Bringing in the harvest

We have several different types of hives at Fonte de Baixo which we use on our Natural Beekeeping courses. We use traditional Portuguese cork hives, long top-bar hives and boxed Langstroth hives. Because we keep our bees as naturally as we can, we don't take all the honey away from them and as a result, we don't have to feed them either. We believe that feeding granulated sugar deprives the bees of their natural food, nectar which is more than just sugar - it contains minerals, vitamins and essential natural oils which the bees use to maintain natural good health.

We also follow the bio-dynamic calendar and only work with the bees on certain times and days of each month depending on the cycle of the moon. We have just brought in our final crop of honey for the year leaving over 30lbs in each hive for over-winter feed. Over the next few days we will treat the outside boxes with a winter protective layer of boiled linseed oil, natural bees wax and wintergreen oil. This will keep the water out and keep the bees dry and watertight during the wet winter months.

Next year we will be running four natural beekeeping courses where you can watch and learn how to build a top-bar and natural Portuguese hive, learn our approach to beekeeping and honey extraction. If you are interested to learn more, please drop us an email to: info@ahimsa-portugal.com