Frequently Asked Questions

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A: O'Neills Apiary is a family run business. We all work together on close to 400 hives and package only our own pure raw local honey.  We feel that every bottle has our name on it, so all honey in bottles must come from out hives. 

A: Absolutely not! Much of the honey found in the supermarket is though. Many companies heat their honey to 160 degrees or more, followed by a rapid cooling. This process actually strips the honey of many of its most beneficial nutrients, but allows for easy filtering and bottling. Honey has a high viscosity and  some heat is needed to move it from one place to another, but at O'Neill's, we never let our honey go over 110 degrees making our honey much sweeter and preserving all of the natural nutrients. 

A:  Honey may contain Clostridium botulinum spores that can cause infant botulism - a rare but serious disease that affects the nervous system of young babies (under one year of age). C. botulinum spores are present throughout the environment and may be found in dust, soil and improperly canned foods. Adults and children over one year of age are routinely exposed to, but not normally affected by, C. botulinum spores. Honey is safe to consume during pregnancy and lactation. While infants are susceptible to the infant botulism, adults, including pregnant females, are not. The concern for babies stems from the fact that infants lack the fully developed gastrointestinal tract of older humans. Since the mother is not in danger of developing this condition, the unborn baby is protected. 

A:  Crystallization is the natural process by which the glucose in honey precipitates out of the liquid honey.  In fact, ALL natural raw honey WILL crystallize, some do so quickly and other honey takes months to crystallize - it really depends on moisture content of nectar the bees foraged. This does not affect the quality at all and is actually quite easy to reverse. Simply heat up a pot of hot water and immerse the bottle of honey until crystallization dissipates.  Don't forget to loosen top of honey jar before placing in hot water.