Early on in our practices we encountered the writings of Rudolf Steiner. Along with writings of current practicing beekeepers, Steiner’s writings compelled us to delve deeper into what it means to be the best beekeeper possible. We felt that the biodynamic tenets of foundationless un-interrupted brood nest and naturally reared queens are of particular importance to the essence of the hive-being. Likewise, many great beekeepers from the past like Edward Emile Warre’ and Lorenzo Langstroth had great skills of observation, and have influenced our thinking. Our design and development of the Natural-Nest* hive came out of a synergy between our desire to keep bees in accordance with biodynamic standards, the reading of historical writings, and an appreciation of modern beekeeping and its challenges. We feel Natural-Nest* hives are the best space for bees to occupy in our climate and offers the most functionality to the beekeeper with regards to assisting the bees in their success. It became clear early on, that to truly be part of shaping what sustainable beekeeping looks like here in the future, we would have to become a living example. It also became clear that to do the greatest work for the bees, we would have to work with great numbers of hives in hopes of having the largest influence possible on feral populations. We have embarked upon an operation-wide selection process for hardy adaptive bees that are open-mated with the surrounding feral population in hopes of evolving a truly locally-adapted strain of bees with vigor and suitability for our region. The region where we are proud to reside is one of the most pristine and cleanest bee habitats on the west coast. The Illinois River Valley, with its rural population, lack of industry, and lack of intensive agriculture, has kept it in pure state suitable to eco-beekeeping. We follow a strict set of standards with regards to how we handle our honey. For starters, we pull the honey from our hives by hand, using no fumigants or irritants to remove the honey, only a bit of smoke (or none at all) and a brush to sweep bees from the combs we wish to remove. Once the honey is safely home it is quickly extracted before the heat of the day wanes. Our honey is left to stand in stainless steel bottling tanks for 36-48 hours to clarify naturally to a clear state. From here, the honey is bottled using no added heat and using only gravity. We pack our honey directly into glass containers destined for our customers. We never pack or store our honey in plastic buckets, and never reheat honey to a liquid state prior to sale. Our honey is packed directly into glass and sealed away in the dark to maximize the retention of enzyme activity and to protect the vitamins and antioxidants present in the honey. We pride ourselves on the pure quality of our bee pollen. Our pollen is trapped from selected yards here in the Illinois Valley where we can provide elevated attention to the hives to ensure freshness. Our traps meet the highest of organic standards with naturally finished cedar and stainless steel screen collection baskets. All pollen sources in our pollen are wildflowers from the Illinois River Valley, a place devoid of intensive agricultural practices and on the fringe of the wild Siskiyou Mountains. Major pollen sources at the time of trapping include tree species such as Quercus spp. (Oaks), Fraxinus sp. (Ash), as well as shrub species including Ceonothus spp. and Toxicodendron (Poison Oak), Rubus spp. (Blackberry), as well as a long list of herbaceous flowers that bloom in field and forest. We promptly remove pollen from the hives while still fresh and soft and transfer it immediately into freezers. By freezing our pollen fresh, we retain a maximum amount of vitamins and enzymes in this living food. We sell our fresh frozen pollen in our store and also priority ship with cold packs for an additional charge. However, one of the best ways to acquire our pollen at a distance is by ordering our pollen infused honey. Fresh pollen placed under live honey creates a stable living food easy to transport. We produce a full line of 100% beeswax candles. We use only beeswax from other Oregon beekeepers (No offense CA or WA beeks, sorry). We use only 100% cotton or cotton/hemp wicking. All of our candles have been produced for years and are guaranteed to burn to the end. We produce a full line of hand-dipped tapers. And we mean 100% hand-dipped, not molded and then hand-dipped once to make it look like a dipped taper (we have seen our competition use this slight-of-hand to sell molded tapers to the unaware). Check our our rotating display of custom engraved candles made by Joy. Note: we do not sell tea lights in aluminum bases. This style candle requires a synthetic candle wick and wastes a bunch of metal. Try our votives made with 100% cotton wicking instead. Oh, and always use a votive glass with votives as it doubles their burn time. Please read our candle burning instructions for best burning results. Diggin’ Livin’ Honeybee Hive Woodenware
Here on the family farm, Diggin Livin produces a limited selection of premium grade beehive components. Our woodenware is produced with the bees in mind. Functionality and durability are the name of our game. In keeping bees, we work this equipment hard and expect that you might also. The strength of our equipment comes from good design and lots of quality fasteners. While we use custom measurements for our equipment, all interior dimensions are consistent with commercially available Langstroth-style equipment allowing interchanging of our woodenware with other 8-frame equipment. We think that once you give our equipment a try, you will never be satisfied by the performance of any other hive again.
