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Home -> Honey and food
Honey & Provisions
In 2002 my wife and I started our beekeeping. We were looking to complement our other activities out here in the countryside and upon deciding this route, suggested by my father-in-law from Blekinge, it felt totally right and we have not looked back since.
Today our beekeeping has grown so that we now manage about 100 bee colonies and refine all primary products by ourselves in our newly built authorized provision hall. In which we also manufacture some rare delicacies!
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The Beekeeping
We practice our beekeeping at a comfortable distance from our house with about 100 bee colonies divided upon 12 hardstands. The bee colonies produce in the region of 40 kilograms of honey per community every year, but this varies broadly between different bee colonies and different years. In 2005 our best bee colony produced about 125 kilograms, whilst the worst yielded nothing at all.
The beekeeping mainly deals in portable, or “standing” hives. The frameworks are a mix of Lågnormal & Svea, and the material is wood or styrofoam, so called "Nacka hives".
Positioning the hives is very carefully considered preferably meeting the criteria of richly blooming areas nearby, shelter from wind, entrance to the beehive facing south and easily accessible. Full honey boxes, "treasure boxes", and fodder during winter can be very heavy to carry so longer distances should be avoided . We use a four-wheeler motorbike with trailer, which means these days we only have to drive up behind the bee colonies to easily load or unload.
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Fully extended bee colonies during summer
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Our Bees
Our bees consist mainly of the Italian bee, which is a sub-species of the Western honey bee. This yellow honey bee has a few advantages together with some disadvantages. The advantages are said to be their gentleness (they don’t fly up into your face), their solid combs and sturdy disease resistance. As to their disadvantages, it is said that they are less willing to fly out and collect the nectar in cold weather, a feature that you really do not want as a beekeeper close to the archipelago, with its chilly springtime.
Here there are many reasons to reconsider your choice of breed. Although a certain regard to other beekeepers in the area must be taken, it could be argued they are protecting the reputation of their own breeding lines within the field of queen development. There is ongoing debate that does not agree with such “breed fanaticism”.
Our three other common bee breeds are Buckfast, Krainer & Nordic Bee. All these are darker then the yellow bees, foremost the Krainer & Nordic Bee which are black.
Krainer & Buckfast has a quicker spring development than the yellow bees and are more willing to collect when the weather is cold. The disadvantage with them is said to be, mainly in the Krainer, a greater willingness to swarm. This is not desirable, as swarmed bee colonies do not produce honey in any large amounts.
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Yellow bees in progress. Can you spot the queen at the honeycomb?
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The Honey
The bees collect nectar from different flowers. When nectar is in abundance the bees are collecting very eagerly and with great intensity. Each bee visits the same type of flower every time they leave the hive, thus the bees have great importance to the pollination of certain fruits and berries.
When the nectar arrives to the hive, it is passed over from the worker bee to the other bees inside the hive. A part of it goes directly to feed larvae, who are becoming bees, the remaining is saved for future needs in the honeycombs distinctive cells. This is where the bees are working to lower the water content of the nectar and mix it with different substances the bee produces himself. When the nectar reaches a water content of circa 16-20%, the bees cover the honey cell with a lid of wax.
The honey is now "stable" and this is the signal to the beekeeper that the honey is ready!
The beekeeper collects the honeycombs and separates the bees. After uncapping of the wax lids, the honey streams out from the cells and is filtered at least twice and collected in buckets. Now the beekeeper has a primary product ready to use in different ways!
The honey’s continuing colour and taste depends upon which collection plant the nectar came from. The bees most important collection plants in our region are great willow, common dandelion, rapeseed, raspberries, lime tree, heather and white clover.
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White clover blossoming. An important collection plant for the bees in our area.
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Honey – a pure product
Our honey is drained into two 4 and 6 frame stirring vats in our approved facilities. Here the honey is strained in four steps and is kept in 30 kilograms buckets in cold storage at 8 degrees. In there the honey is grafted with previously made honey of good quality. This is to infuse the new honey with colour and consistency. The taste is determined by which flowers the nectar derives.
The premises is then used to draught the honey in to different jars and buckets and to produce other provisions based on honey.
The cleaning of the facilities is fundamental to working with honey. It is sticky, so the premises are cleaned from top to bottom after each process. All so that the honey stays as clean and natural as it is in the hive, all the way to the consumer!
The premises permission number, Norrköping’s Kommun: 2004-2562/3, 2005-1028/3 and 2005-443/3.
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Premises at Ormsätter Honey from 2004.
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Our Products
In addition to "normal" honey, we also use the honey to produce other provisions. A hot item is our Honey Mustard, which is very popular at Christmas. It is produced from an old recipe from the Finnish Österbotten, which we have adjusted just a little for our customers. The mustard is sweet and STRONG.
Another product is the Honey-based Grill Oil. It contains as much as 50% pure honey, garlic, chilli, other herbs and rapeseed oil. Marinated ribs with this grill oil is guaranteed to be a culinary delicacy!
The standard honey is essentially either summer honey or heather honey. The honey from the heather flower has a very characteristic taste and scent, appreciated by many, whilst others prefer the original honey from rapeseed, white clover and raspberries.
Flavouring with lemon oil is also a popular purchase for many, foremost at markets where there is opportunity to taste, perhaps for the first time.
All products come in different sizes, from 300 grams up to 1.5 kilograms for consumers with a larger consumption.
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In this part of Sweden, the bee´s must experience cold springs because of the nearby eastsee
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The Sales
We sell our products direct to the customer and via farm shops and market traders. We ourselves sell our products many days a year at markets and food conventions.
You can find our products here: Arkö Livs Arkösund, Brunneby Musteri Borensberg, Åkesson’s Hembageri Linköping, Ica Supermarket Östra Husby, Vikbolandsstruts Gårdsbutik Häradshammar and many other sites.
Of course, you can always come to our place for a taste and to purchase our products. Most of the time there is someone at home, if not you may ring my mobile 0046 (0)70-799 80 00. If you visit us during summer, there is a good chance of being able to watch the stirring work and perhaps have a fresh taste of the honey direct from the hive!
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Malin at the food market. Would you care for a jar?
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What is in the jar?
My wife Malin and I, guarantee that all products from us, are from our own bee colonies, in Jonsberg in the east of Vikbolandet. We produce all our products in approved premises.
The herbs we use in the production of our mustard and grill oil, we buy from our local Ica dealer and from Oldenburg’s Herbs in Södermanland.
The mustard seed is bought from Skåne, or directly from the worlds most experienced and largest producer of mustard seed - Canada.
Canadian mustard seed is not the cheapest on the market but keeps a steady and high quality with a constant strength.
The most imporatant thing for us is not that the product that leaves us will be the cheapest one. The product must be clean, attractive and, quality wise, one of the best there is! And that is our guarantee, to you as the customer. We will always do our best to ensure the taste and quality of each and every one of our jars!
/Rickard & Malin Hellström, Ormsätter Honey
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Some of our products from Ormsätter Honey.
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Rickard & Malin Hellström
Jonsberg Ormsätter
610 26 Vikbolandet
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Phone: +46 (0) 125-311 54
Mobile: +46 (0) 70-799 80 00
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info@ormsatter.se
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