Our mission
Our goal is to provide a safe haven for survivor bees and to share knowledge about natural, sustainable beekeeping. Our beehives are free of chemicals, antibiotics, and contaminated wax. When working with colonies we focus on proper maintenance rather than artificial support, to help them grow and flourish in a natural way.
Our apiary
We started out with different types of bees to ensure a genetic variety: Italian, Carniolian, and Buckfast. Now, in addition to next generations of our original stock, we also keep a local mix, survivor bees, which show a good ability to thrive in the local climate. They are an important factor in successful natural beekeeping.
In our apiary we have different types of beehives for teaching purposes:
- Langstroth hives with a deep brood box
- Langstroth hives with a medium brood box
- Long Langstroth hive with deep frames
- Horizontal top bar hives
- Comfort hives/ mating nucs
- Layens hive (project in the making)
In our apiary we use solid bottom boards, screened ones, and eco-floors.
The eco-floor idea is propagated by a well known British beekeeper – Philip Chandler. It mimics the natural environment of a hollowed-out tree’s floor. The organic debris on the bottom of the hive is home for bacteria and fungi which are beneficial to the colony. The Comfort hive was developed by Sam Comfort from Anarchy Apiaries located in U.S.
We use mainly foundationless frames in our beehives. This allows us to keep our beehives free of contaminated wax. We have also few top bar hives where even frames are not needed.
Our educational apiary is located at The Living Centre, 5871 Bells Rd, London, ON. Canada. There, we provide our students with a “hands on” experience on natural, sustainable beekeeping.
