Hanna's Bees

14/10/2026

BEE-SPLAINING: What Causes Frosting in Honey?

Frosting is when tiny air bubbles or pockets appear between the honey and the jar in set and soft set honey. It is whitish in appearance and can look like a bloom, or a wavy pattern inside the glass. Frosting does not alter the taste of the honey but may be unsightly. The bubbles are there because they get trapped as the honey sets, and the air pockets are created as the sugars in the honey start to granulate.

Frosting frequently occurs in low moisture soft set honey, such as Oilseed r**e or Canola honey, which often have a moisture content of 14-16% when ripe. (‘Ordinary’ honey typically has a moisture content of about 17-20%.) Frosting happens regularly in this type of honey because the honey sets very quickly in the jar. It usually sets before the tiny air bubbles that were created when the honey was poured into the jar have risen to the surface, this is how the bubbles get ‘trapped’ in the honey and create frosting.

Frosting can also happen when honey granulates in the jar, predominantly in low-moisture honey, but also after some time in honey with a 17-19% moisture content. What you see then are tiny crystals, which usually start at the top of the jar and spread downwards, and you may also see little air pockets forming on the side of the granules.

Sometimes when frosting occurs, the honey also releases from the glass on the inside of the jar. If you are making soft set honey and want to avoid frosting, there are two things you should keep in mind: First is to make sure the moisture content of the honey is somewhere between 17-18%. If you are making soft set honey with low moisture honey, consider mixing it with a higher moisture honey to bring up the moisture content. Second is to take care when jarring and minimise the distance from honey gate to the jar. The shorter the honey has to travel the less air will go into the jar and less bubbles will be created. You can also warm the honey or the jars or both slightly to avoid bubbles forming near the glass.

It is important to draw attention to the fact that granulation (and frosting) is a natural and normal process in real honey, and not a sign that sugar has been added to it, as is a very common misconception. Most honeys will granulate naturally after some time. I often advise my customers to be wary not of honey that granulates, but of honey that does NOT granulate, as this can be a sign that the honey has either been tampered with or overheated, which unfortunately destroys some of the beneficial enzymes in honey.

I hope you found this post useful, give us a follow for more Bee-Splaining, and let me know if you have any questions you would like me to answer in future Bee-Splaining posts in the comments below!

12/10/2026

HEALTH FOCUS: Bee pollen has become a popular superfood — but why do people eat it?

Bee pollen has been prized since ancient times and is still sought after today as one of nature’s most nutrient-rich foods. It has become popular as a functional food, providing not just nutrition but also support for health and wellness. You will often see it in health food shops, enjoyed by people interested in a natural diet and lifestyle.

Here are the key reasons people add bee pollen to their diet:
Nutritional powerhouse – A natural source of protein, amino acids, vitamins, and minerals, bee pollen is often described as one of the most complete foods available.
Immune support – Many people take bee pollen to help strengthen their immune system and support seasonal wellness.
Hay fever & sinusitis – Consuming small amounts of local pollen is believed to help the body adapt to airborne pollens, easing hay fever and sinus problems for some.
Gut health – Its enzymes and natural compounds are thought to aid digestion and support a balanced gut. Antioxidant qualities – Rich in bioactive compounds, pollen is associated with fighting free radicals and supporting overall vitality.

The taste of bee pollen is pleasantly fruity, with a gentle hint of sweetness — but not as sweet as honey. Its consistency is dry and slightly chalky, which is why it is best enjoyed sprinkled over foods, where it absorbs a little moisture and softens. Enjoy it sprinkled over:
Yoghurt or porridge
Smoothies or smoothie bowls
Fresh salads
Healthy grain or lunch bowls

Start with just a few pellets a day and build up gradually to a spoonful. Its mild, floral taste makes it an easy addition to everyday meals.

Like honey and propolis, bee pollen connects us to a long tradition of natural nourishment from the hive — increasingly recognised today as a functional food valued for both its nutrition and its role in supporting wellbeing.

