faq's








Did you know... 16oz of honey requires 1152 Bees to travel 115,000 miles & visit 4.5 million flowers...
Raw Honey is minimally filtered during the extraction process & never heated so that the resulting product is rich in all the beneficial enzymes & local pollens that are largely lost in most commerically produced and shop bought honeys. We pride ourselves at the Honey Rustler in only producing Raw Honey so that you can experience the rich array of flavours & health boosting properties associated with this type of honey.
In recent years the heath benefits of honey have been highlighted in the media with certain types of honey becoming highly sort after and commanding extremely high prices, but what is less well known is that a local raw honey has all of these benefits too. The key is it has to be raw honey where non of the beneficail enzymes & pollens are removed or destroyed. The processes used to achieve the crystal clear running honeys that consumers demand from their supermarket honeys largely strip them of these properties.
By buying from a small artisan producer such as the Honey Rustler you get to experience a broad array of differently flavoured honeys over the different seasons.
Each season produces different flowers & crops, each with their own distinct flavours. By extracting the honey at multiple times of the year & bottling up in small batches these individual flavours can be captured more easily.
Large commerical producers will blend honeys from multiple hives & multiple locations & tend to produce a more bland generic honey as a result.
Soft Set Honey is a honey that is only partially set to the consitency of a soft butter
You can spread it as thickly as you like on your warm toast in the morning... or at any other time of day.
The example pictured is a very pale Rape Honey which has a mild flavour & fabulous consistency. Perfectly spreadable.
Not sure what Cut Comb Honey is?Look no further....
Cut Comb Honey is the most natural form of Raw Honey. Once it has been capped by the bees it's ready to consume & the honey filled comb is cut straight out of the hive & packaged up ready for sale.
Only the best frames of honey are used for this premium product as unlike normal honey extration the comb is drawn out by the bees in the same season as the honey which helps maintain the much sort after near white colour of this edible wax.
Honey tends to have a very long best before date as the high sugar content makes it a natural preservative even after it has been opened. Bacteria fines it extremely hard to live in this high sugar environment.
Did you know that edible honey was found in the tombs of the Egyptian Pharoahs... How's that for a use by date?
All honeys will crystalise eventually. Infact it is a sign that you have an unadulterated pure honey. Crystalisation is a natural process & there is nothing wrong with your honey. Raw honeys tend to crystalise easily as they contain lots of beneficial pollen that the big commercial producers remove to make them crystal clear & runny. If you want to return your honey to a liquid state gently warm your jar in a water bath & hey presto you're sorted. Remember not to over heat as you may lose all the goodness.
Busy as a bee...
During the Summer months there can be up to 50,000 bees in a hive.
All of them work tirelessly for the common cause.... to produce our favourite sticky honey.
Each member of the hive has their own task (depending on age) & gradually gets promoted to foraging bee. It is the foraging bees that bring back the nectar for processing into honey.
As typically during the summer worker bees only live for 6 weeks you need an awful lot of them to produce a nice jar of tasty honey.
We are looking into the possiblility of allowing small groups to spend time with the bees to see them at work. They are fascinating creatures & we would love to share this experience with you. If you're interested drop us line & we will add you to our waiting list.
Postage & Packaging starts from as little as £3.95 for your order.
This covers up to 3 large jars or 4 small jars of our extraordinary honey... so you get great value if stock up in one go or club your order with friends & family.
The price covers postage & packaging based on the weight of your order. The price is calculated automatically as you add product and the final price is displayed in your basket.
If you live locally you can always collect directly from us & save on the postage...
We endeaver to process orders the same day & send them out within 24hrs of you placing your order.
To keep the cost of sending your honey which tends to be a bit weighty we send the goods the most economical way possible, which means it can take a little longer than Amazon...
But we assure you it is worth the wait.
2nd Class is usually 3-5 days for delivery.
You are very welcome to collect your order direct from the apairy & save on your postage & packaging cost.
Once your order is ready for collection you will be sent a confirmation email with details of how to collect with details directions.
We are based in the small picuresque village of East Stratton not far from Winchester which has a lovely village green & a charming village pub (which also serves food), so it is well worth a visit while you're in the neigbourhood.
