Honey and the apiary in Florina

The beekeepers of Florina practice nomadic beekeeping. There are not many permanent apiaries and these consist of a few beehives and belong to amateurs. The professionals keep 200-400 beehives and their work begins in early spring when they prepare to bring the beehives to Florina. Then the beekeeper will inspect the beehives for the first time after the winter, evaluate them and treat them accordingly. In Florina he prepares his apiaries for the production of new bees, honey, etc. The first honey harvest takes place in July and maybe two more will follow later. The honey produced in Florina is high quality flower honey from the nectar of wildflowers in the area. At the end of August, preparatory work begins for the transfer of the apiaries to Halkidiki, where the pine honey is produced. The bees will now remain there until spring, after preparing for the winter after a final harvest. Often the apiaries are moved before the winter from Halkidiki to other warm regions of the country and from there they start in the spring for Florina. Here, two or three local movements will now take place with the aim of better exploiting the most important beekeeping plants in the area.

SOURCE: Beekeeping and beekeeping tradition of Florina/ educational material / January 1996
TEXT: Ioannis Anagnostopoulos, agronomist – entomologist