A Great Bee Blog from Applegate, Oregon

"Applegate" just sounds like a good place to live, doesn't it? The name of the town makes me want to retire to an orchard right now. Actually, the house where we live in northwest Seattle used to be on an orchard, but that was a long time ago.

Back to Applegate, Oregon. This morning I happened upon a website from a family (identified as the Shockey family on their site's about page) who lives in Applegate and, among other things, has a strong dedication to natural beekeeping. In fact, their website is named after the Roman goddess of pollination, Mellonia. They have a nice little page which gives an overview of their beekeeping practices, which include beekeeping with the Warre style of hive, which they like because "because its theory and construction is such that you don't keep disturbing the bees to see what they are doing."

I also like that the Shockeys talk about how they "are not in the honey business" and thus wait until spring to harvest any honey that the bees don't need after getting through the winter: they "[believe] that honey, not sugar or high fructose corn syrup, is meant to feed bees."

See also this nice post by the mom of the Shockey family, Nadine Levie, about her excitement regarding the construction of her first Warre hive.

I'll definitely check back on the beekeeping adventures of the Shockey family in the future.