Happier bees thanks to ElleHive from Macedonian Honey

As a consequence of climate change, the bee population worldwide is declining, and along with it, the biodiversity of nature. Macedonian Honey, with their generation-long experience in beekeeping, has developed a new hive that benefits the bee population and wildlife biodiversity. Founder Elena Fidanoska talks to us about it. 

What is Macedonian Honey? 

“We started our company in 2015 and are committed to improving the future of honey bees. We aim to achieve this goal by marketing our ElleHive and a new methodology for beekeepers. The ElleHive mimics a natural hive; no unnatural materials are used. The bees experience less stress as a result. Stress and disorientation are bad for insects, as they then die faster, are less able to spread pollen and produce less honey. With our hives, the honeybees strengthen their own immune system without any interference from human beings. The hive is built to suit the life cycle of the honey bees and their needs.” 

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Why is your start-up so important? 

“For several reasons. There are fewer and fewer bee populations around the world; there are fewer new beekeepers starting out, pesticides are used extensively in crop cultivation, and then there is the issue of climate change. While many people can do without their share of honey, they are unaware that bees play an important and crucial role in growing fruit and vegetables. Bees are responsible for 70% of pollination. We also need bees for the propagation and preservation of wild flowers, herbs and plants.  Eventually, without bees, there will also be no milk and cheese. Pesticides and neonicotinoids [bee-killing pesticides] are taken by the bee to the hive as it gathers pollen and nectar, so that not only ends up in our honey, but also causes bee mortality inside the hive.” 

So how did the process leading up to the ElleHive and your method go? 

“We haven’t done any scientific research ourselves, but we do make a living from beekeeping. My husband and his family have been keeping honeybees for over a hundred years now. Up close, we can see how the bees and their behavior are changing. In order to help the bees with their life cycle, my husband kept modifying the hives. He finished that five years ago and decided to build his own hive with everything he had learned over the previous thirty years. We installed these hives next to the classic hives. The yields became much higher and the bees also became stronger. We can safely say that a happy bee really does exist. Currently we are in talks with a university in Ankara, Turkey, so that they can do scientific research on our ElleHive and method.” 

So what is the goal that Macedonian Honey would like to achieve? 

“We want to make tailor-made do-it-yourself beekeeper home kits and hives for the global market, starting with Europe. Right now, a hive costs around several hundred euros – we want to start offering them for seventy euros. Apart from that, we have other plans to promote natural beekeeping by, among other things, developing a platform where beekeepers can meet and encourage each other to keep bees in a natural way. But also by building a tourist bee farm where people can spend the night. Now the focus is mainly on attracting enough donations and finding an investor, who like us, thinks the future of the bee, wildlife and people are important and wants to take on this mission together with us.”