Imkerij De Driest

Imkerij De Driest is a beekeeping business at the northern tip of the Wageningse Eng in Bennekom, an old landscape of small arable plots on the western flank of the Veluwe, where bees have been kept since 2006.

The apiary keeps the endangered native Dutch black bee, and the welfare of the colonies comes first, so only honey the bees can spare is sold, pure and unprocessed. Their website is mostly about method rather than sales. Swarming is controlled by regularly taking a frame or two of capped brood with its bees from each colony, from cherry blossom until at least the end of June, and by requeening with the 2×9 method developed by Wolfgang Golz, in which the old queen is removed and a young one takes over at the time of year when colonies give up swarming.

How to buy isn't set out on their website. The honey is sold through a StreekWaar market stall, and otherwise by asking the beekeeper directly by email.

The beekeeper writes at length on their website about natural or Darwinian beekeeping, weighing which of its ideas can work for kept colonies in the Netherlands.