Mel Vilarinho

The existence of beekeeping in my life dates back to long tradition. The current bee keeper ´s father  started by having the swarms in the tenements and in 1980 he started to have some swarms already in wooden boxes. In 1986, he lost all the swarms he had in the tenements and most of the hives he already had. That was when the mite called varroa (Varroa destructor) appeared and that was the cause of death of the swarms, but at that time there was not much knowledge about the subject. Five hives survived in 1986, that’s when he told the son to take care of them because he was discouraged by the losses he had. He passed the equipment other the son who started the bee keeping when he was only 16 years old.

From then onwards the production  have always been growing and currently there are  more than 700 hives spread over several municipalities in the district of Bragança, producing 4 varieties of honey (rosemary, multifloral, chestnut and heather), depending on the zones and flora in the places where the apiaries are installed. The production become organic certified in 2013