This week we're heading to Oregon to hang out with Joy and Eric McEwen, husband-and-wife beekeepers who've been at it together for 26 seasons and now tend around 650 colonies.
They coined the term "natural nest beekeeping" to describe their whole philosophy: foundationless, paint-free, plastic-free hives, protected with a homemade beeswax-linseed-pine rosin sealant, queens raised in-house by their own sister bees instead of grafted or shipped in cages, and a Warré-inspired vertical hive design that lets the bees' own body heat pre-warm their winter honey stores.
Then we take a step sideways when Joy dives into apitherapy — she's been doing bee venom therapy for 15+ years, treating everything from arthritis and Lyme disease to Parkinson's and chronic fatigue, and now co-teaches a full certification course with Eric through their business, Diggin' Living.
Moral of the episode: it's not about the honey or the money, it's about the love (and maybe a little bit about ditching plastic hive equipment).
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