Naturopathic Apiculture
Restoration Hive Beekeeping
The Restoration hive is the result of an 11-year conservation project pioneered by Renova Sustainable Agriculture. During the project, we sought to develop a hive design that provides 1: proper colony space based on a queens’ laying behavior in the spring, 2: increased varroa and nosema resistance, 3: an emphasis on a proper swarm response, and 4: a proper storage space for honey - based off of the dates of the main NATIVE flows across the Commonwealth, and not farmed crops.
Restoration hives redirect the wasteful use of resources by the colony into efficient, healthy operation. A Restoration Hive allows an apiculturist to glean early-season liquid honey, a reliable comb honey harvest AND summer stores for a split or queen raising.
Renova Sustainable Agriculture believes apiculture should not only be successful, but also sustainably operated. A hive ought not to cost hundreds of dollars and require a plethora of expensive tools, and require new bees every year or two. In light of that, we are preparing to offer a set of downloadable .PDF plans for the Restoration hive in Q3 2025, along with a downloadable .PDF short guide on Restoration hive beekeeping, so that everyone who so desires may turn beekeeping into a profitable endeavor instead of an expensive one, while assisting in salvaging the honeybee as a species.
Restoration Queen Bees
Renova Sustainable Agriculture has labored for over a decade to produce a line of hygeinic honeybees able to rebalance the honeybee population across Virginia. We focus on frugal overwintering with a hygienic cluster, very rapid spring build-up, foraging in cold and damp weather, and low SHB tolerance. We also encourage propolizing instinct and moderate swarming instinct. While these traits may not appeal to many, they have proven to be a winning combination for us over the years.
Renova Sustainable Agriculture has never treated its bees, worked them over cultivated crops, or migrated its outyards. We believe the honeybee was created to live locally in a symbiotic relationship with the landscape immediately surrounding the colony. In order to thrive nowadays, when native forages are vastly diminished and nectarflows are indeterminate in many locations, it has become more important than ever before to back-cross today’s bees, and get back to what the honeybee was created to do: thrive sustainably on very little, while contributing very much to all that grows around it.
At Renova Sustainable Agriculture, we practice the same values we ask of our bees - so we don’t sell our queens, rather, we give them away. Believe it - we share our broodstock with beekeepers across the Piedmont who commit to giving treatment-free beekeeping a try for a year. We give away only overwintered queens, to be certain that we provide reliable, dependable success to the beekeepers of Tomorrow.
If you are interested in inheriting a couple of our girls for your apiary, or if you’re a new beekeeper looking for a helping hand, drop us a line. If we’ve got stock available, we’ll be happy to share.
