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Workin' Together

for the Health of Land, Hive & Home

At a time when food and health systems are increasingly disconnected, we choose to work small, local, and hands-on.
Everything we do begins with the honey bee — and extends to healing, education and nourishment for people and the planet.
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About Us

Healing land & people through the hive. 
We are beekeepers, educators, and land stewards. For 25 years, we’ve practiced organic and biodynamic beekeeping. We create living honey and hive medicines to nourish people and uplift the land.

Our Story

We like to label ourselves as ‘informed beekeepers’—actively engaged with our colonies, the landscape, and the rhythms of nature. Every decision we make is guided by experience and intuition developed through decades of close observation.

Where It All Started

Our journey began in 1999 with a single hive on a small farm outside Corvallis, Oregon. Over the years, that spark evolved into a way of life. Through seasons of abundance and loss, we learned that true hive health emerges from working with nature—from designing systems that support the bees’ own intelligence.
That understanding became the foundation of Natural Nest Beekeeping—a system rooted in the honey bee’s instinctive nest design: to start small and nadir with an empty box, allowing the colony to grow its combs downward while storing honey above. Our approach emphasizes uninterrupted brood combs, honey-fed nutrition year-round, naturally reared queens, walk-away splits, and cedar hives built with thicker walls for natural insulation. We manage without synthetic miticides, antibiotics, or plastics, honoring the hive as both a medicine chest and a healer of the Earth.

Our Mission

Healing Through The Hive

Through medicinal beekeeping, apitherapy, and education, our mission is to help heal the Earth—and in doing so, nurture healthy people.

Healthy bees create potent medicine.
That medicine nurtures healthy people.
Healthy people heal the land.
At the heart of our mission is a living cycle of regeneration—where bees heal people, people heal the land, and the land sustains the hive. When more people are healthy, conscious, and connected, healing the Earth becomes not just possible—but inevitable.

Our Guiding Ethos

At the heart of our work is the belief that healing begins in relationship—with creation, with each other, with community, and with the smallest of life’s creatures.

Through our apitherapy practice, educational programs, and high potency bee products, we hope to rekindle a strong sense of connection between people and the living world that sustains us. Our lives are guided by the hive’s example—cooperation, humility, and purpose—and through that example, we find daily hope for the healing of the Earth. The hive is a teacher. The land is a mirror. And healing begins at the scale of the family.
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What You'll Gain
Course Structure

This course follows the same path apitherapy itself has taken: from its ancient roots to its growing place in modern healthcare.

You’ll learn:

  • What apitherapy is, how it evolved, and how it’s practiced around the world today.
  • The unique healing qualities of each hive medicine — from honey’s antibacterial power to propolis’ antiviral protection, and the regenerative potential of bee venom.
  • How bee venom therapy works in the body, including safe test stings, dosing, and protocols for conditions like pain, inflammation, Lyme disease, and autoimmune issues.
  • How to assess client readiness, perform safe test stings, and respond to reactions with confidence.
  • How to identify and source truly medicinal hive products through the Ten Guidelines for Medicinal Beekeeping and the Integrative Hive Protocol & Index (IHPI) framework you’ll study and apply throughout the course.
  • Ethical and transparent approaches to sourcing, handling, and applying hive medicines — keeping respect for the bees at the center of all practice.
  • How apitherapy fits into integrative care, herbalism, and regenerative wellness, supported by real case studies from both clinical and farm settings.

This is a 35-module, video-based certification program taught by Joy McEwen, blending decades of hands-on beekeeping, medicinal beekeeping, and apitherapy practice.
Each module includes video lessons, downloadable study guides, and detailed speaker notes for deeper study. You’ll also have access to community Q&A sessions, mentorship opportunities, and optional practicum weekends in Ashland, Oregon.

