I am the grandson of a beekeeping enthusiast, and the son of a beekeeper. Having been raised in this sort of environment since I was little, I had the chance to educate my palate on top-of-the-range natural honeys, and to become a gourmet and gourmand. I was surrounded by nature and this gave me a taste for wide open spaces, as well as for observing animal behaviour and evolution. I got a degree in biology, spent a few years working in luxury pastry sales, and then spent time catering in a Parisian brasserie. After these experiences I felt the need to get back to basics and to share my knowledge of artisanal beekeeping, so resuming the family activity seemed an obvious choice to me. I wanted to continue to produce natural local honeys in conditions that respect bees and the environment. What are our days like? In autumn-winter the work around the bees is less intense, and we take the opportunity to do a big "spring-clean": cleaning and repairing empty hives and preparing new frames for the following season, and we also market our products. A visit to our apiaries every 3-4 weeks is enough to feed the weakest hives and the swarms captured at the end of the season. During the beekeeping season (from the end of February to mid-October), we can finally open our hives. The number of visits increases to once a week on average, and the time spent per hive is longer, 10 to 15 minutes on average. This gives us time to check the presence of the queen, the honey and pollen resources, the size, arrangements and stages of development of the brood (the larvae), the cleanliness of the hive (⅓ are replaced by hives recently maintained and sanitised by flaming), and the presence of diseases and/or parasites. This is also the time to replace about a third of each hive's body frames with new wax for hive hygiene. Then, before the first blooms intended for the production of honey, we add smaller frame supers which the bees will fill with nectar, dehydrate, and cap with a wax plug. We can now call that honey. Then it's harvest time. After uncapping with a knife, we extract the content of the honeycombs, we filter it by decantation, then we leave it to mature for a few weeks before putting it in a pot.

Our hives have been located along the edge of the forest of the Loire-Anjou-Touraine Natural Park for 25 years, near Vernantes where the family honey farm is located. I take care of almost everything alone. My father accompanies me during the visits to the apiaries though, he also keeps he keeps an eye on things when I am away, and gives me a hand when necessary. Our Anjou livestock is divided into 6 apiaries separated by several kilometers from each other. All are located along the edge of the forest of the Loire-Anjou-Touraine Natural Park, as far away from intensive farming as possible. Each apiary is composed of a maximum of 20 hives in order to respect bees and safeguard biodiversity. It is precisely this biodiversity that honours our polyfloral honeys because the floral composition represented is distinct in terms of flavour, and it represents our homeland. This exceptional place allows us to produce different types of honeys (Acacia, Ronce, Chestnut, Buckwheat, Heather, Honeydew, Spring and Forest) without having to resort to hive transhumance, only the weather and the health of our bees determine our annual production. Bees feed mainly on pollen (protein intake), dehydrated flower nectar altered by their salivary enzymes, and honey (carbohydrate intake). A foraging bee (specialized worker bee) can travel up to 3 km, but we place our hives in strategic places so that they do not have to go too far. We do not practise migratory beekeeping for harvesting purposes. We try to space out our apiaries and limit the number of hives per apiary in order to avoid overexploitation of a location, and to rediscover the floral diversity of our land. We mainly sell our honey in pots. We also make processed products made from honey and spices and part of the harvest is kept for feeding the following winter. The year's fresh wax and the propolis are recovered, cleaned, and then melted in blocks in order to reuse them and to sell them raw or transformed (beeswax candles, propolis tincture). At the end of the season, the frames (combs) are returned to the bees after extraction for microscopic cleaning, and then stored until the following season. We do a lot of recovery, and try as much as possible to repair equipment before buying new ones. We collect rainwater to pre-wash our equipment, giving our vibrant barrels a second life! We collect all of our storage boxes from merchants. Overall we try to limit our waste as much as possible!