Halo Honey

Honey

Once the frames are capped and full, harvest day means uncapping, spinning, and bottling — all done right here at home. Here’s a look at how a batch of Halo Honey goes from the hive to the jar.

Hal Hoffmann holds up a frame of fully capped honeycomb, ready for extracting

Spinning and Straining

Once the wax caps are sliced off, the frames go into a stainless steel extractor that spins them so centrifugal force pulls the honey out of the comb. From there it drains straight out of the extractor’s honey gate and into a bucket to settle before bottling.

Honey draining from the extractor's honey gate into a collection bucket during extraction

Bottling by Hand

Once it’s settled, the honey gets bottled by hand, right down to lining up each empty jar before filling it straight from the bucket’s own honey gate. Every bottle gets a Halo Honey label before it’s ready to share.

Hal Hoffmann bottling honey by hand into small glass jars lined up on the table
Filling a small glass jar with honey straight from the bottling bucket's honey gate
A freshly filled honey bear bottle, capped and ready for its Halo Honey label

One batch at a time, our backyard hives turn into something sweet enough to pass around — labeled, capped, and ready to share.

Two bottled and labeled jars of Halo Honey, a bear bottle and a classic jar, resting on a lichen-covered rock near the hives