Bright Meadows Honey is a family run business dedicated to producing local honey from our own hives across Bolton. The honey is raw, meaning it is simply strained to remove any wax debris and put into jars, retaining all of its goodness and capturing the unique flavours of the surrounding meadows and wildflowers.
Harvesting honey also produces beeswax. Rather than waste it, we melt it down to turn it into natural candles and scented wax melts. Our honey gift sets make the perfect gift for any occasion.
Our Story
In 2018, Keith decided it was time to take up a new hobby - beekeeping. After attending a training course with Manchester District Beekeeping Association, a year later he set up two hives in our garden in Breightmet, Bolton. He describes it as having another child for the first year, whilst you’re learning the ropes.
Our first harvest covered the kitchen in honey, and involved the whole family. We were left with too much honey for ourselves, so gave some away to friends and family and then people began asking if they could buy it. At first, we set up a facebook page shop. Then in 2021, Sharon and Keith traded at their first market, Kings Church Christmas fair. It was a huge success. We are now regular traders at Heaton Fold Artisan markets, Bolton Food and Drink festival and Makers Markets across the North West. In Summer, we like to take the hardworking bees with us and educate our customers about the importance of bees and the honey process.
When Georgia was home from University, she became a Bright Meadows beekeeping apprentice, learning how to look after the bees from her dad. With more experience, came more confidence talking about bees on the market stalls and with hoovering up swarms from garden hedges.
We’ve rescued and rehomed several swarms over the years. Including a huge swarm from a sign in Manchester City Centre, from shopping trolleys in car parks, parking meters and many trees to name a few.
Luckily for our honey demand and regular customers, our bees kept multiplying. We eventually out grew our small garden, so in 2022 we looked for sites elsewhere in Bolton. Now we have around 30 hives (including the original ones in our garden), and are continuing to grow and develop new sites.
A common question we get asked is ‘do you get stung?’ Of course with keeping bees, the answer is yes! Several members of the family have been stung, but it’s almost always their own fault. Including Jodie, our greyhound, who used to lick them thinking they were jalapeno sky raisins - they certainly have a kick!
The Process
How do bees make Honey?
Bees take nectar, which is a sweet sticky substance exuded by most flowers and some insects (honeydew), and mix it with enzymes from glands in their mouths. This nectar/enzyme mix is stored in hexagonal wax honey comb until the water content has been reduced to below 20%. When this level is reached, the cell is capped over with a thin layer of wax to seal it until the bees need it. This capping indicates to the beekeeper that the honey can be harvested. Capped honey can be kept indefinitely. For the school swot: Sucrose (nectar) + inverters (bee enzyme) = fructose + glucose = honey. Perfectly edible honeycomb was found in the tombs of the Pharaohs, over three thousand years old. How’s that for ‘Best Before Dates’.
Honey bees are special in that they store honey over winter as a colony, unlike wasps and bumblebees. The colony does not hibernate but stays active and clusters together to stay warm. This requires a lot of food, which is stored during the summer. Although a hive only needs 20-30 lb of honey to survive an average winter, the bees are capable of collecting much more, if given storage space. This is what the beekeeper wants them to do, so they can harvest the excess.
When do we extract the Honey?
Twice a year, once in Spring if we’re lucky and once in Summer.
How do we extract the Honey?
The queen bee is kept below the upper boxes (called ‘supers’) in the hive by a wire or plastic grid (called a ‘queen excluder’), which the queen is too large to fit through. As the bees cannot raise brood above the queen excluder, only honey is stored in the supers. As the season progresses the beekeeper adds more supers until the time to harvest the honey.
A special one-way valve is then fitted in place of the queen excluder and gradually all the bees move to the lower boxes. The beekeeper can then simply lift off the ‘super’ boxes containing the honeycomb. The honey is extracted from the comb using centrifugal force in a machine called a spinner.
The production of pure, unpasteurised multi-floral honey is important to us. Our honey is never heated above hive temperature and only coarsely filtered so all vital micronutrients remain. Then it is jarred and labelled - Georgia’s favourite task.
Our Products
Our honey is straight from the hive just the way the bees like it. The honey is cold extracted and coarse filtered, it is not pasteurised. We do not ever blend our honeys and therefore you will see colour variation and taste variations in each jar you buy. We pride ourselves on offering products that are not only delicious but also beneficial for your health and the environment.
Why Choose Us?
The amount of effort the bees put in to make honey is amazing. Bees will visit approximately 2 million different flowers to make 1 single jar of honey! They fly about 55,000 miles to make just one pound of honey, that’s 2.2 times around the world.
We’re passionate about what we do, and we’re proud to share the fruits of our labour with you. Thank you for supporting local!
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