Could they bee the first?

By Taylor J. Hale
Staff Writer

JUNCTION CITY – A Portage County couple has built a new type of bee hive that may be the first of its kind in the area.

John Hrusovszky and his wife, Carol, started beekeeping in 2011 as a hobby at their home in Junction City. What began as a simple interest in harvesting honey grew into a small business, passion project, and much more.

The Portage County couple started MoonDancer Honey Gardens six years later and began building their first bee house on their property the same year.

“We were reading a magazine, and I saw that they have a different kind of a beehive in Slovenia,” said John Hrusovszky. “They work their honey from the inside of a house. I started researching it and found a Facebook group where people were designing and building AZ hives.”

Slovenian AZ hives use a “rack-like” system to allow beekeepers to access the colonies by pulling out frames individually, rather than lifting them out in layer. (Taylor Hale photo)

Slovenian AZ hives use a “rack-like” system to allow beekeepers to access the colonies by pulling out frames individually, rather than lifting them out in layers. AZ hives are traditionally stored in bee houses, which provide shelter and the possibility of climate control.

“You are doing all your work inside, your away from the rain,” Hrusovszky said. “You can heat it if you want to, which is better in our winters for the bees.”

According to the Hrusovszkys, Slovenians have used the small houses to handle bees for centuries. While this structural hive-house may be the norm overseas, it hasn’t yet hit the mainstream in American beekeeping culture.  Hrusovszky noted that he might have built the first bee house in Portage County, and maybe Wisconsin.

“We don’t know of any other bee houses in Portage County,” he said. “In fact, we wanted to see one before we built ours, and I couldn’t even find one in Wisconsin. And now that might be different by now, but I couldn’t find any.”

Hrusovszky started the structure in 2017 but just recently completed the project, due to a hectic work schedule. The Portage County entrepreneur runs several businesses, including a Snap Fitness franchise, located in Wood County.

Their bee house currently holds 12 hives, each with the possibility of producing over 100 pounds of honey on a good year.

For more info on MoonDancer Honey Gardens, visit www.facebook.com/MoonDancerHoney.

Do you have a bee house? Tell the community about it on our Facebook at www.facebook.com/pcgazette/.