By the end of the course, you’ll have:

2001 First hive established in Bellfountain, Oregon.
2004 Welcomed daughter Fern Waters.
2008 Early experimentation with 100 small-cell colonies (for shorter varroa mite life span) proved way too difficult to manage different sized combs). Welcomed daughter Clarysage Mountain.
2010 Began formal studies in apitherapy and hive medicine.
2011 Welcomed daughter Tulsi Joy
2013 Founded Diggin’ Livin’ Natural Foods & Organic Café—a 2500 sq ft community hub with dank cuisine and a stellar vibe.
2014 Designed first Natural Nest equipment with uninterrupted brood combs in giant brood boxes
2015 Launched Natural Nest Beekeeping and began locally adapted breeding—ending all outside queen purchases. Refined into a single-sized Western-shallow system with nadiring as colonies expanded.
Also began keeping bees at Alexandre Family Farm, one of the largest certified organic regenerative dairies in the U.S.
2016 Expanded colonies across the Illinois Valley—from Cave Junction to Williams—including sites at Siskiyou Seeds Farm and Plaisance Ranch.
2017 Added apiaries at Oshala Farm, Pacific Botanicals, and Herb Pharm
2022 Published Raising Resilient Bees with Chelsea Green Publishing.
Eric joined the Adaptive Bee Breeding Alliance.
Closed Diggin’ Livin’ Natural Foods & Café to focus fully on bees, education, and apitherapy.
2023 Joy joined the American Apitherapy Society Board.
Eric spoke at Apimondia Santiago, Chile on adaptive bee breeding practices.
Relocated part-time to Ashland, Oregon to expand educational outreach, strengthen wholesale distribution, and give our kids a wider worldview.
2024 Joy authored the Medicinal Beekeeping Guidelines for the International Federation of Apitherapy (IFA) and was appointed Coordinator of the Medicinal Beekeeping Commission.

What Sets Us Apart

Our philosophy of resilience begins in the hive and ripples outward—to the soil, the plants, the animals, and the people who depend on them.

Core Principles

from our Natural Beekeeping philosophy
Relationship-Centered Beekeeping

Beekeeping begins in relationship, not control. We observe before acting, aligning with the bees’ natural intelligence to guide every intervention and design choice.
Natural Nest Architecture
Our hives replicate the form and function of a wild nest—thick cedar walls for insulation, uninterrupted brood combs, and downward growth that follows the bees’ own instincts.
Matrilineal Genetics & Queen Longevity
We raise naturally mated queens from our strongest colonies, preserving local genetics, maternal lineage, and adaptive traits that build enduring resilience.
Honey-Fed Nutrition
Our bees thrive on their own honey, pollen, and propolis—not processed substitutes. Nutrient-rich, enzymatic food is the cornerstone of colony health and immunity.
Integrated Pest Management (IPM)
We employ natural brood breaks, walk-away splits, and selective breeding as tools for mite control—supporting evolutionary strength without chemical dependency.
The Hive as Medicine
Every substance—honey, wax, propolis, pollen, and venom—is harvested with intention, handled raw and unheated, and offered as living medicine for people and planet alike.

Farms We Proudly Pollinate

We like to say we’re their proud pollinators. Each of these farms tends the land with deep care, and we’re honored to keep our bees among their fields, flowers, and forests. Please check out their work and show them some love.

Oshala Farms

Named 2025 Farm- Crops Recipient at the Oregon Organic Excellence Awards. Cultivators of 90 acres of medicinal herbs plants.
Oshala Farm Website

Herb Pharm

Pioneers in organic plant medicine since 1979; global model for biodiversity and medicinal herbs cultivation.

Herb Pharm Website

Pacific Botanicals

Certified regenerative herb producers cultivating more than 60 medicinal species; regenerative certification through ROC and OHC.

Pacific Botanicals Website

Alexandre Family Farm

First regenerative certified dairy in the United States; leaders in carbon-positive agriculture and nutrient-dense food systems.

AFF Website

Plaisance Ranch

Historic organic vineyard and regenerative cattle operation in the Applegate Valley, integrating vines and pollinators in balance with nature.

Plaisance Ranch Website

Mindy Jo, Sarah Bly, Eagle Mill Farm

Ten-plus small family farms between the Illinois Valley and Ashland—living examples of community-supported beekeeping and reciprocal stewardship.
And...So many more to thank for your love and care for the land, working together as fellow agriculturalists, and your warm hospitality! Mindy and Jeffro, Sarah Bly and fam, Erik in Williams, Garnier family, Paul and Midori, Mikey on Rockydale, the Cron farm, and the Holland loop crew.

Join The Hive!

Join our community for reflections on natural beekeeping, apitherapy, and regenerative living.
“Forget not that the earth delights to feel your bare feet and the winds long to play with your hair.” – Khalil Gibran