 |
| Bergi’s Apiary in Castelbuono (Sicily). See the new World Honey page for more details! |
I recently discovered the most incredible apiary at a Sicilian farm on a trip to Italy. It was simply a long row of hives sitting next to each other. I had always thought hives were meant to be positioned apart but clearly not here. The farm also kept their hives higher up in the mountains and near the beautiful beaches.
Interestingly they use multi-coloured supers in orange, yellow and green for their honey – never seen any like that before!
 |
| A pile of multi-coloured supers and a honey extractor |
 |
| The wires are framed very differently to the standard British frames |
 |
| The farm’s honey bottling room |
The honey tastes incredible, it’s quite strong and flavoursome – definitely worth a try. They come in a range of flavours including Asphodelian (a Eurasian plant from the lily family), Orange blossom, and Mixed flowers.
 |
| Honey fresh from the farm – tastes amazing! |
 |
| A range of different honeys from hives around Sicily |
I also visited another apiary near Castelbuono which was located right next to a lake. The hives again were very small and multicoloured.
I would definitely recommend a trip to Sicily – the food is incredible and the honey is superb. If you’d like to find out more about Sicilian honey and bees I would recommend Kate Ludlow’s blog page.
The full details of the apiaries are on the NEW World Honey page where I will add your favourite World Honeys so please contact me with the details!
They must have a lot of drifting going on with the hives set up in one long line like that. The honey looks gorgeous.
I like the idea of vertical wiring. I think it’s more stable than horizontal, especially with bigger frames. It’s hard to achieve with our two-piece bottom bars.
There’s a video of the Russian beekeeping year. The hives are very close together, each one has an identifying pattern on the front and some have a vertical board between them. I think the Sicilian hives in your pictures will have less drifting because of the semi-enclosed entrances.
Do you know anyone what’s would like to rent a 20 hectare property near Milazzo Sicily, for beehives?
Unfortunately not!