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.