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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
Swarm Cells or Supersedure? Learning to Read the Queen Signals of Spring
By Joy McEwen

Few moments in spring beekeeping create as much uncertainty as opening a hive and finding queen cells. A beekeeper may enter the colony expecting to see the familiar rhythm of brood, bees, pollen, nectar, and fresh wax. Instead, the inspection reveals one or more elongated cells carrying the possibility of a new queen. The bees […]

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July 14, 2026
Natural Queen Rearing: Returning Decision-Making Power to the Bees
By Joy McEwen

For the natural beekeeper, queen rearing is one of the most important ways we can support the long-term health, adaptability, and resilience of the honey bee populations in our care. At Diggin’ Livin’, we understand queen rearing as a central part of api-centric stewardship. The queen serves as the reproductive heart of the colony, carries […]

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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