Our company’s core values have always been to ensure a healthy honey bee population and contributing to the food chain through crop pollination.
A passion for a healthy family and community life
Sunny Cove Honey is a medium scale apiary located in Little Harbour, Nova Scotia. The business owned and operated by the Cameron family, Sarah, Dave, Angus and Grant.
Sunny Cove Honey provides pollination services for blueberry and haskap berries, nucleus colony sales and queen sales as well as produces quality wildflower honey for purchase through retail, wholesale and bulk sales. As a value add on, beeswax based products have been developed from the hive such as candles, lip and hand balms, and more.
The name Sunny Cove Honey came from Dave's family dairy farm, Sunny Cove Dairy Farm in Merigomish, located along the Northumberland Strait. With a legacy of farming, it only made sense to pay tribute to the family farm and incorporate "Sunny Cove" into a new legacy of farming, by marrying the two, past and present. Although the dairy farm is no longer in operation, the old homestead still remains. Areas of the old farm and pasture land continue to provide in other ways now, by nourishing the majority of the company’s bee colonies/hives. To this day, the land still proves to be bountiful, through the production of local indigenous wildflower honey. The overgrown rolling pasture hills filled with seasonal wildflowers provide year round shelter to the hives from the winds of the Northumberland Strait. This year round sheltered protection continues to serve as a great location for the crucial period of over-wintering.
In the spring, prior to pollination season, the hives will be split, depending on the strength of each hive. This helps increase the number of available colonies for the coming pollination season.
Starting in late May to early June, the hives will be transported to company partnership farm fields, such as blueberry and haskap in Northern Nova Scotia. Each hive spends an average of three weeks on a field before returning to their summer yards to be readied for the coming honey season.
During the summer months and early fall, the bees continue to collect nectar and pollen from the seasonal wildflowers and indigenous trees. The first honey harvest usually starts in late July and the remaining final honey crop is harvested mid to late September. The hives are managed weekly, with check-ups of honey and brood production, overall health of the hive and Queen. Recently the company has started raising its own Queen bees for company use and with the intent to expand the business with the sale of Queens.
As a family and company, our values have always been to look at the production of our product and the caring of the bees from a more natural and sustainable approach. Over the past seven years we have treated our bees with organic compounds and essential oil, instead of the alternate use of pesticides and antibiotics. Through extensive internal research we have found a way of treating our bees and believe, unless necessary, that our bees are healthier without using the conventional methods of medicine and husbandry. In turn, we are all healthier when ingesting and using a hand made product derived from a healthy bee.
Sunny Cove Honey delivers natural and pure tasting honey straight from hives placed along the Northumberland shores of northern Nova Scotia. Made from the rich nectar of local wildflowers, you can taste the difference our unique location makes.
Sunny Cove Honey...made with love from our family to yours.
"I have been enjoying all of the Sunny Cove Honey products personally for many years. In my opinion the creamed honey is one of the finest that I have ever experienced, each product is ethically crafted and packaged with love. From a professional standpoint I have worked with Sunny Cove Honey on several occasions, each being pleasant and rewarding. I will continue to indulge in this quality made product for myself and for gifts. I look forward to future professional endeavours with this Nova Scotia company and keep on recommending this locally made product near and far.”