⚠️ Medical disclaimer: Bee pollen is not suitable for everyone. If you are allergic to bee products or are taking medication, consult a healthcare professional before consuming. This post is educational and not a substitute for medical advice.

10/10/2026

BEE-SPLAINING: Is It True You Should Never Use Metal Spoons with Honey?

There’s a widespread belief that honey should never come into contact with metal, with some people even insisting that only wooden utensils should be used. But where does this idea come from, and is there any truth to it? I am often asked this question and decided to look into it.

The notion that honey should not touch metal likely stems from honey’s acidic nature. Honey has an average pH of 3.9, ranging between 3.4 and 6.1, depending on its floral source. The thought is that this acidity could potentially react with certain metals, leading to contamination or a change in the honey’s quality. Over time, this belief has taken root or got wings (pardon the pun…) and lead to the commonly circulated ‘fact’ that you should never use metal spoons for honey. Wooden utensils—often praised for their natural and non-reactive qualities— are being touted as the ideal choice for handling honey instead.

But does metal truly pose a threat to your honey? To answer this, it’s important to consider the different types of metals. When it comes to reactive metals such as iron, copper, and non-stainless steel, prolonged contact with honey could potentially cause slight oxidation. This process might lead to a change in the colour or taste of the honey, albeit after an extended period of contact. Copper, in particular, can react with the acids in honey, potentially producing harmful compounds over time. However, it's worth noting that using a metal spoon to stir or serve honey is far from prolonged exposure. Any interaction is typically so brief that it doesn’t result in any noticeable reaction.

Lead, which was once used in older beekeeping equipment like extractors and storage tanks, posed a significant risk of contamination. Thankfully, lead has been phased out in modern beekeeping practices due to its toxicity, but it’s important to be aware of this risk and not use very old equipment.

So it is true that prolonged exposure to metal can alter the colour and taste of honey, but this is not the case for brief exposure. But how about the benefits of honey: are they altered or destroyed when honey come into contact with metal? There is another common belief that metal destroys some of the beneficial enzymes in honey, but is there any truth in that?

Honey contains many enzymes including invertase, diastase, and glucose oxidase, which contribute to its unique properties and health benefits. These enzymes are relatively stable and are not easily destroyed by brief contact with metal. The real threat to enzyme activity comes from extreme conditions, such as high temperatures or prolonged exposure to strong acids or bases, not from brief contact with metal processing equipment or metal utensils.

Most of the metal utensils commonly used today, especially in beekeeping and honey processing, are made of stainless steel—a material known for its non-reactive properties. Stainless steel is widely used in everything from uncapping forks and knives to extractors, settling tanks, and bottling equipment. The reason for this is simple: stainless steel doesn’t react with honey or alter its composition in any way. Honey comes into contact with stainless steel throughout its journey from hive to jar. With this in mind, it’s safe to say that using a stainless steel spoon in your kitchen will not impact the quality of the honey or its benefits.

In conclusion, while the assertion that honey should never touch metal is an interesting theory, it doesn’t hold up under scrutiny. The key takeaway is that as long as your utensils are clean and made of food-safe materials, your honey will remain perfectly delicious, safe and remain its health properties.

So go ahead and enjoy your honey however you like! Whether you prefer to use a wooden spoon, a stainless steel spoon, or even a silver spoon, rest assured that your honey will be just as sweet and healthy as you hoped it would be!

Did you learn something new? Still curious? You’ll love my weekly newsletter — it dives deeper into the world of bees, sharing trusted insights into honey, propolis, beeswax, pollen and natural wellbeing. Sign up here and get 10% off your next order as a welcome bonus: https://hannasbees.ie/newsletter

09/10/2026

Today is World Egg Day — a day to celebrate all things egg-y, including those laid by our honeybee queens.

Did you know that a honeybee queen can lay over a thousand eggs a day during the peak season? She also decides whether to lay fertilised or unfertilised eggs. Fertilised eggs become female bees — either workers or new queens, depending on what the larvae are fed. Unfertilised eggs become drones, the male bees.

Honeybee genetics is complicated stuff, but this means drones don’t have a father — only a mother. They're proper mammy’s boys!

