Our Story

How did it begin?

Kaye’s father kept a few hives for years, mainly to keep the extended family and friends in honey. He fell in love with them and passed this love on to his brother (Kaye’s uncle). Kaye was never interested in bees – they sting! However, her uncle wanted to retire and couldn’t find anyone to share in his interest. So Kaye ended up with a few hives and caught the bug – so to speak.

“They are fascinating creatures,” says Kaye. “Every hive is different (a bit like your kids), and they are so industrious. If we ran our society as they run theirs, I think this world would be a better place.”

Coolibah Hills Honey is only packaged in glass jars, not plastic, because we think honey looks and tastes better that way. And the jars are recyclable - just return the larger jars (400g, 600g and 1kg) to your stockist and receive 20c off your next honey purchase.

What makes Coolibah Hills Honey different?

All our bees reside in Queensland and so, all you get in the jar is pure Queensland honey. We filter it to remove beeswax, pollen and propolis – and that’s it. It is raw, natural, unheated and not blended – just the real deal.

We have our hives located mainly on the Darling Downs, from Stanthorpe to Crows Nest, and sometimes to the east and west. Like all good farmers, we try to ensure that our livestock has a good food source (in our case, plenty of flowering plants and shrubs to supply pollen and nectar to our bees). So, at times of drought, we need to move them and we’ve had to do this over the last few years. This need created an opportunity for us.

We batch our honey individually from each location, and in some instances, from each hive and note this on the lid. So every batch is different, even if from the same location. As different plants flower during the year, this influences the colour, density and taste of the honey. Whilst our peak extracting season is summer, even that short period of time will produce unique differences in our honey. We don’t blend – what you get in your jar of Coolibah Hills Honey is just 100% Queensland pure honey.

One of the properties of pure honey is that it may candy. Candying occurs because of the sugar content, so it’s completely natural. We don’t like heating our honey, because it may alter its composition and lose some of that fabulous honey flavour. But, if you don’t like candying, it’s easily fixed. Just place the jar in hot water (not boiling) or out in the sun and stir it occasionally until the sugars dissolve. But please don’t put it in the oven or microwave! The good stuff in honey denatures above 40°C