A third generation of beekeepers in the forty-sixth harvest.

A story that has run for generations.

The beekeeping of the Radonjić family begins in 1980, when the first colony came to the house, bought from an old beekeeper in a vrškara, the old frameless hive. At first the bees were kept in Vlasotince, mainly for the household and the family. During the nineties they began moving to Zavidince, the family's former home, in Gornje Zaplanje on the lower slopes of Suva Planina. Surrounded by unspoilt country, that village became one of the important places in the growth of the family apiary.

The craft was learned over years of daily work and passed from one generation to the next. The turning point came in 2017, when a hard winter took more than half the apiary. A new generation joined the work then and began to rebuild it. Queens started to be raised at home, and membership of the beekeeping association, seminars, exchanges with other beekeepers and reading on their own kept widening what the family knew.

Over time this shaped a way of working that puts new knowledge together with the experience of earlier generations. The basic idea stayed the same, to follow nature rather than try to change its rhythm. Flowering, the weather and the state of the colonies are watched through the whole year, and the hives are moved along with the natural course of the flow.

Since 2023 the apiary also moves up to the Vlasina slopes, following the flow through different altitudes. Today it is the third generation of the Radonjić family that looks after the bees. From one vrškara and the first colony of 1980 the apiary has grown to about 200 hives, while the beekeeping has stayed a family matter, resting on knowledge and experience handed down the generations.