I grew up in Lithuania. My father kept bees. I watched him work the hives as a child and learned from him the way children learn from parents, not from books or instruction but from standing close and paying attention over many years.

What I didn't know then was how old what he was teaching me actually was.

Lithuania's beekeeping tradition is among the oldest continuously practiced in Europe. In 2021, it was added to UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a formal recognition that this knowledge, and the culture around it, is something the world should work to preserve. The citation specifically named the beekeeping traditions of Aukštaitija, the northern Lithuanian region, as a living practice of global significance.

My father was taught by his father. His father by his. The line runs back through the Baltic forests, through a tradition older than the country itself, to a time when the bee was sacred and the beekeeper held a respected place in the community that had nothing to do with commerce.

This is where Nettie's Bees comes from. Not from a business plan. From that.

The bee in Baltic mythology

Quick answer: Lithuania has one of Europe's oldest beekeeping traditions, dating back thousands of years. Traditional Lithuanian beekeeping included a unique practice called tree beekeeping, managing wild bee colonies in forest trees. The bee was sacred in Baltic mythology, and beekeepers held a respected social role. In 2021, Lithuanian beekeeping traditions were added to UNESCO's intangible cultural heritage list.

The Baltic peoples, Lithuanians, Latvians, and the Old Prussians who preceded them, had a bee goddess. Her name was Austeja. She was one of the most important deities in the Baltic religious tradition: a goddess of bees, of the household, of marriage and family life. She was prayed to at births, weddings, and deaths. Her presence in a home, symbolized by thriving hives, meant the household was right with the world.

The bee was not just an agricultural resource in the Baltic worldview. It was a spiritual presence. Bees were believed to carry messages between the living and the dead. Harming a hive without reason was considered a serious transgression, not just a practical mistake. The beekeeper's relationship with the hive was understood to be a relationship, something mutual, requiring respect.

I was not raised in the mythology explicitly. But I was raised in the culture that grew from it, and the sense that beekeeping is something more than a business never left me. When I press my ear against a hive in Massachusetts in January and listen to the bees keeping each other warm in the dark, I'm doing something my father did, something his fathers did, all the way back to people who prayed to Austeja before they opened a hive.

Tree beekeeping: the ancient Baltic practice

Before the moveable-frame hive, before the clay tubes of ancient Egypt, Baltic beekeepers had their own system. They called it medžioklinis bitininkavimas, forest beekeeping, or tree beekeeping.

The method: find a wild bee colony in a living forest tree. Carve out the interior space of the tree to make it more habitable, larger, more stable, better shaped for a thriving colony. Mark the tree as yours. Return to it season after season to harvest honey and manage the colony, without ever removing the bees from their forest home.

These forest beekeepers were craftsmen. They had specialized tools for carving and working at height. They knew which trees to look for, how to read the landscape, how to manage a colony in place. Their knowledge was passed down within families, father to child, often in conditions that required physical skill and courage, climbing tall trees in heavy forest, working with wild colonies that had never been domesticated in the way of modern hive bees.

The tree-hive beekeeper occupied a respected and recognized role in Baltic society. He wasn't just a farmer. He was someone with knowledge that other people didn't have, knowledge that required years of apprenticeship to acquire. The position came with social standing.

This tradition persisted in parts of Lithuania and the adjacent Aukštaitija region well into the 19th century and, in some cases, beyond. The UNESCO designation in 2021 recognized that elements of this tradition survive today, in knowledge, in practice, in the oral transmission of techniques from one generation to the next.

Lithuanian honey: what grew, what was made

Lithuania's landscape shaped its honey. Meadows, forests, river valleys, linden trees especially, whose flowers produce nectar so abundantly that beekeepers still consider a good linden flow one of the best of the summer. Buckwheat grew in the agricultural areas. Wildflowers in the meadows and forest edges.

Honey was not just food in the Baltic tradition. Midus, Lithuanian mead, fermented honey wine, was produced in the region for at least 3,000 years. Archaeological evidence of mead production appears in Baltic sites dating back to the Bronze Age. Honey was a form of currency, a tribute, a medicine, a ceremonial drink at important occasions.

The connection between bees, honey, and the rhythms of Lithuanian life ran through everything. The agricultural calendar was organized partly around what was blooming. The spiritual calendar included prayers for the bees before the season began and gratitude after the harvest. This was not decoration. It was how the culture understood itself.

The journey to Massachusetts

I immigrated to the United States as an adult, built a life here with my husband Tom, raised our children Will and Kristina, ran a pizza shop. The beekeeping knowledge I had from my father stayed with me, but it wasn't something I was acting on.

Then a cranberry grower in South Coast Massachusetts needed someone to help manage a hive. One hive became two, then four. What had been a memory became a practice again. The bees in those cranberry bogs didn't know they were part of a Lithuanian story. But I did.

What I found, returning to beekeeping in a different country with different plants and a different landscape, is that the fundamentals of the relationship don't change. Paying attention. Respecting what the bees know. Not forcing the hive to be something it isn't. Harvesting what can be shared without taking what the colony needs to survive.

Those are the things my father taught me. They come from somewhere much older than him.

Why this matters for the honey in the jar

The honey Nettie's Bees sells comes from hives managed by local beekeepers we know personally. It's raw, minimally processed, and traceable to a specific landscape. That's not a marketing claim, it's the only kind of honey that makes sense within the tradition I was raised in.

When you understand that honey in Lithuania was never just a commodity, that it was bound up with a spiritual relationship between the beekeeper, the bees, and the land, you understand why selling anything less than that feels like a betrayal of something.

This business is a continuation. Not nostalgia. Not branding. A continuation.

Frequently asked questions

Does Lithuania have a beekeeping tradition?

Yes, and one of the oldest in Europe. Lithuanian beekeeping traditions date back thousands of years and were added to UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2021. The tradition includes a unique forest beekeeping practice, deep integration with Baltic mythology and spiritual life, and a continuous oral transmission of knowledge across generations.

What is tree beekeeping?

Tree beekeeping, or forest beekeeping (medžioklinis bitininkavimas in Lithuanian), is an ancient Baltic practice of managing wild bee colonies in living forest trees. Beekeepers would find wild colonies, carve out the interior of the tree to make it more habitable, mark the tree as theirs, and return season after season to harvest honey without moving the colony from its forest home. The practice required specialized knowledge and tools passed down within families.

What is the significance of bees in Baltic mythology?

The bee held sacred status in Baltic religious tradition. Austeja, the bee goddess, was one of the most important deities in the Baltic pantheon, associated with bees, the household, marriage, and family life. Bees were believed to carry messages between the living and the dead. Harming a hive without cause was considered a serious transgression. Beekeeping was understood as a spiritual relationship, not just an agricultural practice.

Is Lithuanian honey known for its quality?

Lithuania has a strong reputation within European honey culture for traditional production methods and high-quality regional varieties. Linden honey from Lithuanian lime trees is particularly prized. The country's beekeeping culture emphasizes small-scale, relationship-based production rather than industrial scale.

Was Lithuania added to UNESCO for beekeeping?

Yes. In 2021, the "Beekeeping traditions of Aukštaitija" (the northern Lithuanian region) were inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The recognition acknowledged that Lithuanian beekeeping knowledge represents a living tradition of global significance.

What traditional honey products come from Lithuania?

Midus (Lithuanian mead, fermented honey wine) has been produced in the Baltic region for at least 3,000 years. Linden honey, buckwheat honey, and wildflower honeys are traditional Lithuanian varieties. Honey bread (medus pyragai) and other honey-containing foods are traditional across Lithuanian cuisine.