Bee Farm - Costas Mandalaras

In the area Dome and about 800 meters from the beach, is located in a dense forest of small plane trees Byzantine Hotel (Byzantium Studios) of the Mandalara family. The hotel is managed by Costas Mandalaras, which has been producing honey for 20 years.

Costas is one of the last Skiathos who is engaged in beekeeping on the island and his organic honey even has international parchments as in the participation of Greece in the International Organic Honey Competition BIOLMIEL which took place in November 2016 in Italy, the organic honey Skiathos Bee Farm won a silver medal.

Costas Mantalaras and Anna Abatzoglou started its organic production Bee Farm honey in the Ko area in the early 2010s. In fact, they standardized it, certified it as organic and launched it on the market in very beautiful packaging. At the beginning, Bee Farm honey was sold in selected parts of Skiathos, but in the course due to the high demand it is available from the producer directly to its customers.

We visited Kostas in Troulos and he told us about his passion for beekeeping:

«I was born in 1970 in Skiathos. I remember here was a paradise with my grandfather's pergolas and vineyards, a press where we pressed the grapes, warehouses and barrels, the pergolas that were watered with water ditches. One day he took me with him to beehives of and gave me to try one honeycomb. I was shocked, I will never forget this taste of honey and its chewing gum.

I then remember my grandmother on the farm making candles from pure candle and selling them to the villagers who went to the festival of Panagia Kounistra… I remember loading the horse with vegetables every day and taking it alone to the city to our house for to sell them to our villagers.

The years passed, the grandfather died, the hives were neglected and Tourism destroyed them all. The farm became a boarding house of 7 small apartments with a swimming pool. But my mind was stuck in that image of chewing. In my thirties I learned it myself from the beginning apiculture and slowly I got here where I got with 150 cells and my organic honey that I just pack in a few days disappears. In our hotel I politely serve my clientele the English, but in the beehives I find myself!»

In Skiathos of the 21st century o Costas Mandalaras and two other beekeepers bear the price of Skiathos beekeeping. The honey Skiathos Bee Farm is a blend of honey, ricotta, thyme, mint honey and its taste is unforgettable.