Northern Portugal honey from the nectars of wild lavender, heather, eucalyptus and chestnut. For true lovers of a natural bee products with outstanding quality.

My name is Artur. I am the founder of API-SON - Bee Sleep. Before being interested in bees I had a different life. I am a certified deep sea captain, I traveled all over the world, visiting about 60 countries. From the moment I discovered Sleeping on the Hives, I forgot about the sea and completely immersed myself in the wonderful world of bees.

I have been familiar with bees since my early childhood. My father had a small bee farm, but as a child I was not interested in bees. When I became an adult, in between jobs, I started my own small bee farm, which gave me and my family honey and bee products.

I have been beekeeping since 2010 and I love these little striped workers (bees) with all my heart. My book that I wrote is called "The Amazing World of Bees", where I describe these lovely creatures, as well as the benefits of bee products that I discovered, including honey. Living in Odessa I had 2 bee farms: one for bee products and the other for Sleeping on Hives. Therefore, I always had honey from my beehives on the table.

On February 24, 2022, all that changed. When choosing a country, the development of beekeeping played an important role. Finding myself in Portugal, of course, I began to look for natural honey. Most of the honey that is sold in supermarkets is heat treated (loses its useful properties), becoming always liquid (doesn't crystallize). When I started looking for local beekeepers, I met Bruno.

If not in the whole of Portugal, then in the Northern part of it for sure! Bruno's beekeeping students come from all over the country to learn the art of beekeeping from him.

Bruno and I have a similar story: we started beekeeping as a hobby, on the farms of our wives' parents, and then we fell in love with bees so much that we became involved in it seriously. Bruno originally wanted to increase almond production on the farms of his parents-in-law. Today Bruno is the president of the Association of Beekeepers of Northern Portugal and has a large number of bee colonies in the northern part of the country (about 700 hives). Since for both me and him bees were not originally for profit (he has his own Electrification company), we were able to love bees with all our souls. Probably because of our love for bees, we immediately found a connection and, most importantly, we always have something to talk about. After several visits to Bruno's bee farm, having taken part in the honey production, I can say with certainty that this is really honey harvested with love:

The bee farm is located in the beautiful countryside called Lamelas, 25 km NE of Porto. In this beautiful area lies Bruno's main bee farm. His other hives are scattered all over Northern Portugal. You wouldn't normally see such a large number of people at the bee farm as in the video, but the video was taken during a practical session when Bruno's students came to the bee farm.

One of them is forest fires. Though eucalyptus trees produce nectar and, on one hand, are good for honey production in winter, on the other hand, they are very vulnerable to fires in summer. Eucalypts were brought to Portugal in the late 19th century from Australia and have adapted so well to the local conditions that they have almost completely replaced the native broadleaved and pine forests growing here.

Eucalyptus has a very pleasant aroma due to the fact that its leaves contain essential oils and tannins, and its bark is easily ignited, leading to frequent fires. Unlike the indigenous plants of Portugal (pine and cork oak), the leaves and bark of eucalyptus are much more flammable, with strips of bark hanging from the trunks and being blown around by the wind, spreading the flames very quickly over large areas.

Thanks to timely taken action, only a few hives were lost.

It is very painful to watch burning up living creatures, your beloved pets that bring so much good. I know this because I had that experience myself, when the war started, all my api-houses with bees inside were burned down. So I understand perfectly well what a beekeeper feels when his babies are burned. However, Bruno continues to develop, making tremendous efforts to protect his bees from fires, Asian hornets and Varroa mites. And in doing so, he produces healthy bee products, an assortment of which you can find below 👇.

Place your order and support this truly challenging work of crafting quality honey and other bee products, harvested with a special love to bees and nature: