Up the Vlasina · from Vlasotince to Čemernik
The hives go upstream.
All three stops lie along the same river, each one higher. Vlasotince at the bottom, Svođe in the middle, the slopes of Čemernik at the top. That difference in altitude is why a single season yields three different honeys.
- ~270 mVlasotinceFirst acacia · late April
- ~500 mSvođeSecond acacia · mid May
- ~1 200 mSlopes of ČemernikVlasina and forest · June–August
Where
One river, three altitudes.
Vlasotince, Svođe and the Vlasina slopes sit along the same watercourse, one above the other. The move follows the water upstream, and with every climb the bloom runs later and the air gets colder.
How high
Drag it and see what changes.
Nearly a kilometre between the first stop and the last changes which plants grow at all, when they flower, how cold the nights are and which honey ends up in the jar.
m
Vlasotince
- Flowers
- —
- At night
- —
- Honey
- —
Why we move
After the same blossom, uphill.
In one place acacia flowers for ten days. Two hundred and thirty metres higher, the same blossom starts a fortnight later. Moving does not make a new honey — it stretches a season that would otherwise be over before it began.
- A short windowAcacia flowers for ten days. Rain in the wrong week and we skip that stop for the year.
- Slower nectarCold nights up top stop the flow. In the morning you wait for it to warm.
- Moving at nightYou only set off once the last bee is back, or that group stays behind at the old site.
- Less yield up highThe same hive on the Vlasina slopes gives markedly fewer kilograms than down below.
What grows
Three belts, three flows.
How the move works
We move at night.
Hives are loaded when every bee is inside, which means before first light. The entrances are closed only once the last one is back — rush it and that group stays at the old site and is lost.
Two moves a season: Vlasotince to Svođe in mid May, then Svođe to the Vlasina slopes in early June. They come back down only in autumn, at wintering.
Fog up there can fall in ten minutes. When it does, work stops — not for the bees but because you cannot see the way back.
What it costs them
A sum we do not hide.
That is why a jar from here cannot stand next to one from a supermarket. It is not dearer because it is special — it is dearer because there is less of it.