A la ruche.

The following is a little taste into an experience going to the bee hives.  After we collected the pollen (this set of hives is set up so that pollen can be collected from a box underneath the hive. Pollen is sold for use in cooking and salads, etc) Stephanie decided to have a look how the honey was going because the Chataignier (Chestnut trees) were just about finished flowering, and when the honey is completely sealed off, it will be harvested.

Showing me how this particular hive is not quite ready yet.

 Busy bees

 Putting the frame back into the crate.

 I've totally done all of that. In fact, one of the scariest things I've done during this trip (many times now) was to take one of those frames out, and shake all of the bees of it so that we could change out these little shelves for collecting Royal Jelly. Really not scary after the first couple of times, but that first time (this was post-numerous bee stings) was nerve-wracking.

Closing the lid.

These are the Chestnut tree flowers.

If you look closely, you can see a bee landing with two pollen sacks that look like bright yellow panniers on a bicycle :)

It's me, in ma bee suit. Jessica, your lovely Ecuadorian scarf came in much handy in keeping my hair back!

And again.

Afterwards we collected some wild mountain thyme for our herbal tea break that afternoon.

And that's the beehive experience.