Hi Chris,
 
I used to live in Portugal back in the early 1980's, up in the Sierra de
Monchique, on one of the two mountains there. We were up on Picota, which at
that time was the more unspoilt of the two. And yes, I kept bees there,
although I had precious little equipment and got stung frequently, so I
would say they mostly kept themselves.
 
At that time if you were to walk for any length of time along the mountain
tracks you would see rows of hives tucked under the pine, or eucalyptus, or
out on the scrub land. This whole mountain is the most wonderful bee garden,
with tree heathers, cytisus, and all manner of wild herbs, oregano, etc, and
the smells were absolutely heavenly after the rain, mixing these with the
smells of pine, eucalyptus, and mimosa.
 
The whole area is a micro-climate and has an isect population the like of
which I have never seen anywhere else. Several types of praying mantis,
scorpions, thousands of species of moth and butterfly, plus colorado beetle
and a fair few other farmers 'pests', not to mention snakes, lizards, newts,
salamanders.
 
The honey is divine, and if you go into Monchique itself, which is the
market town nestled in between the mountains, there used to be a honey shop
selling hive equipment, and honey from all over Portugal, you can also get
eucalyptus honey in there, which the Portuguese use medicinally. The layout
of the town has changed since my time there, but it was on the road that
takes you out of the town and up to the top of Foia, the other of the two
mountains, at that time there was also a wood yard which was quite close by,
and a shop selling pots and pans, not to mention cafe's etc. If you don't
speak Portuguese then take some sort of visual clue to show what you are
looking for, they will treat someone who is not just a tourist far more
sympathetically.
 
Times change I know but my experience of these people then was that if you
were interested in talking to them about anything to do with farming they
loved you. They were always the most friendly and tolerant people. I gather
that things have changed somewhat since those early days, and they are more
suspicious of foreigners, but I would stake my life that an interested
beekeeper will always be welcome. Perhaps you can take something along to
'prove' yourself, and I think they will welcome you.
 
Beekeeping in that region is part of the whole of their smallholding style
farming. They work terraces for beans, corn, oats, potatoes, and grow every
manner of fruit, figs and vines. All exotic fruit and veg is sold off at
market and they live very frugally. But the neighbours I had at that time
were ever curious about new farming ideas, methods, and I bet they would
love a look at catalogues, etc.
 
They are still immensely practical and will make most things for themselves.
My neighbour even showed me how to repair disposable lighters so that you
need never buy another. I felt very uncomfortable at the time about bringing
new 'ideas' and 'things' into their culture, but they are doing that for
themselves (I say this because I am worried that I shall be shot down for
suggesting that you take anything that will 'interfere' with their culture.)
and many of them had TV's that ran off lorry batteries when I lived there.
Which was more than I had.
 
Regarding oak bark hives... I never saw anything like this when I lived
there, and I travelled extensively through the whole of Portugal, but my bet
would be that these would be found in the Alantego area to the north of the
Algarve, as that is where the great cork oak and cattle plains are. I have
an Italian friend who kept bees with his Grandfather in Italy and they used
cork oak bark which peels straight from the tree in great fat strips perfect
for the job. You can get through to the Alentego through the mountains of
Monchique, or further to the east up from Faro, but I suspsct you'll not
have time for that.
 
I recommend taking a long hike around the mountains, the views over the foot
hills and down to the sea some 20 kilometres away is stunning. Just let's
all keep that a secret though.
 
Good Luck, I'm green with envy,
Tell us all how you get on,
Madeleine Pym