Here are some more fascinating egg facts from the hive:

- A honeybee egg is tiny — only about 1.5 mm long. It’s slightly curved, white and translucent, shaped like a minuscule grain of basmati rice standing upright in the cell.

- The queen delicately attaches each egg to the bottom of a wax cell using a sticky secretion. This keeps it upright until it hatches.

- Spotting eggs is one of the hardest skills for new beekeepers to master. You need good light and a keen eye — often tilting the frame to catch the glint of the egg against the cell base. It’s one of the first signs that the colony has a healthy, active queen.

- An egg remains an egg for around three days before hatching into a larva. Queens and workers are genetically identical — it’s the worker bees’ feeding that determines their fate. Larvae chosen to become queens are fed a richer, more nutritious diet that enables their reproductive organs to fully develop, while the others receive a simpler diet and grow into worker bees.

- The brood nest where eggs are laid is kept at about 34–35 °C. Even a few degrees cooler can slow development or prevent hatching entirely — a reminder of how precise bee colony thermoregulation is.

From the tiniest egg to the mightiest queen, the hive is a masterclass in biology, teamwork, and precision.

Which of these bee egg facts surprised you most?

07/10/2026

BEE-SPLAINING: Debunking the Myths of Crystallized Honey

There is a very widely held belief that honey that granulates or crystallizes is not pure honey. That the beekeeper has fed sugar or syrup to the bees and that bees have then made honey from this sugar, and that this honey forms crystals similar to granulated sugar.

One of my own customers once asked: 'Hanna, are you sure your honey is not just sugar water you have fed to your bees?' This is because he had bought a few months supply of honey and it had started going cloudy and eventually granulated in the jar. Or as one of my followers commented recently in a discussion about set honey: 'I'm a sceptic. Any honey in the supermarkets that have crystallized, the beekeeper has probably fed water and sugar in the winter to their bees. I will not buy it.'

And I understand why people are skeptical when it comes to honey. They have every right to be. Honey is one of the most faked foods in the world. It often makes it to the top three of the common food fraud lists. You will find reports about fake imported ‘honey’ made up from syrup with added colourants and hear about honeybees kept in enclosed environments and fed syrup to invert into honey. But it's not small scale beekeepers who do this, this is done on a large scale by the big players.

A recent EU study showed that nearly 50% of all honey imported into the EU was suspect. The situation in the US and around the world is the same, if not worse. Hence, there is real reason for the consumer to be concerned and to look for ways to ensure that the honey they buy is indeed the real deal. But what is the deal with granulated honey? Does honey crystallise because beekeepers have given the bees sugar?

The truth may surprise you, because not only is this not true, it is also quite often the opposite: Real honey often granulates more rapidly than fake honey. Let me explain.

Real honey is made from nectar which contains natural sugars, Fructose and Glucose predominantly. Bees collect nectar from flowers and then dry it out to make honey. Honey contains about 16-20% moisture, about 80% natural sugars (glucose and fructose mainly) as well as pollen, propolis, enzymes etc. Different plants produce different nectars, not only do they have different flavours, they also contain different sugars. Some are high in fructose and others are high in glucose. While fructose sugars remain liquid for long, glucose sugars granulate rapidly. This is why certain high glucose honeys like oilseed r**e (canola) and ivy go hard only days after extracting, and other high fructose honeys like fuchsia and blackberry stay liquid for longer.

The presence of pollen also speeds up granulation, so if the honey has not been overly filtered to remove pollen, the way that most small to medium scale beekeepers like ourselves process our honey, it will tend to granulate more rapidly. Much of the imported and commercially produced supermarket honeys have been finely filtered to remove pollen, which means that the honey cannot be geographically traced and it also delays the granulation process.

Fake honey is typically a mixture of real honey and other sugar syrups. These syrups can come from plants like sugar cane, corn, or rice. They are cheaper and easier to produce than genuine honey. The end product then has colour and flavours added to it to resemble honey. Fake honey is made in a number of different ways, but one thing that they all have in common is that the ‘honey’ has been overly heated and filtered. The heating prevents granulation as it melts the sugars and delays granulation. This over processing and adulteration is the reason why we should be more concerned with honey that does not granulate than honey that does.

