We are a young beekeeping family that carries on the long tradition of the Dremelj Bee Farm. We are located in the village of Dragovšek in the Municipality of Šmartno pri Litiji, surrounded by pristine countryside. Beekeeping in our family is a tradition because both my grandfather and father were beekeepers. I received my first bee colony from my father when I was seven years old. Until I was twenty, I learned about beekeeping and queen rearing from my father, then later at school, and finally through my own work.
I got married in 1995 and started a family. Thereafter, my wife Ksenija and I started with 23 colonies of our own and later we also began to rear queens. My father and I now have separate bee farms, but we still work together, sharing experience when trouble arises, as it often does in beekeeping. During our 12 years of married life, my wife and I have welcomed three additions to the family – two sons and a daughter, who have already started helping with the beekeeping. Over the years, our original 23 colonies have grown to 200. We keep our bees in seven bee yards and thus continue developing the family tradition. We primarily focus on rearing queens and we spend most of our time and energy on this. We need the help of professionals when it comes to research and selecting the breeding stock, an important factor next to one’s own selection. We rear queens from the middle of May to the first half of August. We are very successful at queen rearing because 80% of our queens are sold abroad (to Finland, Germany, France, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, and even Japan). In Slovenia, we supply queens to individual beekeepers, Medex, and certain beekeepers’ associations. Our customers are satisfied with the quality of our queens and this motivates us to keep going.
Beekeepers and bee enthusiasts from Slovenia and abroad often visit our home. Visitors can take a tour of our bee farm and queen-rearing station, sample our products, and our sons provide a little divertimento with their musical talent. In addition to queen rearing, we also produce other bee products, such as honey, propolis, pollen, royal jelly, and beeswax. All this is then
used in our diet or for medicinal purposes. The Dremelj Bee Farm offers you all these products in the form of food, drinks, or medicines.
We have both attained national beekeeping qualifications and, because you can never know too much, we attend various beekeeping seminars every year.