Ilian Stratiev is a beekeeper from Silistra region, where he keeps two organic apiaries with over 150 hives in the village of. Alfatar in the Karakuz State Forest and in. Aydemir in m. “Sreburna Skriptsa”. His destiny led him to bees by chance – he left behind city life and restaurant management after being captivated by the beauty of the bee world. Since then, nothing can deter him from caring for them, not even an unfortunate year when he lost almost all his hives – Ilian overcame the difficulties and carried on.
Ilian participates in the Adopt a Hive program ????
“No one in my family had taken up beekeeping before me, even my childhood memories are that I was scared to stay around  them, but … I grew up and now I could build my own opinion!
So in 2003 I was visiting a friend whose parents kept bees and as one thing led to another I decided to go to their family apiary to help them with the work. I was interested to see up close what a hive, worker bee, drone, queen, brood – in general what beekeeping is like first hand. I was very impressed after my visit! I was also enthusiastic and with a changed mindset about these wonderful “critters”. I was living in the “big city” at the time and was unable to continue with this endeavor. It has been a long time since my visit to this apiary – 9 whole years!
At some point my life happened to bring me back to my hometown of Silistra, where I could now try to become a beekeeper myself. So I bought my first 3 bee colonies from a friend, secured a plot of land – a forest near the biosphere reserve “Srebarna” and started to realize my dream! With such desire and passion I took care of the bees that in the first year I increased the hives to 5, and the next year I already had 8. After 3 years I was managing 18 colonies and felt like a proud BEEKEEPER. Those were the best years – when I was learning, watching and couldn’t wait to open and look at the hive from the inside, how it had developed, how the worker bee and drone population was increasing, to find the queen… Everything about my hive was magical!