You've heard the expression, to be a busy bee. Well, it's not just a clever saying. Bees are the busiest little animals around, working hard to make our precious honey. A bee has to fly one thousand times just to make one kilogram of honey. However, it's not only the bee that is busy but also the beekeeper. For Slovenes, beekeeping is intertwined into their culture. It’s one of the oldest traditions around. Wherever you travel in Slovenia y... Read more

You've heard the expression, to be a busy bee. Well, it's not just a clever saying. Bees are the busiest little animals around, working hard to make our precious honey. A bee has to fly one thousand times just to make one kilogram of honey. However, it's not only the bee that is busy but also the beekeeper. For Slovenes, beekeeping is intertwined into their culture. It’s one of the oldest traditions around. Wherever you travel in Slovenia you will be hard pushed to miss the colourful bee houses (apiaries) dotted around the fields and hills you pass by. With a ratio of 4:1000 Slovenes working with bees, they are truly a nation of beekeepers; as the slogan of the Slovenian Beekeepers’ Association goes: to be Slovenian is to be a beekeeper.

Beekeeping is still an important part of Slovenian agricultural life, and we all know how much honey is an important source of nutrition. Honey contains substances that are highly beneficial to the human body. Remember how your mother always gave you honey when you were sick? Worryingly, bees are in decline. This is largely due to modern industrial agriculture and the pervasive use of insecticides and pesticides. Now more than ever do we need to ensure their survival. One way we can do this is to support our hard-working beekeepers.

On this tour, you will visit a Slovene apiary and learn all about the hard work involved in beekeeping. You will don the traditional protective clothing of the beekeeper and be shown just how to work safely with bees. You’ll see up close the colourful bee houses and learn about the unique tradition of painting the beehive panels in different colours. In many cases the panels are also painted with beautiful Slovenian folk art that cannot be found elsewhere.

On this visit, you will learn just how important bees are to the natural environment and how beekeeping is critical for the conservation and protection of nature. You will learn how to harvest honey from the bees and help prepare the finest and most natural honey around. The more daring among you can have a go at pulling out a beehive with 2000 bees on it.

Your visit will help support the beekeepers maintain their traditional way of life and ensure not only the survival of the beekeeper’s vocation but also the survival of our precious bees. You can also take home the best and most natural honey you will ever taste.