Our Honeybees
McDonald Honey operates over 2,000 production beehives throughout the state of Victoria and Southern NSW to take advantage of the different plants that flower throughout the year. The beehives are used to produce honey and beeswax and to provide pollination services to various crops.
It is only out of necessity to which we travel with our bees, believing that taking the greatest of care with each of our journeys is paramount. We have invested in modern trucks with advanced suspension and tyre inflation/deflation systems which limit our environmental impact and provide the bees with a gentle ride that does not adversely impact on beehive health.
Whether you are a beekeeper that cares for thousands of beehives, or one, it is always important to care for the health and well being of your bees.
Our Honey
Our honey is produced in a simple, natural, age-old beekeeping process also using a modern HACCP Quality Assurance program.
We aim to provide local consumers with as many regional varieties of honey as possible, sourced from areas throughout the state. Each variety is unique in its colour, flavour and type of flora from which it is collected. We label each jar or tub of our honey with the individual location of it's origin, so you can be sure of the local region of Victoria from which your product has been sourced.
Honey production in Victoria varies from year to year. Most of the honey is produced from native Eucalypt trees, whose flowering patterns are varied and spasmodic, highly dependant on both weather and climate. As a consequence, at times we will run out of particular varieties of honey if there is an extended period of time between flowering events. So if there is a particular honey you like, buy bigger buckets.
Our Pollination
We provide beehives for paid pollination services to a number of clients to assist them in producing a marketable crop.
Our current pollination schedule includes Almonds in August, Plums in August/September and Apples in September/October.
In the past we have also provided beehives for paid pollination for many different crops, including Canola, Clover, Pears, Cherries, Kiwi fruit, Nashi fruit, Faba Beans, Sunflowers and Olives