Hannigan Honey is CFIA and USFDA approved. From small jars of smooth, creamy white honey, to container loads of honey in drums, you will partake of the quality and professionalism first established by Albert Hannigan in 1940.
Hannigan Honey has been producing fine Canadian honey since 1940. Our honey is naturally processed to preserve its vitamin and mineral content, amazing white colour and wonderfully mild flavour.
We’re based in Shellbrook, Saskatchewan, a community nestled on the edge of the Canadian wilderness. It’s a spectacular landscape of vast, rolling fields of canola, clover and alfalfa. Here, our 5,000-plus beehives are rated as the healthiest and most productive among our peers.
Mild, silky, smooth – Hannigan Honey.
Our unprocessed honey is extracted without excess heat, producing a world-class product full of natural nutrients and antioxidants.
In 1940, 16-year-old Albert Hannigan was a typical farmboy, up with the sun to milk the cows and do his chores before heading off to school. But even on the remote Canadian prairies, the Second World War was changing the way people lived—farm families were doing more work with less manpower. Rationing meant basic food stuffs had to be carefully measured out. Albert saw his mother Cora struggling to make rationed goods (especially sugar) stretch farther.
That’s when he had a sweet idea.
Albert ordered his first beehive through a Canadian mail order catalogue. He saw beekeeping as a way to produce home-grown sweetener to supplement the family’s sugar ration. Selling honey would also bring in extra money and help out his parents.
That single beehive produced 50 pounds of honey the first year. It was a modest start. But Albert’s fascination with his new bees actually inhibited the beehive from reaching its full potential, because he was constantly checking the progress of the new combs.
It was the beginning of a life-long passion. By 1949, the war was over and Albert was a married man looking to make his own mark on the world. He moved his hives north to Big River, Saskatchewan—alfalfa country. Over the years, the honey business grew along with Albert’s family.
In 1977, Hannigan Honey relocated to Shellbrook to take advantage of a new source of nectar—canola. In 1998, Albert’s son Murray took over the family business and became president of Hannigan Honey Inc. David Philp, a young man who had started working at Hannigan Honey at the age of 16, became a business partner in 2013.
Today, more than 75 years later, Hannigan Honey continues to produce marvellously smooth, natural honey. We’ve grown from a small farm operation into a major Saskatchewan producer. Our over 5,000 hives produce an average of 1 million pounds (500 metric tonnes) of honey per annum.
