Our goal is to provide pure and tasty honey to our neighbours, friends, family and customers.
Welcome to Wild Meadow Honey!
We now have an out Apiary at Athenry, Co. Galway and provide a small amount of honey from Castlelambert, Athenry when available.
About us!
Based near the N17 in County Galway, the bees live in a natural meadow. They are constantly surrounded by a variety of wild and planted flowers, as well as being located in the bountiful countryside.
We are a small apiary located deep in the countryside of Western Ireland. Our goal involves providing you with top quality raw honey straight from our bee-hives. This honey is extracted from hives surrounded by wild flowers and is sold in its pure form with minimal processing. Please follow the corresponding links to our honey shop, contact page and a little description about us and our honey process.
Bees
Honeybees are an integral part of the pollination system, responsible for successful seeding of more than 90% of all flowering plants. Bees make a local impact with a global importance, most animals, including humans, directly or indirectly rely on the pollination efforts of honeybees for their food. On their foraging flights, bees collect nectar and pollen to take back to the hive. Carbohydrates provided by the nectar is mixed with the enzymes in their honey gut, this is then stored and dehydrated to make the honey!
Extraction
Honey is prepared on "frames" inside the hive. First these frames are removed one by one and brushed free of all bees while wearing proctective gear! The number of frames depends on many factors including strength of the colony, weather, and amount of nectar available to the bees.
These frames are then brought to an extractor, but first the caps (placed by bees to preserve the honey) on top of the cells must be removed. Inside the extractor the honey is forced out of the comb and drips down the inside of the extractor. Once the spinning stops, the frames are taken out and flipped so that honey is removed from the other side of the frame. When honey starts filling up the bottom of the extractor, it is necessary to open up the valve and let honey flow into the waiting bucket, a necessary taste test is often carried out at this point of the process! The honey can then be finally poured into jars.
Honey
Our Honey is completely untreated and unpasteurised, from local bees. The variety of flowers the honey bees have visited to create this honey will include: Blackberries, Heather, Lime, Willowherb, Clover, Primrose, Cherry, Pear, Lavender and a whole range of wildflowers, which is why the colour and density is totally made by the bees. The Honey is extracted from frames and spun and then filtered but all the benefits and nutrients are left in the honey
