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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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The Hive Journal

Practical notes on bees, medicine, soil, and sovereignty 
— from Diggin’ Livin’ Farm & Apiaries.
The Hive Journal is a living resource hub for the Diggin’ Livin’ community — a place for current updates, media, research, field notes, and stories from the hive. Here you’ll find ways to stay connected with our work, explore interviews and teachings, read updates from the farm, and go deeper into the world of natural beekeeping, apitherapy, and hive medicine.

Welcome

This isn’t a space for sentimentality. It’s for people who care about food sovereignty, small farms, honest work, and the future of American agriculture. Here we talk about the harm caused by chemical dependency and the strength that comes from families, farmers, and communities reclaiming the means to feed and heal themselves.

From the Bee Yard

Where the work happens — conversations, observations, and stories from daily life with the bees.
July 14, 2026
Honey as a Foundation of Health: Feeding Bees and People from the Hive
By Joy McEwen

For as long as human beings have lived alongside honey bees, we have understood that the hive offers far more than sweetness. Honey, pollen, propolis, beeswax, bee bread, royal jelly, venom, and even the air within the hive arise from a living relationship between bees and the surrounding landscape. Each substance carries the influence of […]

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July 14, 2026
Natural Nest Hive Design: Equipment That Serves the Bees, the Beekeeper, and the Land
By Joy McEwen

Every bee hive begins with a series of choices. The beekeeper chooses the materials, frame style, box depth, entrance size, lid, bottom board, and overall configuration of the equipment. These decisions influence warmth, moisture, airflow, comb building, colony defense, ease of inspection, and the long-term sustainability of the apiary. Our Natural Nest hive system developed […]

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Press

Where the work happens — conversations, observations, and stories from daily life with the bees.

Podcasts & Interviews

Podcasts & Interviews

Research

Explore selected articles, studies, and resources on bee venom therapy, apitherapy, and the medicinal gifts of the hive. This section gathers research links for students, practitioners, and curious readers who want to go deeper into the science and traditional use of hive medicines.

About the Hive Journal

A working log from Joy and Eric McEwen, beekeepers and farmers in Southern Oregon.
We practice natural nest beekeeping and produce raw honey, hive medicines, and education rooted in ecological integrity. This page shares the work behind the words — how bees, farms, and families build real resilience.

Latest Digital Media

Watch Diggin’ Livin’ teachings on beekeeping, apitherapy, queen rearing, and hive medicine.

Join The Hive!

Join our community for reflections on natural beekeeping, apitherapy, and regenerative living.
“We currently live in the economy and culture of the one-night stand. Industrialism has provided us innumerable commodities, amusements, and distractions, but these offer us little satisfaction. Instead we suffer ever-increasing alienation from our families, our communities, and the natural world. There is another way to live and think: its called agrarianism. Its not so much a philosophy as a practice, an attitude, a loyalty, and a passion - all based in a close connection with the land. It results in a sound local economy in which producers and consumers are neighbors and in which nature herself becomes the standards for world and production.” — Wendell Berry