Many beekeepers feed their bees at different times of the year when there are no other food sources available. This should not be confused with what the fraudsters do: we feed to keep our bees alive, they use sugar syrups to produce fake honey...

So next time you’re in the supermarket choosing between that cheap squeezy bottle honey of dubious origin, and the honey from the local beekeeper which is pricier and has started to go a bit cloudy, ask yourself which is more likely to be fake. I hate to break it to you, but it is often the one that looks too good and is too cheap to be true…

06/10/2026

HEALTH FOCUS: Can propolis help with acne?

Acne is a complex inflammatory skin condition involving increased sebum production, abnormal shedding of skin cells, blockage of the hair follicle, inflammation and changes within the skin microbiome. It is not simply caused by bacteria, although bacteria have a role to play.

The bacterium most closely associated with acne, Cutibacterium acnes, is part of the normal skin microbiome and is present on healthy skin as well as acne-prone skin. What appears to be important is not simply whether the bacteria are present, but which strains dominate, how they behave and how the immune system responds to them. C. acnes can also form biofilms — organised communities of bacteria surrounded by a protective matrix — which may help them persist within the follicle.

Propolis has antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that could potentially interact with several of the processes involved in acne. Research has looked at its activity against C. acnes and bacterial biofilms, while other studies have examined its effects on inflammation and oxidative stress. There is also interest in whether oral propolis could influence some of the systemic inflammatory processes associated with acne, although we do not yet have clinical trials showing that taking propolis prevents or treats acne.

The strongest direct evidence at present is for propolis used topically during an active acne outbreak.

Laboratory research has found that propolis can inhibit C. acnes, interfere with the formation of bacterial biofilms and reduce established biofilms. Some research also suggests that it may affect the way the bacteria behave, including the expression of genes associated with virulence.

Topical formulations containing propolis have been associated with improvements in mild-to-moderate acne, reductions in C. acnes bacterial load and reductions in inflammatory markers including TNF-α and IL-6.

There is an important limitation, however. Propolis has not been studied as a standalone acne treatment in these human trials. It has been used alongside other active ingredients and established treatments — including tea tree oil and Aloe vera in one study, and Aloe vera alongside benzoyl peroxide in another. We therefore cannot say that propolis alone produced the improvements.

What the research does show is where some of its potential may lie. The evidence is currently much stronger around antimicrobial and inflammatory pathways than around sebum production, another major component of acne. There is little evidence at present that propolis reduces sebum.

There is also some research looking at the potential role of propolis after an active breakout.

Propolis has a separate body of research around wound healing and skin repair, including re-epithelialisation and skin regeneration. One of the recent acne trials reported improvements in post-inflammatory hyperpigmentation — the darker marks that can remain after an acne lesion has healed. Its potential role in supporting skin recovery after inflammatory lesions is therefore another interesting area for further research.

So, while we cannot currently describe propolis as a treatment for acne on its own, its potential relevance to acne is more than theoretical. We now have laboratory evidence showing activity against some of the microbial and inflammatory processes involved in acne, alongside early human evidence from topical propolis-containing formulations. At present, topical use during active acne is where the direct evidence is strongest.

I’ve gone into the research in much more detail in this week’s blog, including topical and oral propolis and its possible relevance before, during and after acne: Can propolis help with acne?

06/10/2026

NEW BLOG: Can propolis help with acne?

Can propolis help with acne? It’s a question I’m asked surprisingly often, particularly by parents of teenage children who are struggling with acne.

I never really felt I could answer that question properly. So, for this week’s blog, I wanted to look at the research a little more closely, so that I could give a better answer the next time somebody asks me.

There was more research than I expected. Several studies have looked specifically at propolis and acne, including human studies, and the findings are really interesting.

I’ve put it all together in this week’s blog: Can propolis help with acne?

Can propolis help with acne? Explore what research shows about topical and oral propolis, inflammation, acne-prone skin and recovery.

