certain beneficial enzymes are destroyed when heated. Our honey is bottled without undergoing heat treatment.

  

• 9. Completely additive-free and pure

  Unfortunately, many commercially available honeys, mainly imports, contain additives such as syrup to increase volume. Our honey is completely additive-free and pure.

  

• 10. Eco-friendly packaging

  We sanitize and reuse empty bottles that are returned to us. Our labels are made from washi paper sourced from Uchiko, Ehime, and attached with natural adhesive. Hemp strings are used for the washi paper tags. (Please recycle the metal lids of the bottles.) Additionally, for customers purchasing honey on-site at BeeCamp, we provide bags made from newspaper crafted by a friend's mother.