On arrival at the bee farm, I was met by Louna and Manon, the daughters of Dany and Stephanie, my hosts. Dany was out helping a friend in the construction of his house, and Stephanie and their other Woofer, Alan, were at the bee hives. So, Louna and Manon helped me to move in, and we played a 20 questions game in French . . . Am I a vegetable? Am I an object, etc. Already I could see how quickly my french would have to (and be able to) improve in the coming weeks. The two girls also gave me a tour of the farm, where I met the chickens, fish, horses, dog, and of course saw the bee laboratory and toured the vegetable gardens. Within the first week of arriving, a chicken and its chick had been spirited off, probably by a fox. So, it's an interesting view into the lives and troubles of farmers. Poor Manon was very upset by her missing chick and chicken.These are them just the day before.
This is the view from the window of my room. Beautiful to wake up to.
The first day I worked was just spent on the farm, and in the laboratory. I used giant vats to fill glass jars of honey.
We sorted impurities from pollen (apparently pollen is sold for use on salads).
And we extracted royal jelly for use as a high-end holistic medicine. Interesting to think that there are so many other byproducts that can be produced when making honey.
The second day I went out to the hives. I didn't take any pictures of this, but will have to get one in full garb at some point during my stay. It was quite a learning experience I must say. I really enjoyed it for the most part. We were checking on the hives and noting how far along each was in the process. Only negative, was that we came across a hive that was a bit stirred up, and my ankles were stung four times. Ow. Seems I needed higher boots, or thicker socks to go with my full beekeeper suit. Well, the experiences we seek, I guess. One tip to note, if there are others interested in doing something like this, bees are easiest to manage in very hot weather, because they are off working in the fields. This means that the hives are much less full, and easier to handle. If I were to do this again, I think I'd choose to pick late July as a time to learn, because in June the weather is still quite variable day-to-day.
This is the view from the window of my room. Beautiful to wake up to.
The first day I worked was just spent on the farm, and in the laboratory. I used giant vats to fill glass jars of honey.
We sorted impurities from pollen (apparently pollen is sold for use on salads).
And we extracted royal jelly for use as a high-end holistic medicine. Interesting to think that there are so many other byproducts that can be produced when making honey.
The second day I went out to the hives. I didn't take any pictures of this, but will have to get one in full garb at some point during my stay. It was quite a learning experience I must say. I really enjoyed it for the most part. We were checking on the hives and noting how far along each was in the process. Only negative, was that we came across a hive that was a bit stirred up, and my ankles were stung four times. Ow. Seems I needed higher boots, or thicker socks to go with my full beekeeper suit. Well, the experiences we seek, I guess. One tip to note, if there are others interested in doing something like this, bees are easiest to manage in very hot weather, because they are off working in the fields. This means that the hives are much less full, and easier to handle. If I were to do this again, I think I'd choose to pick late July as a time to learn, because in June the weather is still quite variable day-to-day.
Good to find out what royal jelly is. Those little Ginseng bottles have royal jelly mixed in with them.
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