05/10/2026

What role does honey play in supporting the immune system?

Many of us reach for honey when we feel a sore throat or a cold coming on, but honey’s role in supporting immune health is less about occasional use and more about regular inclusion in the everyday diet. Here is how it works:

Honey’s role in immune support is primarily indirect. It does not stimulate immune cells directly, nor does it ramp up the immune system or make it more aggressive. It works very differently, in a more long-term, supportive way. Honey contains compounds that can help support environments in which immune function operates more effectively. In short, it can help the immune system run smoothly.

One important aspect is honey’s antioxidant content. Genuine honey contains polyphenols and flavonoids derived from plant sources, primarily nectar, with additional contributions from resin-derived compounds (propolis) present in the hive environment. These compounds help neutralise oxidative stress, which can otherwise impair normal cellular processes, including those involved in immune regulation. Reduced oxidative stress is associated with better immune resilience over time.

Honey is also known for its antibacterial properties, which arise from its natural acidity, low moisture content, and the enzymatic release of hydrogen peroxide. While this antibacterial activity does not translate directly into systemic immune enhancement, it is relevant in understanding how honey can influence microbial balance in certain contexts.

Another key mechanism is honey’s prebiotic effect. Honey contains sugars and oligosaccharides that can act as substrates for beneficial gut bacteria. Because a significant portion of immune regulation is linked to the gut microbiota, supporting microbial diversity and stability may indirectly support immune function.

Seen this way, honey is not something to reach for only when you’re unwell, but a food best included regularly as part of a healthy, supportive diet — not to change how the immune system functions, but to help it operate as it should.

04/10/2026

Bubbles in pillar candles! Is there anything more unsightly? Or more difficult to avoid? I’m testing out a new candle mould for a large pillar candle and this happened on the first pour. 🤬

What happens here is that air bubbles get trapped as the wax solidifies along the walls of the mould. The bubbles are created when the wax is poured as the wax pulls air down into the wax. The bubbles then try to raise to the top to escape but gets trapped in cooling wax. This happens particularly when candles cool too quickly initially.

Not feeling too enamoured with said bubbles, I decided to throw everything I’ve got at it. So I wrapped the moulds in insulation (same as I’m using for my beehives coincidentally.) I also pre-heated the moulds and insulation, and then insulated a box for the candles to cool in. The idea here is to create a warm environment so that the wax stays liquid long enough for the air bubbles to escape.

Wondering if it worked a little too well, 1,5 hour after pouring and the wax is still liquid. Pouring temperature around 73 degrees Celsius, and have topped up a little to allow for the escaped air. Feeling very curious to see the result, but it will probably be tomorrow once I they are solid enough to de-mould .

If you make beeswax candles, how do you deal with bubbles? Or maybe you don’t? Or if you were to buy a beeswax candle, would you care if it had bubbles in it?

Hanna.

04/10/2026

Bubbles in pillar candles! Is there anything more unsightly? Or more difficult to avoid? I’m testing out a new candle mould for a large pillar candle and this happened on the first pour. 🤬

What happens here is that air bubbles get trapped as the wax solidifies along the walls of the mould. The bubbles are created when the wax is poured as the wax pulls air down into the wax. The bubbles then try to raise to the top to escape but gets trapped in cooling wax. This happens particularly when candles cool too quickly initially.

I decided to throw everything I’ve got at it and wrapped the moulds in insulation (same as I’m using for my beehives coincidentally.) I also pre-heated the moulds and insulation, and then insulated a box for the candles to cool in. The idea here is to create a warm environment so that the wax stays liquid long enough for the air bubbles to escape.

Wondering if it worked a little too well, 1,5 hour after pouring and the wax is still liquid. Pouring temperature around 73 degrees Celsius, and have topped up a little to allow for the escaped air. Feeling very curious to see the result, but it will probably be tomorrow once I they are solid enough to de-mould .

How do you deal with bubbles? Or maybe you don’t? If you were to buy a beeswax candle, would you care if it had bubbles in it?

Hanna.