The Blue Hills Honey Process
The Process
Great honey begins with healthy bees, abundant Tasmanian flowers and the right environment.
At Blue Hills Honey, we believe the best approach is simple: care for the bees, harvest the honey when it is ready, and handle it as little as possible.
From our hives in northwest Tasmania to our family honey house in Mawbanna, every step is designed to preserve the natural character, flavour and aroma of our honey.
Minimal handling
No additives
Pure Tasmanian honey
Healthy Bees Come First
Before there is honey, there are bees.
Our beekeeping team cares for around 2,000 hives across northwest Tasmania, making sure our colonies are healthy, well managed and placed where they have access to abundant natural forage.
We carefully manage our hives throughout the seasons, including queen selection, colony development, hive maintenance and apiary management.
Because healthy bees are at the heart of great honey.
2,000+
Beehives
Tasmania
Our home
100%
Natural honey
The Right Place Matters
Tasmania’s landscape is part of what makes Blue Hills honey distinctive.
During the flowering season, our beekeepers carefully select locations across northwest Tasmania based on flowering conditions, seasonal changes and local microclimates.
The bees then forage among the native flowers, forests, meadows and wilderness of the region.
Different flowers create different flavours, aromas and characteristics, giving each Blue Hills honey its own sense of place.
The Bees Do the Work
Our bees collect nectar and pollen from the flowers around their hives.
Back at the hive, nectar passes between worker bees as its moisture content is naturally reduced. The nectar gradually becomes honey before being stored in the honeycomb and sealed with beeswax.
The bees are doing what they have done for thousands of years.
Our role is simply to care for them, provide the right environment and collect the surplus honey they produce.
Nature makes the honey.
We take care of the journey.
When the Honey Is Ready
Harvesting begins when our beekeepers determine that the honey is ripe and the frames are ready.
The honey-filled frames are carefully removed from the hives and transported back to our family honey house at Mawbanna.
For varieties such as Leatherwood, timing is particularly important because flowering and harvesting can occur within a relatively short seasonal window.
It is a demanding part of the process, and one that requires experience, timing and teamwork.
Minimal Processing
Our philosophy is simple:
Do as little as possible to the honey.
Once the frames arrive at our honey house, the honey is extracted using centrifuges that separate the honey from most of the beeswax.
The honey is then passed through a coarse filter before settling naturally in large tanks.
It is not heavily processed or loaded with unnecessary ingredients.
Just honey, handled with care.
Cold Extraction
Temperature matters.
Our honey is processed below 45°C as part of our approach to minimal processing. This helps us protect the delicate flavours and aromas naturally present in the honey.
Our extraction process is designed to let the honey retain its natural character rather than changing it through excessive heat or processing.
BELOW 45°C
A gentler approach to honey processing
Quality From Field to Pack
Quality assurance begins long before the honey reaches the jar.
Our processing systems and facilities are designed to maintain the quality and integrity of our honey from the field through to packaging.
Blue Hills Honey was the first Australian honey producer to implement the industry’s B-QUAL quality assurance programme, and our quality-controlled facilities undergo regular auditing.
Our certifications and registrations support the standards we maintain across our production and export operations.
From Honey House to the World
After extraction and settling, the honey is transferred into food-grade containers for either bulk supply or retail packaging.
From our family honey house in Mawbanna, Blue Hills honey makes its way to customers in Tasmania, across Australia and international markets.
What starts with a bee visiting a Tasmanian flower can eventually find its way to a table thousands of kilometres away.
TASMANIA → HONEY HOUSE → PACKAGING → YOUR TABLE
The Result
Every jar carries a little piece of its origin.
Leatherwood from Tasmania’s wilderness.
Wildflowers from northwest Tasmania.
Native blossoms from the landscapes surrounding our hives.
Different flowers. Different seasons. Different flavours.
But always the same Blue Hills commitment to quality.
From Our Bees to Your Table
From the flowers of Tasmania to the work of thousands of bees, from our family farm to our honey house, every jar has a story behind it.
