National Honey Month: Why We Celebrate Honey & Beekeepers Every September
September is National Honey Month, a celebration of honey, honey bees, and the beekeepers behind every harvest. Discover the story behind the month and simple ways to celebrate.
September is National Honey Month, and we can't think of a better reason to open a jar.
National Honey Month is a celebration of honey, honey bees, and the beekeepers who care for colonies and bring each harvest from hive to table.
But there's more to celebrate than something sweet.
Every jar of real honey represents flowers, landscapes, thousands of foraging bees, and the work of a beekeeper.
Here's why September is all about honey — and how you can celebrate.
What Is National Honey Month?
National Honey Month is celebrated throughout September in the United States.
The National Honey Board established National Honey Month in 1989 to promote and celebrate honey.
September also falls near an important period for many U.S. beekeepers as major summer nectar flows wind down and honey harvesting occurs in many parts of the country.
Harvest timing isn't universal. Beekeepers may harvest at different times depending on their location, weather, floral sources, and management practices.
But September remains a perfect time to appreciate what bees and beekeepers have been working on throughout the warmer months.
How Do Bees Make Honey?
Every jar starts with flowers.
Worker honey bees leave their colony and forage for nectar from blooming plants.
They carry that nectar back to the hive, where it is transferred among bees and undergoes a remarkable transformation.
Bees add enzymes and reduce the nectar's moisture content. Eventually, the concentrated honey is stored inside the familiar hexagonal cells of the honeycomb.
When the honey reaches an appropriate moisture level, bees cap the cells with beeswax.
The result is the food we know as honey.
For the bees, however, it isn't a dessert.
Honey is food for the colony.
Stored honey provides an important energy reserve that helps sustain honey bees when flowers and fresh nectar aren't readily available.
How Does a Beekeeper Harvest Honey?
Responsible honey harvesting is a balance.
Beekeepers manage colonies throughout the year, monitoring their health, pests, food resources, population, and other conditions.
When there's surplus honey available for harvest, beekeepers can remove honey-filled frames from the hive.
The wax cappings covering the honey are removed, and the honey is typically extracted from the comb using centrifugal force.
After extraction, the frames can often be returned to the colonies so the bees can reuse the comb.
Most importantly, beekeepers must consider the colony's own food requirements.
A responsible beekeeper isn't simply trying to take as much honey as possible. The health and survival of the colony come first.
Why Does Honey Taste Different From Jar to Jar?
One of the best ways to celebrate National Honey Month is to stop thinking about honey as a single flavor.
Honey can be incredibly diverse.
The nectar sources available to bees influence characteristics such as:
- Flavor
- Aroma
- Color
- Sweetness
- Texture
- Crystallization
That's why orange blossom honey can taste dramatically different from buckwheat honey, and why a wildflower honey harvested in Tennessee won't necessarily taste like a wildflower honey harvested somewhere else.
Honey is a reflection of place and harvest.
It's one of the things that makes real honey so interesting.
Honey Is One of Humanity's Oldest Foods
Our relationship with honey stretches back thousands of years.
Humans valued honey long before refined sugar became widely available. It has appeared throughout ancient food traditions, medicine, religious texts, mythology, and fermented beverages.
Honey even became the foundation for one of humanity's oldest alcoholic beverages: mead, made by fermenting honey with water.
Our equipment and agricultural systems have changed enormously since ancient times.
Our fascination with honey hasn't.
Does Honey Really Last Forever?
You've probably heard that honey never spoils.
There's some truth behind honey's extraordinary shelf stability, but we'd phrase it a little differently.
Properly stored honey can remain stable for an exceptionally long time because its low moisture content and other characteristics make it difficult for many microorganisms to grow.
Over time, honey may darken, change flavor, or crystallize.
Crystallization doesn't mean your honey has gone bad.
In fact, crystallization is completely natural for many real honeys.
Why Supporting Beekeepers Matters
National Honey Month should be about more than honey bees.
It should also celebrate the people behind the hives.
Beekeepers invest time, money, equipment, knowledge, and labor into caring for their colonies.
They monitor colony health.
They manage pests such as Varroa mites.
They respond to weather and changing forage conditions.
They maintain equipment.
They harvest, extract, bottle, and sell honey.
And like any agricultural producer, they need sustainable economics to continue doing it.
That's at the heart of Bee Mission.
5 Ways to Celebrate National Honey Month
September gives all of us an excuse to appreciate honey a little more.
Here are five easy ways to participate:
- Buy honey from a beekeeper. Look for locally or regionally produced honey and learn who produced it.
- Try a new varietal. Compare clover, wildflower, orange blossom, buckwheat, sourwood, tupelo, or another honey you've never tasted.
- Cook with honey. Replace your usual sweetener in a recipe or explore a completely new honey recipe.
- Learn about beekeeping. Visit an apiary, attend a local beekeeping event, or simply learn more about what happens inside a hive.
- Share a jar. Introduce someone else to real beekeeper-produced honey.
Every jar creates an opportunity to appreciate the bees, landscapes, and people behind it.
This National Honey Month, Support the Harvest
At Bee Mission, we believe making beekeeping more sustainable starts with creating more value for beekeepers.
And one of the simplest ways to do that is to create more demand for what they produce.
So this September, try a honey you've never tasted before.
Learn the name of the beekeeper who produced it.
Cook with it. Share it. Give it as a gift.
Most importantly, appreciate the incredible journey that happened before that jar reached your table.
Enjoy the harvest. Support beekeepers. Grow the mission.